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Pittsburgh Draft City 2026


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Posted (edited)

The city should present very well visually, but I really wonder how it will do logistically. 

My knowledge and experience of the town is minimal but I know its not the easiest town to get in and out of traffic wise and the bigger concern would be the number of hotel rooms. 

Also figuring those little cool places to visit food, bars etc probably gonna be a bit overwhelmed. 

Ive been to 3 or 4 Drafts now. New York, Chicago and Las Vegas. I was intending to go to KC but fell apart. (i forget if I went to NYC twice and would have to look it up) I think just once, just confusing trips to Senior Bowl i think.

NYC and Chicago were before it became super mainstream and i live in the Vegas area and didnt have to worry about a hotel, also we have more hotel rooms than anybody and regularly handle multiple large /huge events. 

 

Just wondering everyones thoughts on if the city could expect crowds like Philly or Detroit and I would guess that there would be a lot of national and even international interest in finally coming to visit the "famed/notorious" city of so many peoples favorite sports team and if it would be possible/ realistic to handle the traffic /crowds well. Lets just say 3x what Acrisure holds so 60k x 3 = 180k which is good deal less than was in Detroit and Philly 

 

Edited by JustPlainNasty
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Posted (edited)

https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/taylor-swift-pittsburgh-concerts-hotel-rooms-travel/#

 

24,000 rooms is not much at all. Half of Taylor Swift crowd would likely be young girls that would stay multiple in a room and dont necessarily need more than 1 night. The NFL Draft is going to majority adult men who can afford to pay or split a room with another person. This is also a 3 day event that most are likely going to attend two of the three days. When I came in for training camp a while back (almost 15 yrs now) I stayed somewhere between Latrobe and Pittsburgh dont recall the name of the town, but my main focus was Latrobe then drove in to do the stadium tour. 

Edited by JustPlainNasty
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5 minutes ago, jebrick said:

I rate Pittsburgh just after Boston for nightmare cities to get around in a car and I grew up near by.  Perhaps Google maps makes it easier now.

It was not really fun in my experience driving in from my hotel to go on that stadium tour. Instead of going to see the Steelers play here in Las Vegas this year, I'm considering a trip in to Pittsburgh to get "cheap" tickets and get a home game experience but tbh the logistics of it in my head give me pause. Ive looked up hotel rooms in the past for off days and they weren't exactly cheap, surprisingly high tbh. Comparatively, I stayed just up the street from Radio City Music Hall in NYC at the Hilton and just around the corner from the draft in Chicago and the pricing was very decent compared to those Pittsburgh downtown inquiries in the past. 

And Boston is a nightmare. I used to have to go through Boston back 97-98' when they were building that underground road.  

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I bet we see a lot of people stay downtown and use the Gateway Clipper and T to get to the North Shore.  I imagine they need to use the space east of the stadium, but I think it would be really cool to use the RCB, fan central in the Ball Park, the Renaissance could be the green room.

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Apparently the stage will be between the stadium and Stage AE, with Stage AE being the green room. The main tailgate area will be the watch area. Rumor is PNC/Acursure will be fan overflow?

Major loss for the city if they try to cram it all right there. 

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8 hours ago, warfelg said:

Apparently the stage will be between the stadium and Stage AE, with Stage AE being the green room. The main tailgate area will be the watch area. Rumor is PNC/Acursure will be fan overflow?

Major loss for the city if they try to cram it all right there. 

The typical setup will have the Play 360 fan experience very close by so they like to have room for that. So main stage, big crowd and off to side somewhere place to throw, run 40 take pictures with team unis etc. I would be surprised if the Point State Park wasnt the focal of the background.

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2 hours ago, JustPlainNasty said:

The typical setup will have the Play 360 fan experience very close by so they like to have room for that. So main stage, big crowd and off to side somewhere place to throw, run 40 take pictures with team unis etc. I would be surprised if the Point State Park wasnt the focal of the background.

My former urban planner career tells me the best places would have been:

PPG arena parking lot with the skyline as the background. 
 

Could have been done in conjunction with a redevelopment on Southshore and the “mall” there. 
 

Pitts Campus/Cathedral of learning/Schenley park would have been awesome. Imagine the Cathedral all lit up of the team on the clock and a countdown clock reflected on it. 
 

 

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8 hours ago, warfelg said:

Pitts Campus/Cathedral of learning/Schenley park would have been awesome. Imagine the Cathedral all lit up of the team on the clock and a countdown clock reflected on it. 

Would be great but the school would be in session and welcome to the nightmare of traffic getting to Oakland

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Posted (edited)
29 minutes ago, jebrick said:

Would be great but the school would be in session and welcome to the nightmare of traffic getting to Oakland

They can put spring break that week :)

Also traffic is a nightmare going anywhere in the Burgh. 

Edited by warfelg
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At the stadium, I can park across the river in a parking garage and and walk.  There is more than one way in and out.  Oakland, not so much.

 

I think Point State park would be great to have it but they need to parking lots of the stadium for the crowds and activities

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27 minutes ago, MOSteelers56 said:

Non residents of the Burgh reading this thread

Confused Kid GIFs - Find & Share on GIPHY

Lol. Remember Ravens fans. Go check out the Hill District!

 

 

 

ok that was mean. 

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16 hours ago, jebrick said:

At the stadium, I can park across the river in a parking garage and and walk.  There is more than one way in and out.  Oakland, not so much.

 

I think Point State park would be great to have it but they need to parking lots of the stadium for the crowds and activities

Chicago did not have significant parking lots nearby to my knowledge but they do have trains that go everywhere about two blocks away.

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