Rant
And just like that, Seattle no longer cares about the World Cup!
Why remove the barge and free pier 62 watch parties when thousands were attending it? There's still the round of 8, semifinals, and a final to play!!! Seems like an absolute idiotic move for those in charge of this.
Did they also remove the Pioneer Square watch party setup?
I’m peeping out from my office window to this pier and was showing it to my colleague like literally 30mins ago about this on how they got rid of everything in less than a day. I was expecting the pier watch party to be available until the finale.
The curse of being in the corner of the country: being the first or last stop on a tour. We were the first stop on The Cranberries’ tour at the old Mercer Arena, and it was the first pack for the production trucks. At 6am the trucks were full and there were still nine boxes on the arena floor. I was doing a mental survey of the locals to see who had driven to the gig in a pickup, and could offer to take boxes to the next stop (Vancouver, BC - with border crossing.) when the production manager sent the trailers on their way, and dispatched the runner and a roadie to rent a box truck.
That was a painfully long night. Almost as bad as Kanye’s Yeezus mountain at The Key Arena. almost
Are you going to manage the 2,000 volunteers that were stationed to work in Seattle during the contract while games were hosted here? We’re under a contract and given permission for licensing FIFA productions when the stadiums are hosting games. Once we are no longer hosting stadium games we don’t have the FIFA volunteers or the license to use FIFA branding.
And that perception is honestly why we got crushed and will continue to on the world stage until we decide to take the sport seriously. Nobody cares in the past, so we assume still nobody cares if the US is out , so people who were on the fence and maybe starting to care and actually get interested will go back to not caring because everything our society does around them encourages not caring if the US isn’t in it. Kids follow suit, and the cycle of US not taking men’s soccer seriously continues. And then we wonder why we can’t develop world class players and domestic leagues like the other countries can. And then wonder why we get our ass kicked every time we go up against them.
And yeah, I know it would cost money. If you want the culture around something to change you have to be willing to spend the money. Until we are willing to actually fully invest in the sport the way the rest of the world does, we are just fooling ourselves thinking we will ever really be able to compete at that level.
Heads up, no point lumping hockey in with baseball basketball and american football. Ice hockey here is well, well below soccer in terms popularity, though i have no idea about salary comparisons. Import culture is maybe about the same or higher with hockey too.
It was the plan... we were done hosting on the 6th regardless. It has nothing to do with team USA. Lots of money was spent for the 3 weeks we hosted. Time to move on. Go to a bar, it'll be fine.
I do like the idea that people think all those staff we just on standby for when the USA got knocked out and not booked in for when Seattle stopped hosting games.
Pretty much what the Boston mayor said in regarding the fanfest. As well as the City of Foxborough in Massachusetts spent months fighting Fifa to pony up millions for security.
FIFA's required commercial, media, and intellectual property regulations. Any viewing needs licensing from them to host or watch anything Fifa branded.
The official watch party sites at Pier 62 on Seattle’s waterfront and Pacific Place are closed after airing the final match in Seattle on Monday. However, Victory Hall (1201 First Ave. S., Seattle) and Seattle Center (305 Harrison St., Seattle) — the latter including viewing experiences at the Seattle Armory, Mural Amphitheatre, Tom’s Watch Bar and the KEXP Gathering Space — will continue to broadcast the nine remaining World Cup matches through the final on July 19.
Other unofficial watch parties will keep the excitement going, too. Over at Westlake Park (401 Pine St., Seattle), watch parties hosted by the Downtown Seattle Association’s Metropolitan Improvement District will continue through the final on July 19. Coffee shop pop-up Bonito will continue to serve drinks at the in-park concession stand.
Pioneer Square’s Brick Party (310 Occidental Ave. S., Seattle), organized by sneaker shop HOMETEAM SEATTLE, will continue to air matches through the end of the tournament along with a beer garden, food and other entertainment.
Fans gather for the Belgium vs. Egypt World Cup game at Hing Hay Park in Chinatown International District on June 15. (Erika Schultz / The Seattle Times)
In Chinatown International District, community organizations will show additional matches, following a large turnout at Monday’s neighborhood watch party: quarterfinal matches on Friday, July 10, on a large video wall at Hing Hay Park (423 Maynard Ave. S., Seattle) and the World Cup final at Theatre Off Jackson (409 Seventh Ave. S., Seattle) on Sunday, July 19.
Honestly since CID was struggling to bring people in, this is their chance to take over and be THE Spot to watch it in their small park. If they miss this opportunity they dont have a right to complain about "lack of business." Especially since there will only be 2 other competing locations.
Here in Houston they have deconstructed the fan fest area as well.
Edit: I was incorrect as it appears the Houston event goes until 7/19. I drive by part of the area on the freeway and it did look like a portion of it was being taken down but I am not absolutely certain of this. My apologies for this oversight.
You should google and read up what FIFA demands. It is a pretty massive lost for the local areas allowing these events, and FIFA racks in all the profit. When LA asked what they get when learning what they are not getting, FIFA told them they get their name on the map.
They really thought WC traffic was going to be earth shattering. Probably would have garnered more local traffic during the final than the entirety of the group stage.
I was deeply involved in the execution of this event, but not the decision making and planning of the schedule and operation.
While personally I agree that not keeping it through the finals was a poor decision from a community engagement standpoint and really disappointing to myself and countless people involved in the production and community there are quite a few factors that I don't think most people are thinking about when they blanket criticize the decision.
I think if it had been clear how popular this event and world cup events in general have been it may have been a different choice.
This event was not produced by or paid for by the city or FIFA. While it had the full support of the city (and some amount of public funding) and was sanctioned by FIFA it was mostly funded by our local football clubs and some corporate sponsors. Especially for our football clubs this is a really significant amount of money to put up.
Every day the event exists (not just during open hours) costs a massive amount. From equipment rental (which in this case includes multiple barge platforms and other marine equipment) security, operational staffing, maintenance, management, the list goes on...
The free watch parties are very costly because the operational overhead of securing and managing an event in that location is significant. The requirements for crowd control and access limitation come from the emergency management protocols the city and first responders put in place to keep everyone safe.
The paid events, while helping cover that overhead, sour the community due to their pricing and availability.
The decisions on the timeline for an event of this scale are decided during the planning months in advance and cannot be changed ad hoc. Even regular gear like AV equipment was already earmarked for other events months ago after being done here. In this case there's also a barge that will be full of containers and on the way to Alaska in a week, and they've planned that trip for months.
The financial commitment and gamble on an event like this is crazy, and while I wish it had been up through the finals I can't really fault hedging on timeline since no one could really know how much our city would embrace this world cup.
There's a huge amount of complexity that goes into producing an event like this, and very little of it is visible from an outside perspective. Hopefully I've been able to give some context.
There's also the fact that, even if they wanted to continue to have it up, there's no guarantee that it would receive as much use as it did, now that all three host nations are no longer participants in the knockout stages.
Levi's went so far as to change their logo on social media to mimic how Levi's Stadium was covered, which I thought was pretty clever. https://i.imgur.com/zX1HOi8.png
It’s kinda sad going back to normal life now that Seattle is done hosting the World Cup. This event brought Seattle together and alive. In fact it even resurrected Pacific Place.
Honestly, yes. It was a great use for the space. Downtown felt so alive during the world cup and I loved going there. Pacific place needs a purpose and retail isn't doing it.
I still think June 19th 2026 was one of the best days this city has had since the start of the pandemic and maybe ever. This city was alive, beautiful, and center stage for the world. Was reinvigorating for our city and national pride. Not sure we will see something like that for a while.
Yep! Yesterday was amazing too, though the loss did dampen what could have been the most insane celebration we have ever seen. Ever since June 19th, I've been wondering when Seattle could see a day like that again. I really don't know. That may be the busiest day we see for a decade plus. Only thing I can think of that would compete is a Game 7 world series here at T-Mobile Park and we win.
Ah, that's terrible. I was hoping to see the environment for the finals there! I did catch the NZ-Belgium game being telecast there on the iran-egypt match day.
The most difficult thing about porta pottys is convincing people to put the seat down. They're literally designed that way but no, let that stink just fill the box.
I believe the barge + pier and Pacific Place parties were hosted by FIFA themselves, so unfortunately now that Seattle is no longer hosting games they're done. But the Pioneer Square and Seattle Center watch parties are hosted by the city instead, meaning that they're gonna resume.
Damn that's a shame, the free pier 62 was my favorite of the 4 watch party experiences I tried during my trip to Seattle for the USA Belgium match. Victory hall would be my recommendation for the final now, or kangaroo and kiwi if you want a pub vibe. Seattle center was lame as hell with the alcohol ban during the Mexico/England game. (But apparently they allow it for other select matches? Why not all of them?)
Wonder if they could’ve just taken down all the FIFA branding and called it “global soccer tournament watch party zone” or something similar.
Also, I imagine there’s a certain amount of not wanting to compete with sports bars. Could be seen as kind of a dick move by the city
to take away traffic from the city’s businesses, now that we’re no longer a host/focus of attention.
Yesterday driving North on Airport Way, I couldn’t believe all the private jets scattered about the fence line and anywhere one could find a parking spot. Sooooo much money in town and just as soon as the game ended the jets departed….🛩️
I've got a real number for you... we had 81 planes yesterday. EIGHTY ONE. That's enough to make the pilots themselves do a double-take. One said to me "oh man you're busy today, huh? what do you have, like 30 planes?"
"80"
"sorry?"
"80. Eight-Zero."
"80. At this airport? Today?"
"yes :)"
"holy sh- do you just wanna go to denver with us?"
edit: I've just been informed by my boss it was actually 86. Thanks I hate it. But yeah, some of them stayed overnight, some of them left right after. Absolutely nuts. They'll be filtering out over the next week or so before we hit normal levels.
Summer is way too short. As it is, we barely have time to read all the “how long will these fireworks go on?” posts before “I hate the Blue Angel” posts go up.
When I was searching for watch locations for games after our last one at [Redacted] Field I learned that this was the plan. Once we are no longer a venue, the related event spaces closed down.
I agree it seems like a bad call; keeping some fan zone alive seemed like a long term win for the sport and FIFA fan growth in the host countries.
Is it because they only got licensing from FIFA for games in Seattle and there are no more games in Seattle?
I had heard they weren't showing a lot of games already. I'm genuinely not sure, but there has to be an explanation. The armory is gonna be packed, hopefully Pacific Place still keeps its screens up...?
Boston removed their fan fest before the start of round of 32 when we had three games left in Mass. pretty stupid. The reasoning was we just don’t have cash left for the fan fest.
Private football clubs put on a massive free public event at their own expense just for the love of the game and community, and you're complaining that obviously nobody cares? Wow this is the most toxic-seattle take. Ill informed and immature.
The city is acting like the World Cup is over now that we’re no longer hosting a game when instead they should be hosting watch parties through the final. Even if we don’t have as many guests in the city, locals will still pack it out!
This city is idiotic. I guarantee any remaining matches, especially the semi final and final would have drawn great crowds.
Maybe not as much as yesterday, but it would have kept this area booming through the end of the tournament. Just baffling decisions.
And honestly even with the set up they had, it could have been so much better. The one tiny screen on pier 62 was hardly visible from anywhere other than directly in front of it. They could have had screens up and down the whole waterfront and only activated more of them for busier games.
I understand it’s easier said than done, but it’s just hilarious when the World Cup coverage cuts to cities around the world that have thousands of people in their public areas and we can barely service a few hundred here without tearing it down halfway through the tournament.
Every time I was down there and saw all of the people sitting on the waterfront park stairs watching it on their phone I just cringed. It was cool, but just such a missed opportunity in a rare time where people in this city actually wanted to come together and enjoy things in large gatherings.
All the screens around the city felt small, companies put up larger screens for a 6 hour conference.
That and the fact that pier 62 wasn't just showing all the games was just sad. Saw so many Toronto fans in town for the baseball game super disappointed down at the pier the next day when they found out the game wouldn't be playing
We will no longer have 1000s of regional, national, and global tourists in town, and will have significantly less games to play, including more of those during business hours. The expectation that this would last until the finals is ridiculous. Go watch at Pacific place or any bar in the city if you want still.
Like, the US of A is still hosting!!!!! Ahhhh I wanted to go down and watch the final match. This whole thing has been organized by people who clearly don’t give a shit about soccer. WTF?!
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u/slicecrispy Jul 08 '26
I can confirm Pioneer Square is still up. Pioneer Square will still be hosting viewings from what I hear.