The NFL draft has set a new attendance record.
The official number for the Pittsburgh road show was 805,000. That breaks the record set by Detroit in 2024, which had 775,000 in attendance.
The total attendance always merits some context, even if the NFL would like to create the impression that 805,000 different people made the pilgrimage to Pittsburgh for the draft. For starters, plenty of people who attended on Thursday attended on Friday. Plenty who attended on Friday attended on Saturday.
Also, each time a person enters the perimeter of the draft area, they’re counted again. Coming and going (which surely happens during the Saturday marathon) pumps up the final number with the same person being counted multiple times the same day.
It’s still an impressive showing. But the official number overstates it. (And it’s OK to point that out, because it’s true.)
The NFL has no reason to not seize on the biggest figure. It creates the impression that the draft is something worth attending, and that anyone who doesn’t is missing out. Which gets more people to decide that, next year, they’d better not miss it again.
The three-day breakdown in Pittsburgh was 320,000, 280,000, and 205,000. If not for rain during the early hours of Saturday’s session, the number surely would have been higher.
The record may not stand for long. The method that leads to the same person being counted multiple times could lead to a million or more next year, when the draft is held on the National Mall in D.C. If there are multiple points of entry and exit, folks who stream in and out throughout the three rounds will keep driving the official tally higher and higher.
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