On June 25, Seattle’s Lumen Field hosted the last of six FIFA Club World Cup 2025 games, which brought visitors from around the world to Seattle’s streets and the neighborhoods surrounding the stadiums. But these games were only a warmup for next year, when Seattle will host six FIFA World Cup 2026 Men’s World Cup from June 11, 2026 to July 2026.
Stadium neighborhoods like the Chinatown International District, Pioneer Square and SODO are already preparing to welcome at least 750,000 international soccer (or football) fans for nearly a month a year from now.
At least 48 international teams will play 104 matches across the United States, Canada and Mexico. This will be the biggest event in state history, with Seattle hosting six World Cup matches, including the U.S. men’s national team.
Seattle will host four group-stage games, with a capacity of 69,000 attendees. In 2022, Seattle Sounders was the first MLS team to compete in the FIFA Club World Cup.
Along with increased foot traffic, Visit Seattle estimates a minimum of $929 million will be made for King County over the 2026 summer from the World Cup matches set to take place on Lumen field. This figure also includes $100 million in state and local tax revenue, as well as thousands of full-time and part-time jobs.
Stadium Neighborhoods are already engaging with local stakeholders through hosting informational sessions with the Seattle FIFA World Cup 26 Local Organizing Committee (SeattleFWC26).
The local organizer hopes to spread this potentially billion dollar boost to uplift businesses and workers, April Putney, SeattleFWC2026 Chief Strategy Officer said in a press release.
State lawmakers approved $45 million for World Cup related costs with a majority of the budget going to improving Lumen Field and other soccer fields in the state. Gov. Bob Ferguson has until May 20 to sign off on the budget.
“We know that the neighborhoods surrounding Seattle Stadium are more than just the backdrop to the FIFA World Cup – they are home to vibrant communities, small businesses and deep-rooted cultural legacies,” Peter Tomozawa, Seattle FWC26, said in a press release. “By embedding dedicated World Cup Neighborhood Liaisons, we’re not only helping prepare for the scale and excitement of the tournament—we’re also investing in lasting local relationships that will extend far beyond 2026.”
With the increased volume of foot traffic to these neighborhoods, locals should expect to see street closures to ensure crowds flow.
Seattle FWC26 announced nine locations across the state designated as “fan zones” including Bellingham, Bremerton, Everett, Olympia/Lacey, Tri-Cities, Spokane, Tacoma, Vancouver and Yakima.
As for the boroughs of Seattle, they are planning to engage with communities through multilingual communication and competent outreach by reaching out to business owners in the CID to ensure they prepare for what’s to come.
Carmen Pan is the CID Liaison and speaks Cantonese. Her goal is to focus on local business outreach, support cultural programing and ensuring language-accessible resources are available for CID residents. Businesses can schedule individual consultations with her to understand and prepare for the tournament. Communication is also available in English, Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese and Toisonese) and Vietnamese.
Businesses will be the biggest group in the CID impacted by World Cup tourists, said An Huynh, Director of Community Development at SCIDpda.
SCIDpda is in partnership with Friends of Little Saigon and the CID Business Improvement Area to prepare and assist small businesses to benefit from the large-scale event. They formed in 2020 to help assist in the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to create solutions for businesses when events like the pandemic or the World Cup arise.
In preparation for the games, Huynh said they’re going to inform businesses about potential traffic and street impacts in order for businesses to make their own decisions leading up to the games which may include hiring more staff to serve a higher volume of customers and other things.
She also said they started community engagement with businesses in early 2024 including two workshops and two surveys to answer questions and receive feedback.
“I would say the neighborhood is cautiously optimistic about what the World Cup will bring, and it’s been really helpful to get that level of detailed feedback from small businesses in the last couple of years,” said Huynh. Some business owners are concerned about sanitation, parking, traffic and if certain roads will be accessible for employees, residents and visitors.
They anticipate for tourists to stay in the city for five to seven days and for travel to flow from San Francisco and Vancouver B.C. into Seattle, since these cities are also hosting games.
The Small Business Relief Team is also working on an app for visitors to encourage them to visit neighborhoods and what they have to offer, such as cultural institutions, restaurants and retail stores.
“We’re more so in conversation with businesses to let them know that, ‘hey, we’re a year away, we’re still waiting for information to come in terms of how to watch the games, what teams are playing,’ those kinds of details,” said Huynh.
While some have been hopeful with the promise that the games will bring more economic opportunities to the neighborhood, others like Rachtha Danh, Chinatown International District Organizer at the Puget Sound Sage, said that he is trying to mitigate damages that follow after the FIFA World Cup.
“Every time FIFA comes into a city, the host city tries to present itself in a very flattering and unreal light to bring prestige to the nation,” Danh said.
He said with the international games coming to the city, Seattle will hyper-criminalize the homeless, displace people and spend funds on improvements for FIFA rather than on social programs.
“It’s like you’re throwing a party and you’re broke and you’re not taking care of your kids, it’s very upsetting,” he said.
Puget Sound Sage has been in talks with various community groups to prepare for what next summer might look like, and if neighborhoods have the capacity to hold that many fans.
“Seattle is a tourist destination, we are the place that people go to spend summer to get away from the heat and we’re a lovely city and hotels are always packed in summer already, so it’s not only the downtown core that’s going to be absorbing that 750,000 people – the light rail system will also absorb it,” Danh said.
Seattle’s population is over 800,000 people as of April 1, 2025. The city does not currently have public restrooms available, and Danh said they do not have the capacity infrastructure to implement them.
With a year to prepare for the games and international fans, Danh said they’re going to continue having teach-ins, connecting with groups and alerting people to prepare their communities to pose propositions to the city.
Earlier this year in June, Sound Transit ran additional service for the Club World Cup and special Seattle Sounder game trains. For 10 days, additional security and Sound Transit staff were stationed to help passengers during the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 which saw bigger crowds during peak times.
