PITTSBURGH — A sea of mostly black and gold — with a decent showing of Baltimore purple, Buffalo red, white, and blue, and Cleveland Brown — showed up in force Thursday in Pittsburgh for the NFL Draft, so much so that it broke the attendance record set in Detroit two years ago.
“Pittsburgh, congratulations. You set a record for the first night of the draft: 320,000 people here tonight,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell proudly announced at the end of the evening.
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Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) met with Pennsylvania State Police and Department of Conservation and Natural Resources rangers to thank them for the flawless execution of protection, policing, and traffic. “Day One of the NFL Draft in Pittsburgh was historic, and I’m so proud of everyone who came together to make the draft happen here,” Shapiro said.
“We’ve been working closely with law enforcement and first responders at every level to make sure people have a safe and fun time, and that collaboration has been outstanding,” he continued. “This is a great opportunity to showcase Pittsburgh. We hope folks enjoy their time here, and we want them to come back to experience everything Pennsylvania has to offer.”
Pennsylvania State Police, which was the lead on security and maintained the main arteries leading into the city, said the day went largely without incident, with the exception of a few fender benders. Neither Pittsburgh nor Allegheny County police reported any arrest data after the first day of the draft.
Three years ago, Steelers President Art Rooney II said he looked around at the city’s decay after COVID-19 and summer 2020 protests and saw the exodus of commerce, people, and businesses from Pittsburgh’s core. Rooney told the Washington Examiner he realized something had to be done.
He then went to Bill Demchak, the CEO of PNC Financial Services, and asked for seed money to pull together an effort to convince the NFL to hold the draft in Pittsburgh. Demchak didn’t hesitate. He, in turn, went to David Holmberg at Highmark Health and, along with David Burritt at U.S. Steel and then-Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, put the plan in motion.
Organized labor and the trades also helped make it all happen. As did buy-in from Shapiro, who told the Washington Examiner that he chased down Goodell during the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs 2023 Super Bowl in Arizona, “and just relentlessly pushed for the draft to happen in Pittsburgh.” Shapiro brought state funds to help rejuvenate a crumbling city core, which led to Thursday night’s success.
Geography also played a critical role in the day’s success. Pittsburgh is a four-hour drive from D.C., Buffalo, and Baltimore; Cleveland and Columbus are within three hours; and New York City and Cincinnati are five hours away. All are also only an hour flight away.
“We are at the nexus of what defines Pittsburgh in Western Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said as he stood on the third floor of the CMU Robotics Institute, which is built on top of the former Hazelwood Works Steel mill, itself surrounded by former mills now repurposed into education hubs for robotics and AI. “Steel-making, which, by the way, even though this steel mill is being converted, we are still a proud manufacturer of steel here in Western Pennsylvania, thanks to U.S. Steel continuing to build deep roots here.”
Shapiro looked around at Hazelwood Green, the urban space where he was speaking. And he noted how remarkable it was that an industry whose epitaph had been written by many local elected officials and a community that had been decaying for decades were now the story at the heart of the city’s future.
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“Here you’ve got a converted steel mill next to a place that’s the center of AI development and attached to a football field called U.S. Steel Community Field,” he said. “Now, the Steelers aren’t playing on that football field — though they very much define Western Pennsylvania — but the next generation of Steelers may be playing on it.”
He continued: “U.S. Steel Community Field demonstrates how integrally involved the business community is, along with labor and our foundations, in things that get done here in Western Pennsylvania.”
Shapiro said that Hazelwood Green is sort of the epicenter of the story that they’re trying to tell. “The draft, it’s been about football, but really what it’s been about is a catalyst to drive this type of development and growth and change in the community so that long after the draft is over, we are going to continue to see the economic development effects, the educational effects, the community effects of what this draft represents.”
