Peer and benchmark cities that recently welcomed the NFL Draft offer a playbook for visitor traffic and media exposure as Pittsburgh warms up to host the 2026 event.
775K
People in attendance at this year’s NFL Draft in Detroit
53.6M
people tuning into the 2024 NFL Draft on TV and streaming services
$214M
million overall economic impact for the city of Detroit in 2024
$161M
million from non-Detroit businesses and visitors spending money in Southeast Michigan
Born of a meeting that took place in Pittsburgh in the 1930s, the NFL Draft got its start here before moving to New York City in 1965, where it convened every spring until 2014. Now in the era of traveling to a different host city, the marquee event is returning to its roots in Pittsburgh in 2026, bringing with it the hundreds of thousands of visitors and media that annually descend upon the host city each year.
A Crowded Huddle
During the league’s most recent draft, the city of Detroit hosted 775,000 guests over three days, generating over $213.6 million— an increase from the $164.3 million that the 2023 NFL Draft generated for Kansas City just a year earlier.
To tackle an event of this magnitude, Pittsburgh city officials will draw upon recent success hosting major events such as the pair of Taylor Swift concerts at Acrisure Stadium in 2023, the 2006 MLB All-Star Game, and more.
“Pittsburgh has a rich history of hosting major events, so we’re confident that our city is poised to not only welcome but provide an incredible experience for fans to the 2026 NFL Draft,” said Jerad Bachar, VisitPITTSBURGH president and CEO. “While we will certainly lean into our historical best practices, crowd management strategies will ultimately be devised around the event footprint, which has yet to be determined.”
While that specific footprint is still in the planning phase, Bachar believes the NFL is largely interested in incorporating elements at the North Shore and Point State Park for festivities, such as locations for fan experiences or a stage where selected players are introduced.
Pregame Planning
Hosting this large event means crowded bars and restaurants, with hotels at capacity. But leaders are confident in the city’s ability to welcome such a surge, in part because it already passed a comprehensive process where league officials spent time in Pittsburgh before awarding the bid.
“Pittsburgh’s infrastructure to host an event of this size and scope was already vetted throughout the bid process,” Bachar said. “As we transition from bid to build, any additional investments will largely be informed by the draft footprint, which is yet to be determined. We’ll continue to work closely with the league to ensure Pittsburgh boasts all resources necessary— from public safety and IT infrastructure to venues and more—for a successful and high-quality NFL Draft event.”
More specifically, organizers anticipate the need for temporary upgrades to broadband and Wi-Fi capabilities and traffic management to support the added demands from the influx of residents and visitors near the draft site, according to Dan Rooney, Pittsburgh Steelers Director of Business Development & Strategy.
Planning was a two-year process for the city of Detroit, with dozens of partners working together to ensure a successful event. This included a specific focus on the last 50 days before the event, working with the NFL to help manage a short turnaround for major construction projects as downtown Detroit was transformed into a football hub.
That transformation has already been a catalyst for additional growth, with restaurants, cultural institutions and public spaces flourishing after the record-breaking event. That’s not to mention hosting 100,000 people for the Movement Techno Music Festival and 150,000 for the Detroit Grand Prix in the months that followed.
“The planning focused on public safety, transportation, operations, community engagement, and creating a lasting legacy for Detroit to make sure that it wasn’t just three great days in April but a catalyst for long-term vitality,” said Claude Molinari, president and CEO of Visit Detroit.
Transformation on Display
In addition to the influx of people who attend the Thursday through Sunday event, millions more watch from home.
Per the NFL, round one coverage from last year’s draft was seen by an average audience of 12.1 million viewers, the highest round one viewership since 2021. That’s not to mention the 53.6 million total people who tuned into the event on TV and streaming services.
With so many eyes on the draft’s host city, it’s a chance for Pittsburgh to show the world everything it has to offer, with the outdated perception of steel mills and smog now a distant memory.
“The event will allow us to showcase the Pittsburgh region of today in a big, bold way that drives visitation, raises the region’s profile globally for business investment and talent attraction, and creates economic impact – not just for the three days of the draft – but far into the future,” said Rooney.
Beyond the economic impact, Rooney noted the opportunity for the draft to deepen the Steelers’ bond with the community, while bringing attention to the region’s assets in technology, innovation, healthcare, sustainability, arts and culture and more.
This past year was an opportunity for Detroit to update the world on all it has to offer as well, including how much it has transformed since the 1980s and ‘90s.
“The city of Detroit was one of the main characters of the draft, and we were so proud to show people around the world the true vitality, dynamism and beauty of our region,” Molinari said. “Detroit and the state of Michigan are working to grow our population, and a huge part of that is updating people's perceptions about our city and state.”
As planning gets underway for the 2026 draft, logistics for the event weekend and beyond will continue to unfold, including the role that downtown Pittsburgh will play.
