The city of Pittsburgh is one step closer to hosting a future NFL draft, per a report from Mike Larson of the Pittsburgh Business Times.
The Stadium Authority of the city of Pittsburgh on Tuesday approved entering into an agreement with the NFL, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and other Pittsburgh-related councils to begin the process of eventually hosting one of football’s biggest events. The vote was unanimously in favor of the agreement, reportedly for either 2026 or 2027.
This is following a report in November from 93.7 The Fan’s Adam Crowley and Dorin Dickerson that stated there were league scouts in the area that week to vet the city for the possibility of hosting the NFL draft. The draft is a three-day event with the first round occurring on Thursday night, rounds two and three on Friday night, and the final four rounds spanning most of Saturday afternoon. The event may only last three days, but the preparations take months or even years to make sure the host city can accommodate all of the NFL’s needs. When the draft was held in Nashville, where I live, the event setup started a few weeks in advance.
The draft was held in New York City at various venues from 1965-2014 before the NFL decided to start moving it around every year. The league staged two drafts in Chicago before hopping around from city to city. Over the last seven years, it has been held in Philadelphia, Arlington, Nashville, Cleveland, Las Vegas, and Kansas City with a virtual draft in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The upcoming draft in a few months will be held in Detroit.
This would be the first draft ever held in Pittsburgh and would be a big boon for the city’s economy. Per Front Office Sports, the draft often brings in crowds of around 200,000 people, or as high as 600,000 in Nashville during the 2019 draft.
Just last week, Steelers President Art Rooney II stated during his annual end-of-season media tour that he remains optimistic that Pittsburgh will host a draft in the not-too-distant future. It wasn’t until late May 2023 that the NFL announced that the 2025 draft will be held in Green Bay, so it will likely be a few more months until any further news. Though, as stated in the Pittsburgh Business Times article, this vote was for either 2026 or 2027.
