Pittsburgh proudly and successfully hosted the NFL draft in April 2026.
The NFL draft brought $120 million and hundreds of thousands of visitors into Pittsburgh. It was also an all-year Steelers’ class reunion too, reminding us all of their unforgettable achievements and indelible moments. As winners of six Super Bowls, they are tied for the most ever, with that team from New England. The Steelers have brought us so much community pride, joy, respect and warmth for decades.
One of the NFL’s winningest teams, the Steelers embody the best qualities that our people and city are known for: hard work, teamwork, resilience, reinvention and legendary success in their chosen industry.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, who strongly supported the NFL bringing the draft to Pittsburgh, is putting those same qualities to work by leading a 10-year, $600 million public-private partnership investment for the city. It will grow and improve Downtown Pittsburgh and the region in five significant ways:
• Investing in our leading-edge industries; AI, robotics, advanced manufacturing, energy, medicine/life sciences and education.
• Investing in our people and workforce at all levels, including hands-on apprentice, training and education programs that offer paths to family-sustaining jobs for all those willing to pursue them.
• Investing in attractive, enhanced and welcoming streetscapes. This will increase opportunities for outdoor dining, strolling and increased foot traffic for restaurant, retail, service businesses and entrepreneurs.
• Investing in expanding housing options and making public space upgrades.
• Investing in generational redevelopment of the Golden Triangle to deliver the new 4-acre Arts Landing destination downtown for events, recreation and community gatherings, and an inspired $5 million makeover of Market Square that will make a more attractive, connected and accessible for customers, businesses and community events.
The governor’s collaborative investment projects in Pittsburgh are calculated to add 3,500 construction jobs in Downtown Pittsburgh alone. His plans and actions are a demonstration of faith in the region and the region’s future.
These types of transformational investments are critical in continuing to attract the most ambitious and talented people from around the region, the commonwealth, the country and the world.
Many people who grow up in, move to or visit Pittsburgh love Pittsburgh. I am one of them. Many of them have stayed by chance or choice, or found love with someone, or someplace special here. Those champions of Pittsburgh have created a deep, powerful and lasting well of loyalty.
Back in 2020, I hosted a 28-episode “Pittsburgh Tomorrow” podcast series for Pittsburgh Quarterly magazine. It looked at our city from 2020 to 2050 in the eyes of prominent thought leaders and academics, government officials, business owners, entrepreneurs, professionals, and nonprofit executives.
All of those people looking at the city in the decades ahead knew the importance of maintaining faith, belief, action and momentum in Pittsburgh. Shapiro has put a downpayment on Pittsburgh’s next generational investments and transformation that provides the infrastructure behind our future economic opportunity and quality of life in the city. Those investments will help empower Pittsburghers to be and do better at work, and in life.
Shapiro’s great collaborative plans, projects and investments are underway for Pittsburgh. But in the end, you have to show up consistently, work well with others regardless of position or party and get stuff done (or the governor’s more colorful version of that).
Shapiro has shown up consistently, and gotten the right stuff done, repeatedly in Pittsburgh and across the commonwealth for four years. He is a respected, energized, visionary “do-er,” constantly working to promote Pennsylvania business, education, culture, community and quality of life. He works tirelessly to attract the right companies and people in the nation and around the world to Pennsylvania, who will thrive and contribute here.
He has the same passion to improve things for the companies, communities and people who are already here. He is a problem-solver who can actively handle the unexpected, as he did when the broken section of Interstate 95 was rebuilt in just 12 days.
Doing what you say you will do is the hallmark of trust and integrity. Shapiro has kept his word. He has stayed connected, invested and focused on the job to improve Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania, now and in the future, for a better future. He gets the right stuff done.
Pittsburgh/Johnstown resident Donald Bonk is principal of Good Future Innovation, performing community, economic and business development consulting. He was previously a regional coordinator for Pennsylvania’s International Trade Program.