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
About 5 pounds of bees removed from Acrisure Stadium scaffolding ahead of Morgan Wallen concerts
Acrisure Stadium is buzzing with excitement ahead of the back-to-back Morgan Wallen concerts. Except it’s not the fans generating all the excitement — it’s about 5 pounds of honeybees.
The Fine Family Apiary in Monongahela said it was contacted on Wednesday about a swarm of bees clustered on the stage scaffolding. The apiary put the swarm in a “nuc box” and took them home before moving the bees into full-size equipment.
Owner Al Fine estimates the swarm weighed about 4 to 5 pounds and consisted of 12,000 to 15,000 bees. All said, it took less than two hours to get the job done.
Why do bees swarm?
Swarming is how honeybees propagate, Fine explained. According to Penn State Extension, during swarming, the queen and about half the workers leave their home to establish a new nest. The bees will form a temporary cluster, hanging out while scouts search the surrounding area for a more permanent home in hollow spaces like tree cavities or, occasionally, the walls of a home.
Swarms can stick around for several hours or days until they’re ready to move, Penn State Extension says. Meanwhile, the colony left behind is temporarily without a leader until a new queen is established.
With the swarm at Acrisure Stadium removed, Morgan Wallen’s show is ready to go on. The country music megastar will bring his I’m The Problem Tour to Pittsburgh on June 5 and June 6, along with multiple acts like Brooks & Dunn and Ella Langley.
On Sept. 17, multi-platinum country music star Luke Bryan will bring his Farm Tour to 1846 Farms near Latrobe.
Westmoreland County is no stranger to large outdoor concerts. Some may remember the Rolling Rock Town Fair in the early 2000s, while others may recall Luke Bryan’s stop at a farm in South Huntingdon Township just two years ago. Now the country music superstar is returning to the area.
The Unity Township farm’s general manager, Aleisha Stas, gave KDKA a tour of the family farm, which dates back to before the Civil War. She says Bryan’s team first reached out after finding the farm on social media, but she says at first, she and her family thought it was too good to be true.
“This was around April Fools, so we thought it was an April Fools prank,” Stas said. “My whole family, we were like, there’s no way this is about to happen. But this has been incredible.”
Stas says Bryan’s team is handling everything logistically from parking and bathrooms to deciding exactly where the concert will be staged.
“If we have it on this side of the property, we can hold 12,000 people,” Stas said. “And if we have it on (the other side) of the property, it can be up to 20,000. But we have not determined that yet.”
Many of those decisions will be made as September gets closer. In the meantime, however, the farm is holding off on planting in certain fields until the final concert location is selected.
And while hosting thousands of people may sound a little intimidating, Stas says her family is excited to welcome fans to the farm for what they hope will be a memorable night.
“Obviously, we’ve never had this many people here before, so it will be a new thing for all of us, but we are not worried,” said Stas. “Luke Bryan’s team are experts with this, and I think it will go great.”
Tickets for this concert are currently on sale, and they will run you about $77 per person, plus tax for general admission.
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