Eagles draft party: Free tickets available soon
Interest is heightened for the annual event because the club has the fourth pick overall.
Tickets for the annual Eagles NFL Draft Party will be made available at 10 a.m. Thursday.
As in previous years, tickets will be free.
Attendance, though, could top the 3,600 who turned out last year at Lincoln Financial Field, since the Thursday, April 25, event will feature the highest Eagles pick - No. 4 overall - since 1999. That year's No. 2 selection of quarterback Donovan McNabb proved historically important, since he went on to start in five conference championships and a Super Bowl, while setting at least a dozen franchise passing records.
This year's pick is also the first with new head coach Chip Kelly, who took over for the fired Andy Reid, whose first pick happened to be McNabb.
Don't expect Kelly to stop by to greet fans, since the club's draft deliberations will be taking place a couple of blocks away at the NovaCare Complex. (Reid never stopped by. Then again, he never appeared at Wing Bowl but Kelly did in February.)
The draft party, beginning at 5:30 p.m., offers autographs from past and current Eagles players (autograph tickets will be given to first 1,300 fans to arrive), tours of the locker rooms, and a chance to "participate in football skills and drills on the field," according to philadelphiaeagles.com.
It will also be the first public appearance of the new cheerleading squad, scheduled to be selected that Monday, April 22, at the Final Audition Show at the Kimmel Center's Perelman Theater. (For tickets, go to kimmelcenter.org.)
Also for the draft party, the Eagles Pro Shop will have its annual sale, and SportsRadio 94 WIP will be on hand to broadcast.
The draft itself begins at 8 p.m., and the party will continue until all of the league's first-round picks are made.
That means fans will probably see a single Eagles pick, unless the team engineers a trade. With such a high choice, it's unlikely the club would trade out of the round entirely. The St. Louis Rams and the Minnesota Vikings each have two first-round picks, but a swap with either club would mean dropping down to 16 and 22 (Rams) or 23 and 26 (Vikings). More thinkable is using the third pick in Round Two in a deal for a late first-rounder.
For draft party tickets, on sale Thursday at 10 a.m., go to the 2013 Draft Party page at philadelphiaeagles.com.