Pittsburgh hotels still have availability for the NFL draft. Here's why leaders expect a surge in bookings.
With the NFL Draft less than two weeks away, the latest available data shows that, on average, nearly 60% of Allegheny County hotel rooms for the draft have been booked, according to the chairperson of Visit Pittsburgh's Board of Directors.
KDKA went looking for whether the surprising number of available hotel rooms is a sign that draft attendance for the three-day event would be lower than the 500,000 to 800,000 people expected to come to the city. What KDKA found has a lot more to do with that number than the actual number of hotel rooms still available.
Hotels for NFL draft in Pittsburgh
Perry Ivery, the board chair of Visit Pittsburgh and general manager of the 167-room Oaklander Hotel, shared the latest data, which was as of April 1, with KDKA. It showed nearly 60% of the county's roughly 19,000 hotel rooms have been booked for the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of the draft.
The highest occupancy is Thursday, when nearly 68% of rooms are booked so far, Ivery said.
"Historically, in NFL draft events, there's a surge in reservations 30 days out, with 20% being the last week," Ivery said, adding they are seeing the same pattern as they did for last year's U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club. "We're still optimistic within the next two weeks that there's going to be a surge in bookings."
He added that as of right now, people can still book a room at a reasonable price. A quick search of a hotel booking website will turn up dozens of hotels with available rooms in the Pittsburgh area. Ivery's hotel, the Oaklander, has just a few rooms still available for the draft.
"We're very excited for the NFL draft," Ivery said. "We've been planning for years."
Ivery said 20% of travelers to Pittsburgh are expected to stay at short-term rentals, while 80% are expected to stay at hotels.
How many hotel rooms are in the Pittsburgh area?
The Pittsburgh region has roughly 40,000 rooms, while Allegheny County has roughly 19,000, Ivery said.
The contrast between the number of hotel rooms and the expected number of people coming for the draft was something KDKA asked then-mayor Ed Gainey in a May 2024 interview.
"Do we have space to house 1 million people?" KDKA's Ricky Sayer asked.
"I believe we do," Gainey said.
NFL draft attendance numbers explained
Gainey had predicted 1 million people would come to the city for the draft, while others, including Visit Pittsburgh, shared numbers between 500,000 and 800,000.
"Anywhere between 500,000 and 800,000 — that's an aggregate over three days," Ivery said.
Ivery explained that the estimates are provided by the NFL and historical data. A source familiar with the city's draft planning told KDKA that the NFL tabulates draft attendees by counting each time someone goes through draft security and enters the draft footprint.
That means not only is someone who goes to all three days of the draft counted as three people in the 500,000 to 800,000 estimates, it means if they, for instance, exited the draft to grab a beer then came back in or walked across the Clemente Bridge to get from one side of the draft experience to the other, they are counted as an additional attendee in the NFL's overall aggregate.
The same source said they expect 100,000 to 200,000 people each day during the draft. When you combine 200,000 over three days, that's how you get an estimate in the 600,000 range.
The 100,000 to 200,000 people at the draft each day, the source added, is closer to a crowd for Picklesburgh or a Steelers championship parade.
The draft footprint itself, including both sides of the Allegheny River, can only hold a little more than a football stadium, the source said, roughly 80,00 to 90,000 people. They recognize that some people believe the draft, due to sheer volume, could cripple the city, but at the numbers they shared, they don't think that will happen.
