Pittsburg, PA
Report: Detroit Received $213 Million NFL Draft Windfall As Pittsburgh Prepares For 2026
One of the best decisions the NFL has made over the last several years was taking the annual NFL Draft on the road. It was hosted in New York City from 1965 to 2014 before a two-year stint in Chicago. Since then, they have moved from city to city, drawing huge in-person audiences. Detroit hosted the 2024 NFL Draft and broke the attendance records for the event with 775,000 fans over three days.
Visit Detroit and the Detroit Sports Commission issued a report that added up the city’s total revenue, which came in at a whopping $213 million, per WILX News.
The NFL announced in late May that Pittsburgh was awarded the 2026 draft, so seeing the type of economic impact Detroit achieved is pretty exciting for the city. The initial estimate just days after the event in Detroit was $165 million, and even those lofty calculations were surpassed by nearly 30 percent.
It is the sum of all the hotel bookings, food and merch sales, vendors supporting the event, sales tax revenue, and everything else that comes with an influx of nearly a million people in a city’s downtown area.
When the event was hosted in tier-one cities like Chicago and New York City, it would draw crowds of 200,000 or so. The move to tier 2 and 3 cities in smaller markets with more dedicated sports fan bases has caused a boom in attendance. Three of the most-attended drafts were Nashville (692,000 population), Las Vegas (656,000), and Detroit (620,000).
That trend of success in smaller cities will be put to the test in Green Bay in 2025, with a population of 106,000. They have a rich football history in that region, but it is also pretty far out of the way of population centers in the country. Their success could be a good sign for Pittsburgh, which has a population of 303,000.
The NFL repeatedly cited Pittsburgh’s geographic proximity to other major sports and football markets as a reason for choosing the city. The turnout could be even higher than the 350,000 attendance estimate that Pittsburgh officials gave to WPXI’s Jenna Harner in May, shortly after the announcement.
“We’re estimating there’ll be over 300 to 350,000 visitors that would come to Pittsburgh, putting an economic impact anywhere from 100 million to $150 million,” Allegheny County Exec Rich Fitzgerald told Harner. “And that’s, I think, being actually somewhat conservative.”
Pittsburgh hosting the draft will be a massive cultural event for the city. It will also bring a large economic boost to local businesses and provide tax revenue to help fund improvements for the city.
Pittsburg, PA
Radio host says Pittsburgh Steelers should make this shocking move: ‘They need to start over’
The Pittsburgh Steelers are 10-6 and have now lost control of the AFC North as they head into the postseason. Their postseason berth is already clinched, so they have nothing to worry about there, but if they want to win their first playoff game in over a decade, many things need to be fixed.
Yet, one analyst says this recent stretch proves it’s time for the Steelers to blow it up entirely. Jason McIntyre says the Steelers should trade T.J. Watt and hit the reset button because it is what the team needs.
“I took a lot of heat when I said over the offseason the Steelers should trade T.J. Watt and start over, but I wasn’t wrong,” McIntyre said. “I was just early. I looked for nine or 10 weeks, but this team needs to start over.”
When McIntyre suggested the offseason, it was to the tune of the Steelers landing multiple first-round picks that would allow them to cobble together enough capital to land a franchise quarterback in the draft.
That is what McIntyre believes is ultimately holding the Steelers back from contention, placing much of the blame at the feet of Russell Wilson. Even still, the Steelers are not going to trade Watt and believe they can win a Super Bowl with him.
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Pittsburg, PA
Pirates Star Was Nearly Two-Sport Athlete In College
Life nearly took a very different turn for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Andrew McCutchen.
McCutchen went on Mookie Betts’ podcast on Bleacher Report, On Base With Mookie Betts. In the episode, the Pirates star revealed that he had an offer from the University of Miami to play football and baseball on a full-ride scholarship. McCutchen said he hadn’t played football since his sophomore season after he suffered a torn ACL in his sophomore year of high school playing the sport.
McCutchen said he considered the offer from Miami but eventually decided to stick with baseball knowing that was a strong chance he’d be drafted in the first round of the MLB Draft. That eventually came to fruition when the Pirates drafted him with the No. 11 overall pick in the first round of the 2005 MLB Draft out of Fort Meade High School in FL.
“I get a phone call from the head coach for our high school football team,” McCutchen said. “He calls me [and] he goes, ‘Hey, congratulations. Miami called [and] they want to give you an offer. They want to offer you. I’m like, ‘What?’ [He said] they you want to give a full ride to play football. And I sat there and I’m like I ain’t played football in two years. I was kind of in shock, and I was like, ‘Nah, man, I’m getting drafted.’”
Had McCutchen not been taken in the first round of the MLB Draft, he said he would have gone to college and likely would have tried to play football and baseball collegiately. McCutchen had signed a Letter of Intent to play at the University of Florida before he was drafted by Pittsburgh.
Drafting McCutchen has proven to be one of the Pirates’ best decisions in franchise history. McCutchen, 38, has amassed a 42.7 Wins Above Replacement and has batted .284/.375/.475 with 235 home runs and 818 RBIs over his 11 seasons in Pittsburgh. McCutchen ranks among the franchise’s all-time great players, ranking in the top 10 in Wins Above Replacement, games played, at-bats, home runs, RBIs, hits, doubles and total bases.
McCutchen is also a former MVP, five-time All-Star, four-time Silver Slugger, Gold Glove winner, and winner of the prestigious Roberto Clemente Award in 2015. The Pirates legend is set to return for a 12th season with the franchise after agreeing to a one-year, $5 million deal on Monday.
Make sure to visit Pirates OnSI for the latest news, updates, interviews and insight on the Pittsburgh Pirates
Pittsburg, PA
Ireland Contracting Nightly Sports Call: Dec. 25, 2024
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