Seattle is building a floating fan zone and soccer stadium for this summer’s World Cup.
Seattle is returning to its nautical roots and looking to leave a lasting legacy on its football community, creating a floating fan zone and football stadium for the summer World Cup.
Major League Soccer’s Sounders, the National Women’s Soccer League’s Dominion and their partners announced the Seattle Soccer Celebration on a barge near Pier 62 at Elliott Bay Waterfront Park.
From June 11 to July 6, the space will host youth football matches, big-screen viewing parties, cultural events, private parties and other events. Fans can register and obtain ticket information at the following website: Seattle Football Celebration website.
“Being able to have this incredible canvas that broadcasters can showcase our beautiful skyline and waterfront to so many, many people who we believe are going to come to Seattle, maybe for the first time, and enjoy what makes this community so special — all of that continues to push us to do something on the waterfront,” said Hugh Weber, president of business operations for both football teams. “The idea of a floating stadium and how we do that became a natural progression.”
The barge’s pitch is the 52nd symbolic mini-pitch built in Washington state through a Rave Foundation initiative to give communities across the state access to football ahead of the World Cup.
Joining the city’s two professional soccer teams and the Rave Foundation, Friends of Seaside Park and sponsor Levono are involved in the project.
Waterfront Park is one of the city’s free official FIFA fan zones for the World Cup.
Just as the 1994 World Cup came to the United States and raised soccer’s national profile, local organizers in Seattle are finding creative ways to draw more lifelong fans to the sport through the World Cup.
“We all talk about how it brings a lift to our sport, but what is our engagement strategy as a team actually? How do we engage people who maybe don’t think football is something exciting and different? How do we get them to be fans the day after the game?” Weber said Wednesday. “So all of this is part of that initiative and effort to make sure that people make personal connections and feel invited and welcome to the sport in our city.”
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