“They prepared all of us merchants for a big day,” said Marie Lee from inside PGH Sports in the Strip District.
Lee opened the business in the late 1990s, selling mostly novelty goods, such as “Best Grandma Ever” mugs. Her husband suggested selling Steelers-themed items.
Nowadays, during Steelers home games, PGH Sports is typically packed with people looking to buy merchandise. But on the first day of the NFL Draft, Lee said she was worried about making up the cost of the extra goods she bought to sell over the next three days.
Just a few groups walked along Penn Avenue by early Thursday evening, bobbing in and out of stores such as PGH Sports.
Other businesses in neighborhoods within a manageable walk or a quick transit ride of the draft festivities similarly reported moderate early returns on the first day of the event, which runs through Saturday.
VisitPittsburgh, the host-city planners for the NFL Draft, expects Pittsburgh’s largest-ever event to generate up to $213 million in economic impact, a phenomenon that largely depends on how non-resident attendees interact with the city’s businesses over the next three days.
The NFL and local planners alone have partnered with dozens of regional businesses to put on the event. The league added at least 150 regional businesses — from caterers and food truck operators to graphic designers and laundry servicers — to its list of available subcontractors for the event through its draft procurement program, the Post-Gazette reported last week. Eight local food vendors will station themselves at Point State Park for all three days of the event, while other regional vendors will set up shop near Acrisure Stadium on Saturday as part of the NFL Draft Maker’s Market.
But most businesses are operating on their own. Bars, restaurants, retail stores, hotels and short-term rental owners are hoping that the excitement within the draft campus spills over into their domains. As Thursday waned, some were still in wait-and-see mode.
A ‘ghost town’ in the Strip District
Other merchants along Penn held sentiments similar to Lee’s. Jenny Morgan, a salesperson at the bakery My Sweet Lilly, said there was activity in the area up until 10 a.m., then the foot traffic dwindled.
“We’re all making up excuses,” she said, such as, “Oh maybe tomorrow.”
Over at Strip District Tees, a retailer that designs and prints its own shirts in addition to embroidering hats, employee Missy Paree described the Strip as a “ghost town.” The retailer doubled its staff for the event.
Some business owners and staff in the Strip attributed the low foot traffic to media reports about the traffic and large crowds, which might have convinced locals to stay home.
Food establishments, including Primanti Bros., Roland’s Seafood Grill and Belle Notte seemed to fare better than their counterparts along the street. Jim Prezioso, director of marketing for Primanti Bros., still said that “it’s a bit slower than we anticipated.” He attributed some of that to people working from home this week.
For Prezioso, however, it’s been exciting to bring in workers from restaurants in Washington County, Mt. Lebanon and other parts of the suburbs to work at the Strip location, as well as the sandwich shop’s location in Market Square.
In Allegheny West, like ‘an inch of snow’
Across the river, patrons filled the tables and bar stools of the Steelers-themed bar Lefty’s in Allegheny West.
Dan Stalter, a bartender there who’s been with the company for about 20 years, had just gotten there. But he said he heard from his coworkers that there’d been several spurts throughout the day.
Lefty’s also doubled up its staff, bringing in four employees when usually only two work a shift. The draft’s impact on the bar so far? “No idea. Come back on Sunday,” Stalter said.
Pauline Pelmon sat across from the bar at a table with her partner. Both came from the East End, she said, to enjoy the day’s festivities. They travel often, she said, but today was the one opportunity where they didn’t have to buy a flight or plan for travel like they would for other destinations.
Pittsburgh native Tiffany Carswell occupied a nearby table with her family members, Tina Thomas and Candice Greene. Carswell came up from Maryland for the event, she said. Greene, who lives in Pittsburgh, said she’s “here to see history.”
Over at Peppi’s, owner Jeff Trebac said he’d anticipated more business than what they got. Thinking he was preparing for “a Steeler’s game and a little bit more,” Trebac shortened the menu while keeping supplies for what remained “loaded to the hilt.” But by roughly 7 p.m. on the first day of the draft, he said the day paled in comparison to a typical Steelers game.
To him, it felt like, “‘Hey, snowmageddon is coming,’ then you get an inch of snow.”
In Allegheny Commons, Black-owned businesses ‘not yet’ hitting hopes
A couple blocks away, nearly 40 vendors dotted the perimeter of Allegheny Commons Park West’s terrain as part of Pittsburgh’s Draft Bash.
The owner of Jamaica Faraway Kitchen, who did not wish to provide her name, said the day was slow overall. She opened to a page in her notebook where she’d jotted down each order of the day. Between 11:30 a.m. and roughly 7 p.m., she’d written down only 25 orders.
Local event organizer William Marshall originally submitted an application last October to hold an event for Black- and minority-owned businesses within the draft’s campus, according to reporting by TribLive.
That led to a monthslong public back and forth with the city, until last week when Marshall posted a screenshot on Facebook of his approved permit for an event on the North Side, just blocks away from Acrisure Stadium and the draft theater.
Vaughn Clark, managing operator of Aunt Pug’s Lemonade, said his initial reaction was excitement, then it was “crunch time” for the beverage and catering business.
“Are we making money? Yes,” he said. “Is it the money we were expecting? Not yet.”
Clark said he thinks the organizers of the event should’ve received earlier notice of their approval and that, overall, “it would’ve behooved everyone to make it as one.”
He pointed to major sporting events in other cities, such as Detroit and Philadelphia, where there were greater efforts to be “cohesive” and bring vendors together in a centralized location.
In a March interview with Pittsburgh’s Public Source, Mayor Corey O’Connor said that permitting for vendors within the draft campus took place before his administration entered office. His administration has since tried to catch up and accommodate people, he said.
“I think there’s maybe just a misunderstanding of what the city’s role is when it comes to selecting people,” he said. “It’s the same as if you’re getting a street permit to do a neighborhood festival. We never select the venue or the vendors. That’s whoever runs the event.”
Through May 17, the city’s Office of Film and Event Management is not permitting any events to take place within the North Shore stadium complex and nearby areas, according to its website. The office placed additional restrictions on Golden Triangle events, which will end on April 29.
Short-term rentals up, but not booked solid
In February, Public Source reported that around half of the Pittsburgh area’s short-term rental units were booked for April 23-25, according to data provided by data analytics firm AirDNA.
The firm’s latest data shows that nearly 75% of the area’s more than 3,100 available short-term rentals are booked for today. That rate dips slightly to 71% tomorrow, then 53% on Saturday, the last day of the draft.
Overall, short-term rentals will see higher occupancy rates for the first two days of the draft than they did during the same time last year, data shows. The occupancy rate for tonight, in particular, represents about a 50% increase as compared to a comparable day last year.
Still, some hosts haven’t seen the level of demand for short-term rentals that they had anticipated, according to recent reporting by TribLive.
About 60% of the county’s available hotel rooms were booked for the draft as of early April, according to reporting by CBS Pittsburgh.
Mia Hollie is the economic development and housing reporter for Pittsburgh’s Public Source. She can be reached at mia@publicsource.org.
