Best locations in Pittsburgh to place the 2026 NFL Draft festivities

The city of Pittsburgh is buzzing after the NFL announced that the Steel City will host the 2026 NFL Draft. It will take place either in late April or the first couple of days in May. We still have to learn a lot of details about the draft in Pittsburgh. The first step was learning which year it would be in Pittsburgh, now comes the part of actually planning it.

It should be a Pittsburgh love fest no matter if the Steelers are doing well or not. Expect tons of things to be highlighted by the city other than just the football team. It is a beautiful city and there are tons of great locations to hold the draft in 2026. The city has some time to plan, but the draft would be best if they selected one of the locations on this list.

Point State Park will likely be a part of the plans for Pittsburgh

Here is the obvious choice of where to hold the NFL Draft in 2026. Point State Park is iconic in the city and provides a tremendous landscape for this event. It has tons of room to pack people to the gills, but finding a location for prospects to sit in a green room could be a little tricky. There are some issues with using the point for this event.

Traffic and parking might get tougher if the point is used. There isn't an abundant amount of parking locations, so people would likely have to park further away and walk over to the park. It would be a tremendous view of the fountain while prospects walk to meet the commissioner on stage with Acrisure in the background. Hopefully, the weather holds up and the point doesn't flood.

The Northshore will probably be a big factor for the 2026 NFL Draft

Two locations already being thrown out as likely options are Point State Park and the Northshore. For those who don't know, the Northshore is where Acrisure Stadium is, which is the home of the Steelers. It would make sense to have it on the Northshore, or even potentially spread from the Northshore and across the river to the point.

There is a good number of parking locations on the Northshore, but it would be interesting to see where the city of Pittsburgh would envision the draft taking place. Perhaps around stage AE or right in front of the stadium itself. The views would likely not be the best unless the city found a way to place the draft over the hill across from the stadium and near the river to get a nice shot of the Pittsburgh skyline in the background.

They could aways find seating by shoving the draft in the stadium

One idea, which won't be too popular would be having the NFL Draft in Acrisure Stadium. It would tarnish a ton of amazing views the city has to offer, but it would give the draft plenty of options. It would also give fans in attendance tons of seating room. Again, having it in the stadium would provide a football atmosphere, but it would take away from the sights of the city.

It seems like the actual stadium would be best used by having some sort of interactive events for the fans in attendance to keep them entertained until their favorite team's next pick. If the draft were to be held in Acrisure, it would be somewhat disappointing as the city would be giving up on showing the beautiful shots of the city. Would be easier to design for the actual event but would also take away from the host city.

Fun idea of having the NFL Draft afloat on the rivers of Pittsburgh

Let's get a little crazy here with our final installment on this list. What is one thing that makes Pittsburgh unique? Their bond with fireworks and the gateway clipper. What do you need to fire off those fireworks on the rivers? A barge. How about we go crazy and have the draftees walk across a stage on a boat with people watching from the point? You can get a ton of unique shots with that. It would be nothing anyone has ever seen before.

You could include the fireworks by shooting off a small array of colored flames into the air that matches those with the team and prospect that just got selected. It would be a very Pittsburgh-looking thing, but you would have to doll up some ships to not make it look trashy. The three rivers are one of the unique things about Pittsburgh and adding a flare to the NFL Draft would be the best course of action.