By Madaleine Rubin, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (TNS)

With 136 days to go, a downtown revamp in the works and tensions rising in City Hall, planning for next year’s NFL draft is ramping up in Pittsburgh .

Officials from the NFL and VisitPittsburgh, the local tourism organization spearheading draft planning, shared new details about the three-day event coming to the North Shore in April 2026 ahead of a closed-door town hall with residents on Monday night.

The draft — the “largest event that Pittsburgh has ever hosted” — is expected to generate between $115 million and $215 million in direct spending locally, VisitPittsburgh CEO and President Jerad Bachar said.

In Detroit — which hosted the event in 2024 and mirrors Pittsburgh in size — the event generated about $161 million in visitors’

See Full Page