CANTON, Ohio - The Hall of Fame City wants to be the NFL Draft's city, too.
Though he didn't want to talk details and made it sound like Canton hosting the NFL Draft is more a longer-range target than an immediate one, Pro Football Hall of Fame president David Baker confirmed to FOX Sports Ohio this week that Canton would like to be included in the NFL's future draft plans.
"I think Canton would be a wonderful place to hold the NFL Draft," Baker said.
The draft has been held in New York City since 1965. Speaking at a draft-related event last week, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said the league expects to decide on a site for the 2015 draft no later than early fall.
Citing an NFL source, the New York Post reported last week that eight cities had interest in hosting the draft should the NFL move it: Canton, New Orleans, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, Orlando and Arlington, Texas.
For the first time in 30 years, this year's draft was moved to May, at least in part due to a scheduling conflict at Radio City Music Hall.
"We've had a great experience at Radio City, and we'd love to continue to have a presence here," Goodell said. "Part of it depends on scheduling issues. They (Radio City) some other objectives that they want to achieve, so we're going to make sure we have other alternatives that we can rely on."
Baker wouldn't say whether he thought Canton might fit in the NFL's immediate plans, but he pointed to the 100th anniversary of the NFL in 2019 as "special time" for the league -- and a potential target for Canton to host.
"Between now and sometime in the next five years...it's going to be a special time for the Hall of Fame and for the NFL as a whole," Baker said. "We think it's going to be so special that it's something we're starting to get ready for now. We have to.
"That's a big deal, the 100th anniversary of the NFL. At the league level they're looking at the 50th Super Bowl coming up, but as we approach that 100th anniversary it's something that's very big not just for the game, not just for those in the sport, but for the country."
Pressed further on the draft and the status of the potential bid, Baker, who was named the Hall of Fame's president and executive director in January, said, "We came (to Canton) for a purpose and that purpose is raising the bar here for the Hall of Fame even higher."
THE HOTTEST
Check out the hottest NFL cheerleaders. Which ones are your favorites?
Each summer, the Hall of Fame induction ceremony is held on the field at Fawcett Stadium, adjacent to the Hall of Fame. The official Hall of Fame parade, inductees dinner and other events are held in Downtown Canton.
The Canton Civic Center hosted the expansion draft for the Cleveland Browns in 1999. It's an aging structure built in 1951 with a basketball and concert capacity of approximately 5,000. It's gotten a bit of a sprucing up in recent years since the Cleveland Cavaliers purchased an NBA D-League team, the Canton Charge, which plays its home games in the Civic Center.
The Civic Center is downtown, a couple miles east of the Hall of Fame, and for now seems the most viable Canton site to hold the draft. That could change in the next few years, however.
Last January, the Canton Repository unveiled the first in a series of reports on the Hall of Fame's vision for future construction and expansion, and part of that report was a proposed $23.4 million improvement project at the Hall and Fawcett Stadium that could eventually include a conference center and hotel on the Hall of Fame campus.
It sounds like that project has Baker's backing -- and maybe even an NFL target date that coincides with a special anniversary.
