Last week’s National Football League (NFL) draft in Pittsburgh, and its ensuing festivities, was a record-breaking success, attracting over 800,000 fans to the event, but Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato wants to focus on the draft’s lasting impacts on the local community.
“We broke records when it came to attendance at the NFL draft, but really the thing that excited me about being able to host the draft was using it as a means to mobilize people and capital to complete some legacy civic projects for the people who live here,” Innamorato said in an interview.
In the year leading up to the draft, the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County received funding to transform Market Square in downtown Pittsburgh, opened Arts Landing, which will host the yearly Arts Fest, and added public restrooms in the downtown area.
“That’s going to be a big boom for the businesses that are there, and just creating more community gathering spaces,” Innamorato said. “Point State Park got a facelift ahead of the draft. That was really exciting and things that we pulled off that people were surprised about.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration in 2024 announced $600 million in upgrades for Pittsburgh’s downtown area, and helped fund the upgrades at Point State Park, Market Square, and the construction of Arts Landing.
Pittsburgh’s Public Source reported that state and local governments gave $14 million to Visit Pittsburgh, Allegheny County’s tourism agency, to help cover the costs of hosting the draft.
Videos on social media show the draft area thriving, while business owners outside of the festivities saw little foot traffic.
“ We just heard anecdotally from a lot of vendors who weren’t adjacent, who didn’t have a lot of hotels in their neighborhood or who were in the immediate footprint, that they just saw business slow down,” Innamorato said.
Overall, Innamorato believes the draft experience highlighted some of the best Pittsburgh and surrounding area has to offer, and wants to use it as an opportunity to expand public transit funding throughout the state.
“It just went off without a hitch. We were able to move tens of thousands of people with minimal traffic because people took the bus,” Innamorato said.
“ We ran a really strong transit system, and we’re beating down the door in Harrisburg right now begging legislators and the governor’s administration to figure out a solution to fund transit long term because it’s so vital and we showed that how necessary it was for an event like the draft.”
