Leaders say Pittsburgh is ready for NFL Draft
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It's actually only 36 days left until NFL Draft now. Photo: Ryan Deto/Axios
April's NFL Draft will be Pittsburgh's biggest ever sporting event, and civic and business leaders say we are ready.
Why it matters: An expected 700,000 fans will descend upon the North Shore and Downtown April 23-25 to take in the football festivities, giving Pittsburgh a massive opportunity to show off in front of visitors and a national television audience.
Driving the news: Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato, Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O'Connor and PNC Pittsburgh regional head Louis Cestello tell Axios Pittsburgh that everything is going according to plan.
What they're saying: "We do, in fact, have the capacity to host. Green Bay hosted last year, and they are the smallest market of any NFL team," Innamorato tells Axios, noting that she expects it to be similar when Taylor Swift played two sold-out shows at Acrisure Stadium in June 2023, which also coincided with the city's annual Juneteenth Festival held across the river in Point State Park.
- "We have the hotels. If just thinking about Downtown proper, obviously we don't have enough hotels, but within the entire region, we do," O'Connor tells Axios. He said Pittsburgh's walkability between Downtown and the South Side, Strip District and North Side should ease any traffic flow concerns.
- "We can definitely host it," Cestello tells Axios. "There's been a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes. Not just getting the infrastructure ready like Arts Landing and Market Square, but the logistics about the ingress and egress of that many people in and out of the city."
Zoom in: Upgrades to Point State Park are complete and ready for the draft.
- Arts Landing construction is on schedule, according to the Culture Trust, and a preview of the park is scheduled for March 30.
- The revamp of Market Square is in progress. Jeremy Waldup of the Downtown Pittsburgh Partnership told KDKA last week it will be ready. O'Connor said it will be "a close time frame" to be completed in time.
Between the lines: Residents should expect an impact and economic boost everywhere, not just near the draft campus, said O'Connor, since many people will be staying in the neighborhoods and boroughs.
State of play: The official draft campus area surrounding Acrisure and at Point State Park will see security closures, which could impact the parts of the Fort Duquesne Bridge. More details on that will be forthcoming, said O'Connor.
The bottom line: "There's one thing we can't control, and it's the weather. And if the weather cooperates, we're gonna be perfectly fine," said Cestello.