Imagine a sporting event that includes no bats, balls or fields, yet compels thousands of fans to wait hours for seats and attracts a larger television audience than many games do. Throw in months of buildup, a red carpet entrance and big corporate sponsors, and you have the N.F.L. draft.

Once a sleepy roll call for football insiders that took place in smoke-filled hotel ballrooms, the draft has turned into the highlight of the league’s increasingly cluttered off-season. It is a marketing machine that feeds the seemingly insatiable desire for information about the nation’s most popular sport and the college players who learn their professional fates on live television.

Two networks and more than 1,000 members of the news media will cover this year’s event at Radio City Music Hall, which begins Thursday at 8 p.m. Eastern and amounts to a beauty contest rolled into a high-stakes lottery. Starting with the first pick, which belongs to the Houston Texans, the 3,500 fans in attendance will give a voice to the millions watching at home by cheering or booing the draftees, including 30 top-ranked players who will parade onstage.

Though the Super Bowl was three months ago and next season’s kickoff is months away, the draft has managed to overshadow the postseasons of the N.B.A. and the N.H.L. This year, it is receiving an extra boost from a new film, “Draft Day,” which stars Kevin Costner as the general manager of the Cleveland Browns.