Pittsburgh spent years building the foundation to host the 2026 NFL Draft.
This week, the City of Champions delivered.
Indeed, months before a Steelers quarterback throws a single pass at Acrisure Stadium for the 2026-27 season, the city had already scored a touchdown.
Pittsburgh smashed draft attendance numbers twice as crowds filled area hotels, packed public transit and flooded city streets. A sea of black and gold — and a rainbow of other NFL team colors — saturated Downtown and the North Shore from Thursday to Saturday.
The allure behind the three-day event sparked millions of dollars in city redevelopment and whipped the globe-hopping fan base of one of football’s most storied franchises into an off-season frenzy.
After watching Green Bay, Wis., Detroit and, ugh, even Cleveland roll out the red carpet for the draft over the past several years, it was Pittsburgh’s turn. The city not only joined the pantheon of host cities but managed to one-up everyone else in the process.
“The bar’s being raised,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told sports personality and Plum native Pat McAfee.
As images of Pittsburgh’s dazzling Downtown skyline beamed to television sets and mobile devices, the world noticed.
The NFL’s commissioner admired how much effort city residents, officials and first responders put into making one of the NFL’s marquee events a rousing success.
Goodell, a Washington & Jefferson College alumnus, called the region home when the Steel Curtain help nail down four Super Bowl titles between 1975 and 1980.
“Who would have ever dreamed that I’d be coming back to Western Pennsylvania for an NFL Draft in front of hundreds of thousands of people and being able to celebrate a place that was really important to me in my life?” Goodell told TribLive news partner WTAE.
“So, yeah,” he added, “it’s definitely special.”
No hitches
As operations go, Pittsburgh might not have been able to plan the draft any better, those behind it told TribLive.
Though Saturday’s festivities were partially dampened by rain and gray skies, the event’s first two days revolved around pristine weather: temperatures 15 degrees above normal and lots of sunshine.
Crime was nearly nonexistent.
Traffic was minimal.
“Everything went off without a hitch,” Beechview Councilman Anthony Coghill said after leaving the event Saturday.
The NFL crowed that Pittsburgh crowds broke attendance records. About 500,000 were expected all week. The league needed 48 hours to shatter expectations; the NFL counted 320,000 fans on Day One and 260,000 fans the next day.
Saturday night, league officials announced a total of 805,000 attendees over three days, a new NFL Draft record.
“I told Commissioner Goodell we were gonna set records here in Pittsburgh — and we have shown up,” Gov. Josh Shapiro said during a fan event Saturday inside Acrisure Stadium.
Others noticed, too. Representatives from 10 cities trying to lure in the annual, region-hopping event turned out to take notes along the banks of the Allegheny River, Goodell told ESPN’s Pat McAfee.
Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor was set to take to the stage Saturday to hand off the figurative draft crown to Washington, D.C., which is set to host the mammoth event next year.
The worst part of the three-day event? “No sleep,” O’Connor said, with a laugh.
“It’s been exciting for everyone,” O’Connor said. “The best thing is just seeing the energy.”
Few arrests
Leaders who helped stage the draft couldn’t stop praising it.
Pittsburgh “has shown the world exactly what it means to be the City of Champions,” Jerad Bachar, who heads regional tourism agency Visit Pittsburgh, said. “The energy across our city has been nothing short of electric.”
“There was some anxiety, like are we going to have this all together?” Coghill, the councilman, said. “It could not have been better.”
He acknowledged some felt uneasy about whether the city could pull off an event of this magnitude.
Earlier this week, the head of Pittsburgh’s police union set off alarms about staffing shortages, telling TribLive the 650 city officers working during the draft were “significantly overcommitted and under-resourced.”
Robert Swartzwelder, the police union president, stood by his claim as the event wound up.
The police bureau cancelled time off to staff an event its chief called “an all-hands-on deck” mission, Swartzwelder said. It was not uncommon to hear from officers working 16- and 18-hour days.
“People are exhausted,” Swartzwelder said. “They worked with what they had. But they went into this understaffed … the only reason they were able to do this was by overstretching this force, pushing its limits.”
The tactic, however, produced results.
Pittsburgh police made no arrests in the draft footprint — and just eight arrests in all of Downtown Pittsburgh — during the event’s first and second days. Data was not available at presstime on the draft’s third day.
The bureau’s rank and file were supported by nearly 20 different law enforcement agencies. Hundreds of Pennsylvania State Police troopers patrolled the event. They reported making just two arrests during the same period.
Some hiccups
A flurry of events popped up around the draft. Nearly 3,000 people joined a 5K footrace that started down the road from the draft stage. Players and cheerleaders greeted fans. Some of the Pittsburgh region’s native sons — Michael Keaton, Wiz Khalifa and Bret Michaels — helped fuel the party atmosphere.
As part of the “draft experience,” the NFL invited attendees to kick field goals, pose at selfie stations and view the Steelers’ record-tying six Lombardi trophies.
There were a few bumps in the road.
On Thursday night, Pittsburgh Regional Transit left some visitors waiting up to 40 minutes outside the draft footprint to catch their free buses. The transit agency pivoted and tackled the small details; Friday went more smoothly.
Plenty of fans lauded the Football Flyer buses from the north, south, east and west suburbs. One draft attendee called the convenience of the free routes the best part of the entire experience.
While crowds were massive, some local businesses reported their cash registers were hardly ringing.
Businesses in prior host cities reported similar experiences. Fans often stay in the draft footprint and seem reluctant to venture outside it to spend money.
Peppi’s sandwich shop in the North Side bet on a draft-related surge in customers— and lost. Owner Jeff Trebac simplified the menu, stockpiled ingredients and brought in extra staff. Even a video and social media posts featuring Trebac and Steelers legend Jerome Bettis didn’t do the trick.
Business improved Friday — but a little too late, Trebac said.
“In reality, when this is all said and done, it’ll end up being kind of like a normal week,” he said. “It is what it is. The NFL made their money.”
Local event organizer William “B” Marshall, who hosts Juneteenth celebrations each year, fought to ensure he could host an event showcasing Black-owned businesses.
His Draft Bash, hosted near — but not in — the draft footprint in Allegheny Commons Park also underwhelmed; about 200 people visited the first day and 300 the second, Marshall said.
“Of course, we were hoping to get more people,” Marshall said, adding he was “just happy to be able to do something.”
In the end, aside from the draft prospects whose dreams came true, football fans were the biggest winners, from local Steelers boosters to travelers from afar.
Nicole Mahaffey, a 51-year-old Cleveland resident, experienced the draft twice before, in her city and in Detroit. How did Pittsburgh, her dad’s hometown, stack up?
“This,” she said, “is far better.”