NFL Draft's Impact on Aviation near Green Bay and Appleton

Aviation Magic and the NFL Draft (Part 1)

Forward

😒February is a dull flying month 🌨️ with no fly-ins or new planes to chatter about. 😞

☀️So, I got creative. 😊 EAA promotes aviation awareness and advocacy, therefore…This month, let me speak to the foresight and adaptability of the local aviation community regarding the complex challenge of managing aircraft and passengers for April’s NFL Draft in Green Bay. Hopefully in next month’s newsletter I will describe the implications for general aviation (GA) pilots flying in and around KGRB’s Class C airspace. This piece will provide a bit of additional context because aviators from outside the region might read this through our chapter’s emailed newsletter or our website.

The last week in April, we will witness a bit of magic as the population of Brown County will double or triple in size for a few days as the NFL Draft (April 24-26, 2025) floods the region with an estimated quarter million people and then they will all swiftly disappear. An estimated one third of them will travel by air. The Green Bay and Appleton airports in roughly a week will need to welcome and farewell the equivalent of two-thirds to 100 percent of Green Bay’s population.

The nation’s eyes are fixated on the Draft, and scant recognition is being paid to the astounding planning and preparations to make it all happen. Lamentably, the entire point of their work is to make things happen so smoothly, they go unnoticed.

Hosting the Draft in Green Bay presents a unique challenge because most people think of going to a specific high-capacity city and airport rather than dispersing from the intended destination, Green Bay, through a cluster of excellent alternatives. If this was happening in the home cities for most NFL teams, surging a quarter million people into the region would be unremarkable. Green Bay and Green Bay Austin Straubel International Airport (GRB) have never seen that record visitor throughput. The NFL’s past experience is with Drafts in cities as small as Clevland (population 360,000). Green Bay (population 107,000) adds a new twist with most Americans unfamiliar with the geography and infrastructure of northeastern Wisconsin where there is a solid airport and hotel network spread along the Interstate 41 corridor from Green Bay to Oshkosh. GRB is just north of Oshkosh (OSH) where last year the Experimental Aircraft Association’s (EAA) annual AirVenture hosted 686,000 attendees and 10,000 aircraft.

Sizing up the Challenge

I spoke to GRB’s Airport Director Marty Piette who graciously shared his insights about the aviation communities’ preparations from the GRB perspective and received some additional comments from Susan Levitte, GRB’s Marketing and Communications Manager. Fox 11 has an excellent webpage for researching Green Bay’s preparations.

As pilots flying out of GRB can attest by their experience of last year’s runway closures, preparations for the draft have been underway since the NFL’s announcement in May 2023.

But how many people and airplanes are coming? The NFL has a staff of experts who assist the local community with all aspects of planning and preparation. They really start to focus on the Draft as the Super Bowl ends. The NFL can approximate the potential crowd size through mandatory free participant passes issued starting March 4^th from the NFL OnePass app or at NFL.com/draftaccess.

The NFL estimates Green Bay will host 250,000 visitors. GRB is planning for 65,000 to 100,000 to arrive by air—airliner or GA—according to Susan Levitte. Mr. Piette noted that in an average week GRB has an output of 13,000 passengers and a busy week sees 20,000. Titletown’s aviation sector will certainly have its own record-breaking moment. Keep in mind, visitors could also fly into Appleton International (ATW),  Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport (MKE), or Central Wisconsin Airport (CWA). The EAA is opening Camp Scholler near Oshkosh (OSH) for campers.

• The airlines serving GRB and ATW have increased their existing route schedules and added direct flights from about a dozen new cities. A back of the envelope estimate on passenger capacity suggests that there are too few flights to handle all the potential passenger flow so don’t be surprised if more flights are added. But airliner availability and the capacity of GRB’s tower (28 flights per hour) limit the potential expansion.
• As for GA, GRB’s staff can draw from the experience of surges in GA flights during Packer home games and AirVenture. Last year GRB served more than 450 GA aircraft for AirVenture and serves as many as 150 GA jets, turbo props and twin engine aircraft for normal season home Packers games. Mr. Piette currently expects to handle some 150 Gulfstream/Citation-size business jets (10-20 passengers) for the Draft days
• GRB has established a webpage for all visitors, which includes a section on private air. Both of GRB’s fixed base operators (Executive Air and Jet Air) have links for GA pilots to make the required reservations. At the moment, the GRB webpage’s reservation links are at the bottom of the main NFL webpage and not in the private air section.
• Chicago and Milwaukee Centers will probably view the Draft as a good warm up for air traffic controllers, who three months later will handle EAA’s AirVenture, with over 10,000 aircraft. The FAA is still in its planning phase so not much is definitively known about changes to airspace management. Expect a TFR over Lambeau Field where the NFL Draft Campus will be located. Lambeau is astride the approach to Runway 24 and west of waypoint LMMBO on the RNAV 24 approach.

Airport, public safety, and TSA officials are making plans to handle passenger and traffic flow. Officials will know well in advance the number of airline passengers they must handle. The rental car companies are making preparations for potentially 50,000 cars, and the airport will have a shuttle bus service like we see on game day. The number of GA arrivals could be the biggest variable because many people have a pilgrimage to Lambeau Field on their bucket list.

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and…

Unfortunately to paraphrase a quote by General Eisenhower, “no plan survives first contact with [reality].” Last year the NFL estimated 400,00 visitors to the Draft in Detroit and some 775,000 showed up with 65,000 people transiting through Detroit airport. The number of visitors could diminish if the weather is bad or swell. Mr. Piette remarked that GRB has added ramp space in recent years, should that prove insufficient, GRB could close a taxiway or even a runway.

GA pilots who want to avoid congested Class C airspace could fly into outlying airports such as Manitowoc (MTW), Menominee (MNM), Shawano (EZS), Sheboygan (SBM), Sturgeon Bay (SUE), or Wausau (AUW or CWA) but gauging how this will affect local ramp space is really guesswork. ATW each year handles a lot of aircraft overflow from AirVenture.

Except for GRB which has some excellent webpages, most airports’ webpages are not explicitly reacting to the Draft suggesting they doubt the additional flights will make much difference. On the other hand, visitors bureaus such as those for Manitowoc, Shawano, and Wausau could draw GA to their airports because they have good webpages for Draft visitors and provisions for ground transportation to the Campus.

Mr. Piette is optimistic about terminal capacity; GRB has 200,000 square feet of space and they can regulate the passenger flow by scheduling incoming airliners. Having lived in the Washington D.C. area for thirty years and flown out of Washington Dulles International (IAD), Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA), and Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshal (BWI), I think east coasters will be in for a shock when they see the GRB’s small terminal.

Bottom Line

There’s good reason for optimism; the NFL has extensive experience ensuring successful and enjoyable events. The really good news: this event is mostly about visiting the Campus, and Green Bay has much more space for the Campus complex compared to Detroit. The challenge for GRB and ATW is minimizing passenger dwell time by upgrading facilities for record throughput. The planners have a realistic appraisal of the magnitude and variability of the passenger and aircraft throughput, time to work the problem with a lot of expertise, resources, and local experience to help out. There are many solid contingency options should GRB get overwhelmed.

Patience is the key to Draft Days happiness. Realize that resources near Green Bay will start getting busy in the weeks prior to the Draft and may remain problematic for a week or so afterwards. The Draft days will be crowds and noise. The area near the Campus will see constant crowd churn as visitors arrive to see key draft picks then move elsewhere. Lambeau Field, at capacity, can accommodate 81,441 people so the crowd should be manageable. Road closures near Lambeau Field will begin two weeks in advance. Local resources will shift towards handling the Draft influx. For example, airlines staff from Milwaukee or Wausau might be shifted to GRB. That crowd churn might also be seen at the airports with arrivals and departures after the key picks are made. Don’t expect to make training flights during that time.

Go KGRB Go!

Aviation Magic and the NFL Draft (Part 1) March 2025

I will try to get more specific traffic flow information to publish in early April however the FAA has already published Special Air Traffic Procedures for the NFL Draft in Green Bay from April 23-26 (local time). Let me excerpt a few points.

• “Due to the high volume of air traffic anticipated during the 2025 NFL Draft, a Reservation Prior Permission Required (PPR) Program will be in effect for arrivals and departures, including drop-and-go operations, to and from airports in the Green Bay, WI area [GRB Green Bay and ATW Appleton], between Wednesday, April 23, 2025, 0530 CDT and Saturday, April 26, 2025, 2330 CDT.”
• “For the Reservation (PPR) Program, review the airport’s NOTAM, and as directed in the NOTAM contact your preferred FBO at that airport, or the Airport Authority. All pilots/operators are strongly encouraged to contact their servicing FBO prior to departure, to ensure availability for both overnight parking and passenger pickup/drop-off. Traffic in the area is expected to be significantly higher than normal operations. Operators without (PPR) reservations should expect significant delays in and out of the area with the possibility of denial of service.”
• “VFR PILOT CLARIFICATION: The 2025 NFL Draft Reservation (PPR) Program will apply to VFR air traffic; however, an airport may have more stringent requirements for itinerants due to constrained ramp space and resources. Please contact the FBO or Airport Authority where you are based and at those locations where you intend to arrive/depart for additional information.
• In addition, many other airports, especially those within a 50 NM radius of KGRB, are projecting a substantial increase in operations, and parking at surrounding airports may be unavailable.”
• “Green Bay (KGRB) Airport Traffic Control Tower (ATCT) [and Appleton (KATW) Federal Control Tower (FCT) are] expecting to have extended operating hours during this event (check charts and NOTAMs).” The hours are published on the Special Air Traffic Procedures page.
• “SECURITY PROVISIONS Special security provisions will be in effect for this event including (but not limited to) Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs), two-way communication, and discrete transponder requirements. Specific procedures contained in this notice may be revised. Access to some airports may be restricted. Pilots are encouraged to check NOTAMs frequently to verify they have the most current information.

TFR information is normally disseminated via FDC NOTAM 3 to 5 days prior to the event.”

• VFR TRAFFIC Due to the high volume of traffic in the Green Bay, WI area, VFR arrivals can expect lengthy delays during peak traffic periods.
• TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT Traffic management initiatives will be utilized when arrival rates exceed airport capacity. Pilots should be prepared for potential airborne holding, reroutes, or Expect Departure Clearance Times (EDCTs) that may be issued for all domestic IFR arrivals to [ATW and GRB]
• “REQUIRED ROUTES IFR aircraft arriving and departing the Green Bay Terminal Area should file and expect to be routed via the following routes.

However, if any other impacts, such as weather preclude the use of these routes, please refer to the FAA’s Air Traffic Control System Command Center (ATCSCC) Advisory page for the most up to date route information at: https://www.fly.faa.gov/adv/advAdvisoryForm.jsp. “

• “ARRIVAL [AND DEPARTURE] ROUTES[are published on the Special Air Traffic Procedures page and] Effective Wednesday, April 23, 2025, through Saturday, April 26, 2025, 1030-0430 UTC daily.
• “FLIGHT PLANS AND WEATHER INFORMATION To ensure proper processing, flight plans should be filed at least 4 hours prior to departure.”

The Green Bay Press Gazette has a good article that draws from the FAA Procedures but adds some local color.