The NFL Draft is 1% football and 99% 'selling Pittsburgh'

In different corners of the city this week, tech startups will pitch their products to billionaire judges, DJs and country artists will perform on new stages, pop-up museums, boutiques and breweries will open their doors, and consultants will tour defunct warehouses and mills - all in the name of football.

During this year’s NFL Draft, in Pittsburgh Thursday to Saturday, the Steel City is expected to capture national attention as hundreds of thousands of visitors cross the Sister Bridges and millions more watch from home.

A worker secures a poster for the NFL Draft on the facade of the Gold 1 Garage, Thursday April 16, 2026, on the North Shore.(Alexandra Wimley/Post-Gazette)

To prepare for the limelight, Pittsburgh officials invested in cleaning Downtown streets and filling empty storefronts, putting the city’s tech industry on display, staging concerts in new venues and fast-tracking construction projects.

The draft, according to Allegheny Conference chief growth officer Matt Smith, is not just a sports spectacle:

“It’s a global billboard for our region. [It’s] really about taking that billboard - the attention that we’re getting from the draft - and turning it into relationships. And turning those relationships, ultimately, into closed deals.”

‘It hasn’t been without its pain points’

Last year’s NFL Draft in Green Bay, Wisc., wrapped up on April 26. A couple weeks later, Pittsburgh erected an 18-foot-tall draft countdown clock on the North Shore.

Ten months passed before the NFL broke ground on the Draft Theater - a 500,000-square-foot arched structure in parking lots outside Acrisure Stadium where teams will select future players.

But planning for Pittsburgh’s big moment predates all of that. VisitPittsburgh, the tourism agency organizing the event, has had officials at every NFL Draft since 2016. President and CEO Jerad Bachar said the group first expressed interest to the NFL in hosting the event four years ago.

“It’s an extraordinary effort on behalf of a lot of people,” Mr. Bachar said, adding that just starting the process can take years. VisitPittsburgh worked with 42 regional organizations and hundreds of volunteers, alongside the NFL and the Steelers, to plan the event.

Last April, a mixed bag of regional leaders - including the county executive, transportation officials, Downtown advocates and more - attended Green Bay’s draft to take notes on how the small city staged an event that drew a crowd twice the size of its population.

Pittsburgh’s biggest takeaway? “Every site is different,” said Mr. Bachar.

Indeed, the event here will mark the first an NFL Draft footprint has been separated by a river.

The Draft Theater is on the North Shore. Across the Allegheny River, the Draft Experience, an NFL-sponsored festival with free activities for fans, will be based in Point State Park.

“Not much scares us,” a senior NFL official said of the setup about a year ago at VisitPittsburgh’s annual meeting. The organization has, during the past three years, brought the draft to the heart of Detroit, Kansas City and Green Bay, the league’s smallest city and market.

Still, staging the draft in Pittsburgh has coincided with ongoing construction in Point State Park and the start of the Pirates’ season on the North Shore, eliminating thousands of parking spaces around the stadium while they’re most in demand.

“It hasn’t been without its pain points,” Mr. Bachar said. “But we’ve been able to drive solutions together, which is very much Pittsburgh.”

To move people between the North Shore and Downtown, the Roberto Clemente Bridge will be closed to car traffic and used as a walkway, and the Gateway Clipper Fleet will make trips across the river.

The draft could see total attendance of 500,000 to 700,000 over its three days, VisitPittsburgh has estimated - an influx that has some questioning the city’s ability to handle it all.

“I’m sure the traffic people [and] the police department are pulling their hair out trying to figure out how they’re going to control all this,” said Jake Haulk, president emeritus of the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy.

Attendance projections combine estimates for all three days - meaning someone who attends an event each day is counted three times, according to Mr. Bachar.

But even if the unique visitor total does not reach half a million, it’s still sure to be a huge number: Green Bay last year, counting each attendee just once, said 363,000 individuals attended Green Bay’s draft.

That’s just under the estimated 400,000 people who went to the Penguins’ 2016 Stanley Cup parade through Downtown.

“Pittsburghers in particular get nervous about that number, but they really shouldn’t,” Mr. Bachar said. “Pittsburgh knows how to do events of that size. This is basically like having the St Patrick’s Day parade three days in a row.”

‘Everybody gets to wet their beak’

What separates this event from other annual happenings in Pittsburgh, from the annual parade to Picklesburgh, is its duration: Over three consecutive days, the draft is expected to generate between $115 million and $215 million in direct spending locally, VisitPittsburgh said.

Taxes on hotels, short-term rentals, alcohol, rental vehicles and more could generate between $3.8 million and $5.6 million for Allegheny County alone, according to a county analysis.

Months ago, a site for Pittsburghers to rent out their homes during the event went live. A Duquesne University sports marketing professor, Ron Dick, said his students, friends and even his barbershop all are trying to profit, listing rooms and selling parking spaces.

“Everybody gets to wet their beak - it’s not just Allegheny County,” said Mr. Dick, suggesting that visitors could stay as far out as Wheeling, W.Va., about 60 miles away.

But Airbnbs across the city are not close to being fully booked, and some have questioned the impact of hotel reservations.

The average occupancy rate in Allegheny County hotels is just over 60%, according to Mr. Haulk of the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy - meaning that even if all rooms sell out during the draft, the increase would not be “world-changing,” he said.

“It’s not going to cause anybody to go build more hotels, that’s for sure,” Mr. Haulk added. Green Bay, in fact, did build a hotel in advance of last year’s draft.

Pittsburgh, notably, is within driving distance of 11 NFL markets, and the draft historically draws in many day-trippers. Last year, more than half of all attendees came from Brown County, which includes Green Bay, who commuted in for a day.

Beyond that, estimated spending during the draft also includes the NFL’s many contracts, Mr. Bachar said. The league has already awarded more than 70 local contracts for concessions, setup, breakdown and more, mostly through a program for which thousands of businesses across the region applied.

On top of those jobs, another 2,000 people recruited by VisitPittsburgh will staff the footprint, running fan-services booths and more.

“Nobody can say this isn’t going to be good [for the region],” Mr. Haulk said.

Telling the Pittsburgh story

Last year, Pittsburgh officials walked past vacant storefronts in Green Bay obscured by floor-to-ceiling window displays. They heard about site selectors touring empty buildings before convening in the draft footprint.

“Companies and industries that we’re trying to bring to Pittsburgh, to invest in Pittsburgh - we can use the draft as a mechanism to target them,” Pittsburgh Steelers executive vice president David Morehouse told the Post-Gazette at the time, from a hotel in Downtown Green Bay.

One year later, that strategy is playing out in the Steel City.

Early this week, a group of consultants will arrive in Pittsburgh for a multi-day tour of available real estate “directly tied” to the NFL Draft, with engagement from local officials and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, said Mr. Smith of the Allegheny Conference.

Stops could include former industrial sites in the Monongahela Valley, Lawrenceville’s Robotics Row and Neighborhood 91, a growing manufacturing park near the newly renovated Pittsburgh International Airport, said Lauren Connelly, the county’s director of economic development.

The goal is to “leave no stone unturned,” she said.

Also on the agenda is a roundtable with CEOs of several Pittsburgh-based companies, putting the group in conversation with key players who have already invested in the region.

“We want those site selectors to see what Pittsburgh is all about,” Mr. Smith said.

Inside Carnegie Mellon University’s new Robotics Innovation Center, an invite-only event on the eve of the draft will bring together founders, investors and industry leaders for a startup competition.

Nascent companies will pitch their products to a panel of judges including Pittsburgh native Mark Cuban, with a near-$1.3 million award on the line.

That’s all part of the opportunity the draft provides “to retell the story of Pittsburgh - even to residents,” Mr. Bachar said.

Months ago, VisitPittsburgh engaged a marketing agency to promote Pittsburgh in different ways ahead of the draft, honing in on two themes: the region’s storied football legacy and its swing from heavy industry into emerging tech.

Within the Draft Experience, the NFL-sponsored festival held in Point State Park, 12,000 square feet will be devoted to “Steelers Country,” a fan zone that includes a pop-up Steelers bar and “fan cave” modeled off a superfan’s basement.

And VisitPittsburgh is working with Carnegie Mellon to highlight “tech stories” on the draft’s main stage, where picks will be announced, Mr. Bachar said.

Beyond that, the organization has provided talking points about the region to sports broadcasters and others, he added.

Draft deadline ‘provides a lot of motivation’

Striking visuals will also sell the city, officials said.

Globally televised shots during the draft will feature the Golden Triangle’s unique skyline, the three rivers and Sister Bridges - all spruced up, thanks to a slew of short- and long-term investments.

Mr. Shapiro was in Pittsburgh on Friday to celebrate one such investment: Arts Landing.

The four-acre park in the Cultural District is the first major project completed as part of a $600 million plan to revamp Downtown, announced ahead of the draft.

The draft “allowed us to focus on the redevelopment of the Golden Triangle,” the governor said from the new park, looking out on the Sister Bridges lined with fresh black-and-yellow flowers.

And during Draft Week, “We’re going to probably spend 1% of our time focused on football and the other 99% of our time selling Pittsburgh,” Mr. Shapiro said.

Jeremy Waldrup, president and CEO of the Downtown Pittsburgh Partnership, walks with Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor during a “vibrancy initiative” walking tour led by the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership to highlight improvements to Downtown ahead of the NFL Draft, Wednesday, April 15, 2026.(Alexandra Wimley/Post-Gazette)

The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership has filled dozens of empty, ground-floor shops with pop-up retailers, window displays and permanent businesses ahead of the draft. And on the eve of the event, Market Square will reopen to the public after a year of renovations, also part of the $600 million plan.

Together, construction in Market Square and Arts Landing created more than 300 jobs, said Mascaro Construction senior project manager Bill Charles, who oversaw both projects.

“Having a hard deadline like the draft [when] the spaces need to be activated - that provides a lot of motivation,” he said.

Such projects, local officials said, make businesses want to invest and expand in Pittsburgh - and line up with Mayor Corey O’Connor’s promise to grow the city.

“This is basically what we’ve been pushing,” the mayor said Thursday, standing in front of a pop-up art display at the corner of Sixth Street and Liberty Avenue. The mayor’s team has engaged with more than 500 businesses based in and out of Pittsburgh to discuss investing here, a spokesperson said.

Mr. O’Connor offered some advice for anyone who meets visitors interested in doing business here: “Say, ‘Hey, I know the mayor’s office. I think they’d love to talk to you.’’’

The NFL bankrolls much of the draft, local officials have said. Still, this year’s state budget allocated $10 million for the event, and City Council is set to consider a bill this week to double its contribution, to $2 million.

Asked to predict the long-term impact of the spending, Mr. Dick, the Duquesne University professor, said, “Well, that’s a hard thing to measure. But we know it’s something.

“We just don’t know exactly what the future will hold.”

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This story was originally published April 19, 2026 at 8:18 AM.