Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Every city that hosts the NFL Draft is accustomed to welcoming an influx of football fans on a regular basis. However, that event tends to attract significantly more people than a typical game, and schools in Pittsburgh will be shutting down for a few days when it descends upon the city next month.
2026 marks the 90th anniversary of the first-ever NFL Draft, which was a fairly low-key affair that was held in a hotel in Philadelphia.
Those venues remained the central hub for the selection spree in the various cities that hosted it in the ensuing decades before New York became the permanent location in 1965. It was televised for the first time in 1980, but it was still held in relatively tiny rooms until it was moved to the theater under Madison Square Garden in 1995 prior to entering another new era when Radio City Music Hall was tapped as its new home in 2006.
What was once an event that was largely reserved for team executives has transformed into a multi-day extravaganza that now attracts hundreds of thousands of fans on an annual basis, and it’s been close to a decade since the NFL made the decision to abandon NYC and bring the draft to a different city each year.
In 2026, Pittsburgh will serve as the host for the first time since 1947, and it will be dealing with significantly more logistical issues than it did more than 75 years ago.
Schools in Pittsburgh will be closed for three days due to the NFL Draft
The NFL Draft was still in its Smoky Hotel Ballroom Era the last time it headed to Pittsburgh, as the Fort Pitt Hotel served as the site of the gathering that kicked off on December 19, 1947.
It’s still not entirely clear what this year’s event is going to look like. However, it appears it will be taking place in the North Shore (where Acrisure Stadium is located) and harnessing land at Point State Park for the main stage as well as the “Draft Experience” fans who head there will be able to take advantage of.
The three-day affair will officially get underway on April 23rd, and according to WTAE, the city is expecting to welcome between 500,000 and 700,000 people who will be stimulating the economy of the Steel City while also creating plenty of headaches for residents and officials tasked with handling the crowd.
That includes Wayne Walters, the superintendent of Pittsburgh Public Schools, who announced all in-person learning will be canceled for three days from Wednesday, April 22nd to Friday, April 24th due to “accessibility, transportation, and safety” concerns related to the draft.
As much as I would like to tell you that means kids in the city will get to miss school for three days because of the NFL Draft, they will simply be switching to virtual learning with remote classes online until heading back to school the following Monday.
Alas.