The World Cup Revived Seattle's Downtown. Will the Energy Last?

Seattle, Washington, hosted its final World Cup game on Monday between the United States and Belgium. Fans from both countries flooded the streets, filling parks, bars, and a mile-long street fair near the waterfront. The event was one of the biggest sporting moments in the city's history. It also gave Seattle a rare chance to show off a downtown that it has been working hard to improve.

Unlike other World Cup host cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas, Seattle held its games right in the heart of the city. Many visitors could walk from their hotels to the stadium, passing through a lively area stretching from Pike Place Market to the waterfront. There were no long traffic jams or confusing transit routes to deal with. The walkable setup made the experience feel more like a neighborhood celebration than a big sports event.

Seattle's downtown had not always felt that way. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many tech workers stayed home and stopped coming into the city center. Stores closed, and the number of people living on the streets went up. Visitors and locals began to avoid downtown because it felt unsafe or unwelcoming.

To get ready for the World Cup, Seattle came up with a big plan to fix up the downtown area. The city added better lighting, painted murals on walls, cleaned up trash, and improved parks. Leaders hoped these changes would bring back the energy that downtown had before the pandemic. The goal was to make the city feel vibrant again for both visitors and residents.

One neighborhood that got a lot of attention was Pioneer Square, which sits between downtown hotels and the soccer stadium. Before the tournament, tents lined the streets and people in distress were often seen wandering into traffic. A group of businesses and service organizations made a list of 80 people who had been living on those streets for a long time, many with serious mental health challenges. Some of those people had been living outside for more than 10 years.

Within just a couple of months, most of those 80 people were moved into shelters that offered support services. Lisa Daugaard, co-director of a nonprofit called Purpose Dignity Action, said the effort worked because everyone involved did things differently than usual. "Everyone had to do everything differently than they normally do, and now folks don't want to go back because it worked so well," she said. The speed of the change surprised even those who organized it.

Peter Tomozawa, the head of Seattle's World Cup Organizing Committee, said the city's mayor had told him years ago that hosting the World Cup was a chance to revitalize downtown. Tomozawa also used to lead the Seattle Sounders, the city's Major League Soccer team. "I think people sort of forget, due to Covid and other things, how vibrant and how great our city is when it's alive," he said.

Now that the tournament is ending, many Seattle residents are asking whether these improvements will last. Some people are skeptical, because city leaders have promised big solutions to homelessness before and the problems kept getting worse. Even during the World Cup, as some people were moved out of Pioneer Square, others moved in. The challenges did not disappear — they just shifted.

Still, the group that worked together for the World Cup believes it has found a model that can keep working. They say the key was bringing together businesses, nonprofits, and city services to focus on specific people in a specific area. More work is needed in other parts of downtown, but leaders say they now have a plan they can build on. The question is whether the teamwork that made it happen will continue once the excitement fades.

One fan who made the trip was Steven Buyse, a 57-year-old man from Brussels, Belgium, who works in finance. He had planned to skip this World Cup but changed his mind after Belgium beat Senegal in an exciting comeback. He flew to Seattle and walked from his hotel to the stadium, passing bars and fans chatting along the way. "If you have bars close to the stadium, the vibe, the atmosphere, that's what you come for," he said. "To meet, talk and celebrate sports."