NFL Draft Experience: How Fans Should Game Plan
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Tens of thousands are expected to jam the Ben Franklin Parkway on Thursday for the opening of the free football festival called the NFL Draft Experience.
Here is a fan's guide to the action.
The three entrance gates open at noon, and fans should expect airport-style security. Those gates are at 21st and the Parkway, 22nd and the Parkway and 22nd and Pennsylvania Avenue.
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Once inside, the activities are free, including the autograph stations, the Lombardi Trophy and the mock locker rooms. However, you will need to break out the wallet if you go into the NFL Shop or to the concessions.
NFL Events manager Nicki Ewell recommends that fans download an app called the Fan Mobile Pass.
"You don't need to. We just advise that you do, because it has all the information that you need," Ewell said. "All the FAQs that you might have."
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The app allows fans to check in to contests and serves as a waiver for activities like the zipline or the field goal kick. It also allows you to enter for standby seats in the coveted Draft theater.
"You're going to check in, and then you're going to be in our standby. So when there's a seat available you're going to get a text," Ewell explained. "And then you're going to proceed to the theater which is on the Rocky steps, of course, at the Art Museum. And you're going to proceed down and take a seat!"
Ewell expects the biggest crowd this evening, in the hours before the draft begins at 8 p.m.
