2026 Pittsburgh
NFL Draft
The day Pittsburghers have awaited (or dreaded) for more than a year arrived relatively smoothly Thursday. Buses, trains, boats and some cars brought thousands of football fans to Downtown and the North Shore for the NFL Draft, opening what is expected to be the city’s largest event ever.
Before it’s all said and done, officials expect a combined crowd over three days of more than half a million. The real test could come tonight, when a large crowd gathers to watch the first round of draft picks and many try to enter and exit the area at once.
Streets in outlying neighborhoods were serene midmorning, and even parts of Downtown were somewhat quiet, though crowds massed near the draft’s campuses at Point State Park and the North Shore.
Many fans heeded officials’ pleas to get to the event without cars. Park & ride lots were filling up before midafternoon, and the city’s “Football Flyer” buses and the T carried thousands into the center of the action.
Sisters Cara and Amanda Vecchio sat in shaded chairs next to Acrisure Stadium just after 2 p.m., in town from the Baltimore area. They live in Ravens territory but are Steelers fans for a typical reason: Their father is from here and raised them in Steelers jerseys.
Cara, 29, had been to the city for games before but was enjoying giving Amanda, 23, her first visit.
“I think it’s beautiful,” Amanda said. Cara added she thinks “they did a good job zhuzhing it up” for the draft. The pair said they hadn’t sat in traffic since arriving in the city, and the free buses were “perfect.”
Transportation preparations paying off
With city schools in remote mode and many people working from home, morning traffic was on the light side of normal.
The Ross Park and Ride lot on Perry Highway, designated by Pittsburgh Regional Transit as a Football Flyer stop, drew more parkers than usual in the early hours, and was largely full by mid-afternoon. The free flyers zip people between the city’s outskirts and Downtown for the next three days.
At the East Busway’s Negley Station, about 25 people waited in late-morning sunshine before piling onto one of the flyers. Most wore Steelers gear.
Among them were Steve and Alex Bovino, a father and son. Alex, the son, is a Packers fan and wore nondescript clothing while Steve proudly wore a Steelers shirt.
“I’ve been a Steelers fan for a long time, and this was an event I didn’t want to miss,” Steve Bovino said. He said he hopes to meet Steelers Hall of Fame cornerback Mel Blount, adding that he was one of few people on the bus who is old enough to remember the Steelers’ four Super Bowls in the 1970s.
David Boardman, standing nearby, said he lives in town and wanted to check out the draft because of its rarity. “It’s teetering on a once-in-a-lifetime event,” Boardman said. Another rider, Ivan Sanchez, is from Pittsburgh but lives in Milwaukee, and flew back to his hometown for the event.
The bus was crowded but not overflowing, and moved people from Shadyside to Downtown in about 10 minutes.
Hundreds of people were lined up at the Point State Park draft entrance before its noon opening time, but streets in Downtown’s interior were relatively calm around the same time.
Late-morning travel from the Strip District to Downtown offered a slice of the increasingly festive atmosphere, with couples and groups in the jerseys of many teams taking in the barbecue smoke billowing from pits, a man dressed as a red-hatted pierogi and firefighters hawking Monster energy drinks for $3.
By early afternoon, though, team rivalries were making for some spirited commutes. On a packed and hot T light rail ride from Downtown’s Gateway Center to the North Shore, taunts between Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles raised temperatures further — until a “Cowboys suck” chant brought unity.
Public Source spoke to people who rode buses, trains and cars into the city, and none said they sat in unusually slow traffic. The Monroeville Park & Ride lot briefly filled up Thursday morning, but by mid-afternoon PRT announced it had additional space.
Inside the Draft Experience areas near the Point and around Acrisure Stadium, crowds milled around and queued for games and shops, but no area felt overcrowded or difficult to move through. Vendors hawked beer and other beverages, but in the early afternoon there was far less visible drinking than at a Steelers game or tailgate.
Friends, couples and siblings
Many shared the draft experience with family and old friends.
Santino Laster and Lawrence Adams are “best friends,” and said they attend the draft every year. They showed up in their team gear (Laster likes the Lions, Adams the Bears). Adams wore a mask depicting the Batman villain Bane, nodding to the scene in “The Dark Knight” in which a fictional version of Acrisure Stadium was blown up.
The two live in Sheboygan, Wisconsin and said they arrived at a hotel about 45 minutes from Pittsburgh last night. They found a parking space on Stanwix Street for $85 — the low end of some reported prices in the city core. They said their favorite part of attending any NFL Draft is trying local food.
“We still have to hit Primanti Brothers,” Adams said, with a note of skepticism.
Tracy Hofmann and her brother Brian Lorenzato are Bethel Park natives but live in other states now (Hofmann in California, Lorenzato in Alabama). They flew in for the draft and are staying in their old hometown, making for an easy T ride to Downtown this morning.
Tracy Hofmann, left, of Rialto, California, her brother, Brian Lorenzato, of Fairhobe, Alabama, and their friend June Friedley, of Rancho Cucamonga, California, scope out the scene at the NFL Draft Experience at Point State Park, Downtown, on April 23. Hofmann and Lorenzato, originally of Bethel Park, returned to Pittsburgh for the event. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/Pittsburgh’s Public Source)
Hofmann, decked out in Steelers clothing, jewelry and a draft-themed Terrible Towel, said attending a charity event last night was “one of the three best days of my life,” and a highlight was meeting Steelers Chairman Art Rooney Jr. Today’s goal: Meeting former Steelers tight end Heath Miller.
Dominik Rettberg and Victoria Kerns met at a Buffalo Bills game and celebrated six months of dating at the draft in Pittsburgh. They drove from Buffalo Thursday morning, finding no traffic difficulties, and snagged a parking space through a cousin who works Downtown.
“This is the closest [the draft] has been to Buffalo,” Rettberg said.
That was a common sentiment among attendees: This might be the best chance they have to see the draft. Dana Donahue said he has been watching the draft since he was in college around 2000, and this is “as close to home as it’s going to get.” He said he came in from near Punxsutawney.
The end of months of planning and hype
VisitPittsburgh, which has been the lead local coordinating agency working with the NFL, has posted a lengthy FAQ on the draft here. The NFL has its own FAQ including security rules, prohibited items and bag policies.
The event is centered on the North Shore and Point State Park, both of which are now secured behind portable fences with security checkpoints. For the North Shore, it’s the latest notable point in a 150-year sports history, and for Downtown, it’s a milestone in a revamp that includes a renewed Market Square, just-opened Arts Landing and growing Point Park University.
The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police are being supplemented by federal, state and local law enforcement, though no credible threats to the event have been made public.
The public sector has put countless hours and something in the neighborhood of $19 million into preparations, in hopes that the event will bring $120 million to $213 million in economic activity. Hoteliers and vacation rental owners expected heavy bookings, though reports this month suggested that rooms were still available. Mayor Corey O’Connor has seized the draft as an opportunity to move the needle on Pittsburgh’s national reputation and convince first-time visitors to return.
Businesses and community organizations have also been preparing for months, from the arts organizations looking for their opening to weekend flag football drafts playing on the hype. Businesses outside of the draft zone wondered how much spillover they’d see. Pittsburgh Public Schools prepared by eschewing in-person classes and instead scheduling three days of “asynchronous learning” in which most students will work independently on assignments.
Charlie Wolfson is the local government reporter for Pittsburgh’s Public Source. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.
Stephanie Strasburg, Halle Stockton and Rich Lord contributed.
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