Two coalitions, Protect Our Pitch 206 and Coast to Coast Chinatowns Against Displacement, are raising concerns about the impact of the six upcoming FIFA World Cup games on Seattle’s Chinatown International District (CID), Seattle in general, and other Chinatowns on the West Coast.
“This movement is not meant to shame sports fans, but rather encourage locals to engage
in their community,” reads a press release from Coast to Coast Chinatowns. “Love the game, fight the impact.
Community activists spoke about the possible negative impacts of FIFA at a press conference in the Danny Woo Community Garden on February 12. The press conference was organized by Meilani Mandery of the CID Coalition, which is also part of Protect Our Pitch 206. Other organizations comprising Protect Our Pitch 206 include Be Seattle, Massage Parlor Organizing Project, Puget Sound Sage, Real Change, Seattle Solidarity Budget, Stop Surveillance City, Stop the Sweeps, and 350 Seattle.
Chinatowns are often situated near stadiums, the press release from Coast to Coast Chinatowns notes, and historically have been negatively impacted by them. Even in the off season are used as parking lots by sports fans, who often do not patronize local businesses.
Coast to Coast Chinatowns includes representatives from FIFA host cities: the CID Coalition in Seattle, Chinatown Community for Equitable Development (CCED) in Los Angeles, Chinatown Together in Vancouver, Friends of Chinatown Toronto, and Toronto Chinatown Land Trust. The coalition formed in 2018 around concerns about displacement and gentrification.
These concerns will be magnified by the upcoming FIFA World Cup, which is coming to Seattle in June, according to activists. The coalitions criticized the millions of dollars Seattle has acknowledged it is spending, and millions more that will undoubtedly be spent on police overtime, which they believe could be better invested in the community.
“The estimated $900 million dollars of economic impacts for King County will not be felt by residents, workers, or small business owners but rather big businesses like hotels and stadiums,” according to the press release. “FIFA is engaging in sportswashing, which leverages the progressive veneer of community engagement, such as donating to pro-immigrant art projects or youth soccer programs, to distance themselves from their acts of state violence.”
This refers to the donation by the Seattle FIFA Local Organizing Committee (which is somewhat autonomous from FIFA) of $50,000 to the Wing Luke Museum to support construction of an art installation commemorating the 1886 Chinese Expulsion on the waterfront. “Meanwhile, Seattle has been increasing policing and surveillance in Chinatown-International District at the request of FIFA,” according to the press release.
The coalition raised concerns about increased ICE activity around FIFA, at a time when the CID is blanketed by surveillance cameras whose data could potentially be acquired by ICE.
“With FIFA comes the feds, with FIFA comes ICE,” said JM Wong of Puget Sound Sage, pointing out that when Vice President JD Vance attended the Olympics, ICE served as his personal bodyguard. At FIFA, “the U.S. team is playing, and we will not be surprised if with them come a rolling bunch of thugs,” Wong said.
Protect Our Pitch 206 released a list of demands, including the creation of a FIFA Community Mitigation budget funded by progressive taxes, climate mitigation in the CID, more public restrooms and free public transportation during the games, emergency services and ending of sweeps for homeless people, repealing legislation allowing the Seattle Police Department to install surveillance cameras and use Real-Time Crime Center software, and more.
Andy Allen, Danny Woo Community Garden manager, connected FIFA 2026 to the fight against the Kingdome, which ultimately led to the creation of the garden some 50 years later. Organizers were fighting against the Kingdome due to concerns about displacement. “It obviously did change the neighborhood,” Allen said. Even though the Kingdome itself is gone, an event like the Super Bowl Parade, Allen said, prevented staff of InterIm CDA from bringing food and supplies to seniors.
“FIFA is another way that this really resilient neighborhood has had to push to be like, ‘We are a neighborhood, we do live here, it’s more than just restaurants here,’” Allen said.
Eugene Tagawa spoke about his personal experience in the movement against the Kingdome in the 70s. “The threats to our community were and are serious,” he said. “Rising property costs force small businesses and low income residents out of the CID. Houseless members of our community are swept up, and increased traffic on game days makes what is already the least green neighborhood in Seattle dirtier and more downtrodden.”
Wong of Puget Sound Sage echoed this, saying: “We want our people to live here. We do not want this place to be a parking lot for the stadiums.”
Stan Shikuma of Tsuru for Solidarity and La Resistencia connected FIFA and its potential impacts to the Chinese Expulsion of 1886, the WWII incarceration and decimation of Japanese American communities, the construction of I-5 through the neighborhood, the Kingdome, and the potential destructive and disruptive impacts of building Sound Transit’s second light rail station in the CID.
“”We know that the powers that be, the wealthy, the business interests, the developers, have always considered people of color as at best disposable workforce, sometimes unwanted, sometimes ignored, and always at risk of being displaced,” he said. “So we say, respect our community and keep FIFA at bay.”
