{"id":274782,"date":"2026-08-29T18:02:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T18:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/274782\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T18:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T18:02:15","slug":"colin-mcnickle-about-those-nfl-draft-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/274782\/","title":{"rendered":"Colin McNickle: About those NFL Draft numbers \u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

VisitPittsburgh\u2019s<\/a> estimate of a $177 million economic impact from the city\u2019s hosting of the NFL Draft is not independently verifiable, says a researcher at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy all accounts the three-day event went well,\u201d says Jake Haulk, president-emeritus of the Pittsburgh think tank. \u201cRecently, an estimate of the economic impact was released by a firm which has done similar studies for other cities that have hosted the NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuccinctly, the report indicates the draft and related activities produced $177 million in economic activity. The important question: Is the $177 million estimate of economic benefits reasonable?\u201d he asks.<\/p>\n

And the answer is it\u2019s difficult to determine given the paucity of study details.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause only a short summary of the underlying economic analysis was provided by VisitPittsburgh, well after the company\u2019s release of the three-day impact, it is not known what specific assumptions the study made and what variables were used in calculating the impact,\u201d Haulk says.<\/p>\n

While some numbers can be gleaned to gauge the draft\u2019s economic impact, more technically known as \u201cvalue-added,\u201d they only represent a small fraction of the claimed benefits.<\/p>\n

Haulk says that in April 2025, hotel tax collections were $3.8 million, representing $54.3 million in hotel revenue. In April 2026, the hotel tax brought in $4.8 million, representing $68.6 million in revenue for an increase over April 2025 of $14.6 million.<\/p>\n

But, \u201cIf all the increase in monthly hotel revenue was attributable to the three days of the draft, that would amount to only 8.3% of the impact report\u2019s estimated $177 million,\u201d he reminds.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s retail sales tax collections. An April 2026 increase is below the average percentage change and even further below the March 2026 increase in tax revenue, show data from the Regional Asset District<\/a> (RAD).<\/p>\n

\u201cMany factors could have led to the weaker April growth compared to a year earlier, but it remains significant that the much talked about NFL Draft that attracted so many people to the North Shore\/Downtown in April produced slower than average monthly growth in sales tax revenue than the other first five months of 2026,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

As far as the city\u2019s parking tax goes, April 2026 revenue was 8.9% lower than in April 2025 \u2014 and that is with the higher rates charged by parking garage operators during draft week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis supports the conclusion that fewer people drove into the city, during not just the three draft days, but most of that week, likely reducing retail sales in areas just outside the draft footprint such as the Strip District, Lawrenceville and the South Side,\u201d Haulk says.<\/p>\n

And he reminds that while the NFL Draft saw a large number of people attend the event (800,000 estimated), it is likely that the majority were repeat attendees, so the number of different people was likely far lower.<\/p>\n

Free Pittsburgh Regional Transit fares bolstered PRT\u2019s ridership numbers. About $14 million from the taxpayer kitty was used to support the draft. <\/p>\n

\u201cBased solely on economic measures, the NFL Draft had little positive impact on city or county revenues in April 2026 compared to hoped-for gains,\u201d Haulk says. \u201cIt was a three-day event. That is only 10% of the month.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haulk says the only real lasting impact from the draft will be felt in the change in growth rates for population and jobs in the city and county in the next few years.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut as mentioned in an earlier Policy Brief, that hasn\u2019t happened to many other cities after their turn as host. As predicted, any significant economic gains to the city or county were just a temporary upturn,\u201d Haulk concludes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VisitPittsburgh\u2019s estimate of a $177 million economic impact from the city\u2019s hosting of the NFL Draft is not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-274782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}