VIDEOS/PHOTOS: The size of a football field, the mammoth theater erected in front of Union Station for this week’s NFL Draft is the biggest the league has ever built. But the NFL actually wanted to build an even larger, more elaborate stage. Months ago, the league planned a structure complete with a second story that could house as many as 1,000 people. But fire department officials say those plans were scaled back during conversations with the NFL. Such a grandiose NFL Draft Theater would have faced more scrutiny from city inspectors and driven up the cost substantially because of the need to install a sprinkler system in the temporary structure.
“The building process would have taken significantly longer, the inspection process would have been significantly more involved,” said Joseph Ragsdale, the city’s assistant fire marshal who has worked on the draft preparations.