FIFA Men's World Cup: Seattle's floating soccer venue takes its place at Pier 62
In terms of progress, today's Waterfront Park is a stark contrast to 2022 when a party was thrown on Pier 62 to celebrate Seattle being tapped as a FIFA Men's World Cup host.
People had to gloss over massive cranes, mounds of dirt and remnants of the viaduct as they envisioned what a soccer fanfest would look like at the edge of Elliott Bay.
On Wednesday, the eve of the quadrennial tournament, Pier 62 was still a construction site.
Dignitaries from the Seattle mayor's office, Seattle Sports Commission, Friends of Waterfront Park, Sounders and Reign gathered anyway to mark the beginning of three-weeks of soccer festivities across the city. They squeezed together on a square blue carpet and shared six oversized scissors to cut a strip of blue ribbon.
SeattleFWC26, the local organizing committee, designated four fan celebration sites from the Seattle Center to SoDo. The Sounders and Reign created the showstopper with a floating barge accessible by a walkway from Pier 62.
"It's proof that vision boards work," Maya Mendoza-Exstrom, the Reign chief business officer, said of the planning. She was part of the team that formed the bid to become one of 16 cities hosting World Cup matches and involved with designing the barge.
"Bertha was stuck, we didn't have funding," Mendoza-Exstrom said of the tunnel boring machine used a decade ago to move Highway 99 underground. The committee started forming their bid for FIFA then. "It was this put a big idea on the board and commit to it; sort of public-private stewardship. Two years ago, there were piles of dirt, but that vision held. So, it's very exciting."
The "Seattle Soccer Celebration" was unfinished Wednesday. There was a green mini pitch in the middle of the barge, towering screen to broadcast the matches and some dining areas. Media invited to a first look just had to disregard sounds of drills and hammering and ignore the crates, boxes and trash.
The barge arrived from Everett on Tuesday. Its first event is a viewing for the Canada group-stage match against Bosnia-Herzegovina on Friday. There is a charge to access the space.
Pier 62 will hold its first free event Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., which includes the tournament's kickoff match featuring Mexico against South Africa.
"Ambitious visions take a long time," Joy Shigaki, president of Friends of Waterfront Park, told the crowd of media Wednesday. "They take a lot of leadership, they take a lot of audacity, and they take a lot of willingness to say we're going to get there regardless of the cost and the hours. Waterfront Park was one of those projects."
Before the barge even docked, Seattle was crowned by Sports Illustrated as the No. 1 World Cup venue in the U.S. and second overall because of the city's scenery and accessibility to Lumen Field, which will be rebrand as Seattle Stadium for the six tournament matches.
Vancouver topped the national publication's list partly because of its planned viewing at the top of Grouse Mountain and affordability when comparing the rates for the Canadian dollar and euro versus the U.S. dollar.
Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer suggested making a trip to Vancouver part of plans to soak in the World Cup around the Pacific Northwest. He was mainly eager to stop talking about the event and start watching some matches.
Seattle Stadium will host its first match Monday between Belgium and Egypt.
"It still is a work in progress," Schmetzer said of the floating barge. "From what I can see, the front, the barge and even walking up here, having people out on a nice evening, it's going to be great. I'm getting excited already."
Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.
This story was originally published June 11, 2026 at 5:02 PM.