Salena Zito

Despite having moved away for nearly 20 years, when you’ve called Pittsburgh home for any length of time, two things often happen: You want to come back to raise your children, and you want to be part of something, big or small, that makes it better.

Bill Demchak wanted to do both, and as CEO of PNC Financial Services, he had the ability to make a big impact. Since returning in 2002 to the city where he grew up, he has been doing exactly that, quietly and consistently.

It was the fall of 2022, and the city was struggling to recover from COVID-19, poor governance, a growing homeless encampment that continued to expand despite efforts to house its residents, and a police force still reeling from the effects of the defund-the-police movement. Together, those forces fueled an exodus of people, businesses and hope from the city’s downtown core.

Rich Fitzgerald, then the county executive, said Pittsburgh Steelers President Art Rooney II approached him about organizing a meeting around an ambitious idea: bringing the NFL draft to Pittsburgh. The challenge was that it would require civic leaders to raise the money needed to make a serious pitch to the NFL and improve Pittsburgh’s chances of landing the event.

Fitzgerald brought into his office Steelers Executive Vice President David Morehouse, representatives from Visit Pittsburgh, and Steelers Vice President of Business Development Dan Rooney III. They all knew that pulling it off would require millions of dollars and more than a year of planning just to persuade the NFL to bring the draft to Pittsburgh. But the payoff would be worth it: four days in the international spotlight and a chance to remind outsiders that Pittsburgh is not just a place to visit but a place to live, call home and even start a business.

The first person to open his checkbook did not hesitate. Demchak was all in, pledging $5 million. Business circles still tell the story that Art Rooney was so surprised by how quickly he agreed that he joked he should have asked for $10 million. Fitzgerald said Pittsburgh is very fortunate to have Demchak, along with his predecessor Jim Rohr, at the helm in the region.

Demchak was raised in suburban Pittsburgh, though his father’s work as a salesman moved the family around for several years before they finally settled there when he was in grade school. After college and a successful run at JPMorgan, he returned to Pittsburgh in 2002 to join PNC as chief financial officer.

Demchak said the national spotlight will be on the city, and there is no denying that Pittsburgh is a beautiful postcard city from afar. But a strong showing from the city’s leading companies, including PNC, UPMC, Highmark, PPG and U.S. Steel, will be essential to selling Pittsburgh’s future.

“The whole reason the city held together in the ’70s was because of the Steelers. They lifted the city up while the city was economically imploding,” Demchak said of the era when half of the city’s population left for jobs elsewhere when manufacturing collapsed.

Back then, the Steelers were the only thing in Pittsburgh that seemed to be winning.

“When Art (Rooney) called and said ‘Hey, we need your help on this,’ we were in immediately,” he said.

What made it even more meaningful to Demchak was that the draft dates lined up with so much of the work underway to remake downtown, from Market Square and Arts Alive to the renovation of the Point.

The 2026 NFL draft in Pittsburgh, scheduled for April 23-25, is expected to draw between 500,000 and 800,000 attendees over the three days, with daily crowds of roughly 100,000 to 200,000. Organizers believe the numbers will surpass attendance at recent drafts in Detroit and Green Bay, Wisconsin.

The event will show the world just how much the city has diversified economically. Steel remains an important industry, but robotics, energy, AI, finance and health care are now also major drivers of growth and job creation.

People will also see the cultural institutions that make Pittsburgh so distinctive. Demchak said that is why he immediately said yes. The city is ready to shine, he argued, and now it is time to show that to everyone else, and to ourselves as well.