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Match: Belgium/Senegal 1pm, July 1 For the penultimate match at Lumen Field, I came down to the stadium area to check out the two main watch parties: Victory Hall (west across 1st Ave S from T-Mobile Park) and Occidental Mall (the screen faces north just north of Jackson). Both these spots are showing all the games, but the extended Pioneer Square pedestrian zone is only on match days (with something like 4 hours on either side of any game that’s actually being played at Lumen). I took the light rail in from the north, and considered getting off at Stadium for a shorter walk to Victory Hall, but the train was stopping an extra few minutes every other stop (electrical issues, maybe?), plus I wasn’t clear whether you could walk across Royal Brougham between the two stadiums, so I got off at Pioneer Square and took a long walk through the pedestrian zone. It’s worth pointing out for Victory Hall that 1st Ave S is blocked off to cars when there’s a match in Seattle, although there will be bikes and scooters and maybe shuttle buses. The Victory Hall space is huge, with an indoor warehouse divided into a large viewing hall and a sports pub/brewpub, a similarly sized outdoor space next to 1st Ave S, and a smaller outside viewing area in the back facing Highway 99. You enter through a gate on First, where they check your IDs to get a stamp (minors allowed) and exit on Royal Brougham when you’re done. There are independent food trucks in the front yard, but otherwise the food is some type of pub food from Hatback Bar (the indoor pub), as I assume are the drinks. There are two generic food trucks in the front with a QR code for ordering. I got a pub burger (which came with no fries) and a diet Coke. Meh. I watched the first half in the indoor space, which has a lot of screens and a lot of tables and chairs. I joined many other folks at a picnic table. The video and audio were good. At halftime I looked at the back outdoor seating area, but it was mostly deserted and I switched to the front yard, which like the indoor space had quite a number of people without feeling crowded. I found a nice spot under a shade tree near 1st Ave with a good view of the single large screen. There are also picnic tables, barrels, metal stools and some large concrete steps to sit on. All in all, I thought Victory Hall was an above average experience. One blip: near the end of the game the outdoor screen had connectivity issues and ended up 20 seconds delayed vs. the indoor screens. At halftime I took the long walk to Occidental Mall, and somehow made it with enough spare time to look for something to eat in addition to that fryless burger. I was tempted by Reem’s Kitchen, the Palestinian place where I’d gotten a good meal at SLU, but instead chose a chicken wrap from a Doner tent on South Main. It ended up being probably the best food cart meal I’ve had at these watch parties. I talked to the guy while my food was being prepared and he said the best crowd they’ve had for a non US match was the first one (Belgium/Egypt), but he expected the crowds to really pick up for the US game tonight. (Which makes me wonder – does Main Street remain closed? Are they just counting on the extra time it is closed while they’re waiting for traffic to clear after the match? I may have to come back on a day where there’s no match here to see what’s up.) About the Occidental Mall video setup: it sucks. The bottom of the screen is unviewable unless you’re very tall or very close to the screen. They’ve set the screen so far back behind the front of the canopy that the 2 front supports block off the sides of the screen. But the atmosphere with the crowd is great. They’ve got a 21+ viewing area solidly in the thick of things, which is where I watched, somehow eating my second lunch with no table or chairs (there are a few tables, but I arrived at halftime, so not for me). As I was exiting the area after the match, I saw the Doner guy was right, as more people were trying to get in the viewing area than were leaving. submitted by /u/Worldly_General_5672 |
