An event organizer with a history of clashing with Pittsburgh officials is once again at odds with the city, accusing it of slow-walking his permit application to host 100 Black vendors Downtown for the NFL 2026 Draft.
William “B” Marshall is alleging the city, a Downtown nonprofit and the NFL are blocking his efforts. He alleged a “conspiracy” against him.
But the city says it’s hardly singling Marshall out.
While Pittsburgh officials have not ruled on his permit application, the city hasn’t issued event permits to anyone in Downtown or the North Shore during the three days of the draft next month.
The April 23-25 draft, the NFL’s marquee off-season event, is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of football fans to Pittsburgh.
Marshall, the architect of successful Juneteenth celebrations in Pittsburgh, claimed that leaders at the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership and the NFL told him similar events at previous drafts had not been successful.
The partnership’s president, Jeremy Waldrup, declined to comment Tuesday. An NFL spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Marshall wanted his event permit for all three days of the draft. The vendors he envisioned would be set up on Liberty Avenue in Downtown and in Market Square.
The city said it offered Marshall the option of moving the date or location of his proposed event.
“Mr. Marshall has been made aware that a denial of his selected location and dates is a possibility following the NFL’s final walkthroughs this week,” Cara Cruz, a public safety spokeswoman, said.
But Marshall wants to know why a decision is taking so long. He said Tuesday that he initially applied for an event permit in October. City officials told him they needed time to figure out what the draft footprint would look like and what roads or public spaces might be impacted.
“I thought that’s reasonable,” Marshall told TribLive Tuesday. “They need to know what’s going on with the draft before they can process the application.”
Even if the city were to approve his permits now, Marshall said, he might not have enough time to secure sponsors or ensure vendors are prepared.
“It’s really disheartening,” Marshall said.
A notice on the city’s website says its Office of Film & Event Management is not accepting applications for event permits for areas near the draft footprint “due to the needs of draft-related events, and to maintain traffic and security considerations.”
Blackout dates run from April 1 through May 17 for areas near Acrisure Stadium in the North Shore and from April 18 through May 8 for Downtown, including all parks and rights of way bounded by the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers and Interstate 579.
Cruz said the city moved Marshall’s application to “More Info Needed” status in early November, giving him the option to change the dates or location. It remains under that status, Cruz said.
Fractious history
Marshall has clashed with the city over permits before. He took Pittsburgh to court to settle a permitting debacle ahead of his Juneteenth event last year, which ended when the city granted his event permit less than a week before the holiday.
Marshall last year sued the city and then-Mayor Ed Gainey, alleging the mayor withheld funding and delayed permits for his events.
The previous year, he and Gainey hosted dueling Juneteenth events.
“They have a history of this,” Marshall said of his struggles to obtain a permit. “This is a mechanism the city uses to discourage people from participating in our events and to disrupt — sabotage — our events.”
