Pittsburgh is Officially Set to Host the NFL Draft in 2026
Let’s fuckin GOOOOOO.
Photo by Zach Frailey.
Back in January, I wrote about Art Rooney’s desire to bring the NFL Draft to the city of Pittsburgh in the coming years. As I highlighted in that post, the decision to bring the draft to Pittsburgh could be made at the league meetings this month, and today we finally got our answer. Pittsburgh will host the NFL Draft in 2026; a first for the city since the draft left its home in New York back in 2015.
Art Rooney has mentioned that he has been working for years, along with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, and other state legislators, on a successful bid to the NFL, which was finally submitted this year.
I think the NFL Commissioner, Roger Gooddell, has figured out how to make the draft as big of an event as possible by targeting these blue-collar cities like Cleveland, Detroit, Green Bay, and now Pittsburgh - cities that love football, but aren’t able to host Super Bowls because of the cold weather and open-air stadiums in these areas. Like the Super Bowl, the NFL Draft is a massive celebration of football that draws hundreds of thousands of people every year, and these colder, football-loving places are able to host them, because the draft takes place in the spring. The rich football history of the great city of Pittsburgh will certainly be on display, and I cannot wait.
The 2026 NFL Draft figures to be, literally, the biggest event in the history of the city of Pittsburgh, in terms of what it can do for the city economically. Surely, yinzers will show up in droves. But, not only that, the Steelers are widely regarded as one of the most popular sports teams in the world. As steel mills closed in Pittsburgh, and others opened up around the country, the yinzers that once filled those mills moved away to find work. Many of them took their love for football, and the Pittsburgh Steelers, with them. It’s been a long time since they, along with their children and grandchildren, have had a reason to all congregate in this great city at the same time, but this could very well be the reason to do just that. And, not only Steelers fans from all over, but fans of all teams. I think after the 2026 NFL Draft, many people will see just how beautiful and fun that city really is. This is BIG TIME news for lovers of football and lovers of Pittsburgh alike.
As of now, the plan is to stage the draft outside of Acrisure Stadium (Heinz Field), and it’s being anticipated that fans will fill in the area(s) between Acrisure Stadium and PNC Park. It figures to be a ZOO aht there, but in the wise words of Coach Tomlin: “We do not care.”
I cannot wait for this. What a big win for us.
Here. We. Go.
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