Hi all! I have started seeing the World Cup questions rolling in, so I thought I would try to put together a bit of info. Please comment to add additional info I missed.

What is World Cup and Seattle?

The FIFA World Cup is the largest sporting event in the world. The tournament has expanded from 32 teams to 48 teams this year. Link.

There are 3 nations hosting the World Cup. US, Canada and Mexico. There are 104 matches, playing across 16 host cities.

Seattle is hosting 6 matches in Seattle. All on weekdays, which is important for commuters to be mindful of. Link.

-June 15 @ 12PM Belgium vs Egypt
-June 19 @ 12PM USA vs Australia
-June 24 @ 12PM Bosnia vs Qatar
-June 26 @ 8PM Iran vs Egypt (Pride Match)
-July 1 @ 1PM TBD vs TBD (game can go into OT)
-July 6 @ 5PM TBD vs TBD (game can go into OT)

The matches themselves are 90 minutes. But due to injury, stoppage time, ect, matches typically last about ~2 hours. The last two matches are knock out rounds which mean they can go into overtime (OT) up to one hour. Again, this is important for commuters to be mindful of.

What is Seattle Stadium?

Lumen field is now Seattle Stadium. Link.

All city stadiums have been renamed, this is not a Seattle exclusive thing with FIFA. Link.

This is not my area of expertise, but has to do with branding rights.

What is the LOC and why do I give a sh*t about them?

The Local Organizing Committee has led the regional effort to prepare for FIFA World Cup 2026.

You give a sh*t about them because they house ALL THINGS FIFA on their website. Link.

Why is this a big deal for Seattle? Isn’t this just like a sold out Seahawks game?

All of the matches are on weekdays, meaning commuters will all be competing for parking and public transit.

There are other regional activities including fan celebrations and fan zones. Plus bars will still get full near the stadium. Check out the LOC events calendar website. Link.

Additionally, FIFA decided that Seattle would be the ONLY city where they required all fans to enter through one entrance.

This means, there is less parking, during the work week, with increased commuter traffic.

Transportation

Check out LOC website transportation page. This will link you to all of the regional transit pages. Link.

Metro is the ONLY agency that is doing free fares on SELECT routes. This is the match day shuttle and the waterfront shuttle.

Sound Transit does NOT have free fares. On all 6 match days ST is running peak service from 6am-1am. Meaning trains will come every 8 minutes, with 4 minute headways from Lynnwood to International District/Chinatown.

Sound Transit want you to follow preferred station routing to and from the match. If you’re coming from/heading back to the north then use Pioneer Square. South is Stadium. And East or passengers with accessible needs using International District / Chinatown.

Revive I-5 is paused. “All lanes of mainline I-5 will be open June 8 through July 10”. Link.

Road closures in the last mile. Link.