NFL draft might be split between cities

Could part of the three-day NFL draft be coming to Los Angeles next year?

Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league is looking into staging the event in multiple cities next year, in light of the success of its first prime-time opening round.

“We have talked about whether you move to a location, or maybe you move one day of the draft,� Goodell told Richard Deitsch of SI.com. “If we are successful doing the draft on three days, that may be one alternative, to take one of those days and move it to a different location.�

Tim Leiweke, president and chief executive of AEG, has long suggested holding the draft in the Nokia Theatre at L.A. Live.

The first round of this year’s draft, held at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, averaged 8.3 million viewers on ESPN and NFL Network, a 32% increase over last year’s draft. It beat NBC’s “The Office,� ABC’s “Private Practice� and more than doubled the average viewership of the Lakers-Thunder NBA playoff game on TNT.

Goodell told SI.com that no decision has been made about whether to stage another prime-time draft next year but that the “extraordinary increase in viewership … does reinforce the idea that we can put the draft on a bigger platform.�

Leiweke on Saturday could not immediately be reached for comment.