On Saturday, the Pittsburgh Steelers Pro Shop released new gear for the much-anticipated 2026 Pittsburgh NFL Draft. It features shirts, polos, hats and a Terrible Towel.
The NFL announced in May that the Steelers’ bid in conjunction with Allegheny County and the City of Pittsburgh was approved for the 2026 NFL Draft. The City of Pittsburgh has not hosted a NFL Draft since December of 1947.
Introducing the 2026 Pittsburgh NFL Draft Collection!
Make your pick now ➡️https://t.co/u8QH20GbG6 pic.twitter.com/xZrL8qWkAN
— Steelers Pro Shop (@SteelersShop) August 31, 2024
The Pittsburgh plan would involve a draft stage on the North Shore alongside Acrisure Stadium, with other locations such as Downtown and Point State Park hosting other events.
“The visibility of downtown has to be very quite apparent,” VisitPittsburgh CEO Jerad Bacher said to our partners at WPXI in May. “So the front of the stage where the viewers would be looking into at the front of the stage would be facing downtown. You could see the stage being located just on this side of Acrisure Stadium facing the downtown area.”
The draft will provide an astronomical economic boost to the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. Detroit hosted the 2024 NFL Draft, and saw an estimated $160 million economic windfall from doing so, while setting an all-time attendance record, with 775,000 people visiting the Motor City for the three-day event in April.
Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald told Jenna Harner of WPXI that he expects a similar economic windfall and attendance numbers that Detroit experienced.
“We estimated the economic impact to be anywhere from $100 to $150 million. I think last year it was about $165 million in Kansas City that they estimated and we could even exceed that,” Fitzgerald said.
“We’re estimating there’ll be over 300 to 350,000 visitors that would come to Pittsburgh, and putting an economic impact anywhere from 100 million to $150 million. And that’s I think being actually somewhat conservative.”
In June, Pittsburgh leaders proposed transformations at Point State Park and Market Square as part of a revitalization plan ahead of the 2026 NFL Draft.