Since making the move to a prime-time broadcast, the N.F.L. draft has become a bigger marketing vehicle for the National Football League. This year, for the first time the sports organization created a temporary retail location in New York specifically for the event. Housed in 10,000 square feet of space, the pop-up shop is packed with new and exclusive merchandise from partners like Wilson, Quiksilver, and Under Armour and offers a series of activities for fans in a second-floor area. The consumer-facing promotion debuted Monday and will remain open through to the end of the month, building what the N.F.L. hopes is more buzz for the three-day player-selection process at Radio City Music Hall April 26 through 28.
"The draft has become such a big event, particularly since we went to prime time two years ago, and we didn't feel like the retail was elevated with that," said Leo Kane, the league's senior vice president of consumer products. "For us, having really dynamic new partners like Under Armour and New Era, and knowing that we can work with Nike to bring the jerseys out [before the draft picks are made], it made sense to take on 10,000 square feet of retail."
The league is betting that the excitement leading up to the draft will draw customers into the store, but it is also leveraging its connection to high-profile players and unique items like the Vince Lombardi trophy and Super Bowl championship rings to provide added incentives. There was even a ribbon-cutting ceremony with N.F.L. commissioner Roger Goodell on Monday morning, after which Goodell worked the store floor for an hour. The first 500 people in line received a commemorative 2012 N.F.L. draft coin. To help push the promotion on Twitter, the N.F.L. is using the @OfficialNFLShop handle to share news and information with fans.
"We want this to be a totally immersive N.F.L. experience," said Kane. "There are a lot of great partners that we have that are in the retail business, but they're focused on sports beyond the N.F.L. We have the N.F.L. shop as a virtual store 365 days to capture displaced fans, but being that this is New York, we're going to try to have product from 32 teams. So if you happen to be a fan of another team and you just live and work in New York, you'll have that experience."
