2026 FIFA World Cup Host City Guide: Seattle, Washington

In advance of this summer’s FIFA World Cup, SportsTravel is delving into each of the 11 U.S. cities that will host matches during the event. This year’s edition will be the largest ever, with 48 teams (up from 32), and it will be the first to be staged in three countries — Canada, Mexico and the United States — with 16 host cities in total.

Up next in our series: Seattle, Washington, a city that will host Men’s FIFA World Cup matches for the first time. The most populous city in Washington and the 18th-most populous city in the United States with almost 800,000 residents, Seattle is known as the Emerald City. It has a rich sporting tradition with four major men’s professional sports teams — MLB’s Mariners, the NHL’s Kraken, MLS’ Sounders and the newly crowned NFL champions, the Seahawks — as well as teams in the WNBA (the four-time champion Storm) and NWSL (Reign FC, a founding member of the league).

With six matches at this summer’s World Cup, Seattle is ready to shine bright on the global stage again. 

[Editor’s Note: Click here to read our past features on Philadelphia, Kansas City, Houston, Dallas, Miami, Atlanta, Boston and New York New Jersey]

[For the full list of confirmed base camps so far, click here.]

Stadium

Stadium: Lumen Field / Seattle Stadium

Capacity: 69,000

Opened: 2002

W/C Hosting Experience: N/A

Games: Six matches including:

• Belgium v Egypt | Group G | Monday, June 15

• USA v Australia | Group D | Friday, June 19

• Bosnia and Herzegovina v Qatar | Group B | Wednesday, June 24

• Egypt v IR Iran | Group G | Friday, June 26

• Match 82 | Round of 32 | Wednesday, July 1

• Match 94 | Round of 16 | Monday, July 6

Location

Opened at a cost of $430 million in 2002, the 69,000-capacity, multipurpose Lumen Field has been renamed Seattle Stadium during the 2026 FIFA World Cup due to FIFA’s non-sponsorship rules. Located in the city’s SoDo neighborhood, it is the home venue for the Seahawks, the Sounders and Reign FC.

Situated within a mile of Downtown Seattle, the complex also includes the Event Center, which houses the Washington Music Theater (WaMu Theater), a parking garage and a public plaza.

Last summer, the stadium hosted six matches at the expanded FIFA Club World Cup, including all three of the Sounders’ group-stage matches against Paris St-Germain, Botafogo and Atlético Madrid.

Designed in a horseshoe shape with an open north end to provide views of the downtime Seattle skyline and to fit into a compact 30-acre footprint near Pioneer Square, the venue has twice been featured in the Guinness World Records as the largest outdoor stadium in the world for NFL and MLS matches.

Team Base Camps

The Belgian Men’s National Soccer Team will use the Sounders’ facility, called the Providence Swedish Performance Center & Clubhouse, located in Renton, Washington, as its base camp training site during the World Cup. The facility, which encompasses 50,000 square feet, is located 15 miles from downtown Seattle and Lumen Field.

The Egyptian Men’s National Soccer Team will be based in Spokane, Washington, for the duration of the World Cup. The team, which is participating in its fourth World Cup, will train at Luger Field on the southwest end of the Gonzaga University campus in Spokane, Washington, and stay at Northern Quest Resort and Casino on Hayford Road, located just 10 minutes west of downtown Spokane.

Fan Experiences and Activations

As opposed to one centralized, official FIFA Fan Festival, the Seattle FIFA World Cup Local Organizing Committee announced a distributed model of fan experiences around the city, which will all be free and open to the public.

The celebrations include:

• Seattle Soccer House at Pacific Place (Downtown): Featuring a 70-foot by 40-foot screen spanning 27,000 square feet with themed social zones and local food.
• Seattle Soccer Celebration at Pier 62 (Waterfront): A waterfront experience on Elliott Bay with a floating mini-pitch, large LED screen, and cultural programming hosted by Seattle Sounders FC and Seattle Reign FC.
• Let’s Play SEA ’26 at Seattle Center: A family-friendly festival hub in conjunction with the Armory and Mural Amphitheatre, complete with a large indoor screen and international cultural programming.
• Seattle Matchday Live at Victory Hall (SODO): A 23-foot viewing screen located steps away from Lumen Field. 

“Seattle will be buzzing as fans from all over flood our city for an unforgettable summer,” said Peter Tomozawa, CEO of SeattleFWC26. “Our amazing partners have created a network of free celebrations that meet people where they live, work, and gather. This approach reflects who we are: innovative, inclusive, and community-driven. We’re not just hosting a tournament; we’re bringing the game to everyone.”

“Soccer brings people together,” said Seattle Mayor Katie B. Wilson. “I’m so excited to be welcoming people from around the world to an incredible FIFA World Cup this year, and I can’t wait to make the whole city part of the celebration.”

Accommodation Supply

In terms of short-term rental accommodation, short-term rental data and analytics provider AirDNA reported that overall demand is up only eight percent at the moment, compared with a 12 percent YoY rise in supply. So far, this has offset occupancy, which edged down one percent for the group stage as demand needs to catch up, and this applies to all stages of the tournament.

The game with the highest year-over-year demand increase is the USMNT vs. Australia at +43 percent on June 19.

On pricing, the average booked rate across group stage dates is currently $302, a YoY increase of only 36 percent. The average available rate (the price listings currently marketed at), however, is sitting at $482, a 98 percent increase compared to 2025.

Overall, the submarkets seeing the biggest year-over-year demand growth are Arbor Heights (+82 percent), South Beacon Hill (+79 percent) and Kent (70 percent).

As per Key Data, the chart below underlines that Seattle is seeing one of the lowest increases in short-term rental reservations per property (+90 percent), in front of only Miami, San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles/Inglewood. That would mirror AirDNA’s findings, and the fact that length of stay only drops by five percent would indicate that the World Cup is having relatively little impact on tourism in this host city or that it is merely mirroring tourism levels from the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup in the city.

On the hotel side, Seattle is one of six U.S. host cities that is seeing a dropoff in reservations per room (alongside the Bay Area, Kansas City, Miami, New York and Los Angeles), while average daily rates are up a steady 34 percent to capitalize on any demand that filters through as the tournament progresses.

And, according to CoStar forecasts, Seattle has one of the highest average daily rates ($223.74) of all the U.S. host cities for June, behind only New York, San Francisco and Boston, but the ADR YoY increase by 0.072 percent is the second lowest of all the U.S. host cities behind only Atlanta.

July’s data is just as interesting, though, as Seattle’s average daily rate is $235.68, making it one of only two U.S. host cities to see an ADR increase from June to July.

Of Seattle’s games, four matches will be played in June, but only two games will be played in the city beyond that (one Round-of-32 fixture and one Round-of-16 match). The high ADRs in June are likely to occur around the USMNT’s game against Australia on June 19 but the increase in July suggests that operators are confident of securing some big matches and followings in the latter stages too.

Local Reaction: Visit Seattle Chief Business Officer Kelly Saling

Kelly Saling has been with Visit Seattle since 2009, and currently serves as the senior vice president and chief sales officer. The city has spent $32 million in advance of the tournament, and that doesn’t include what Saling said is “billion-dollar upgrades” over the past decade preparing for the event.

Saling also pointed out that Lumen Field is the only U.S. venue situated in a city’s downtown that will host World Cup matches.

“Visitors can walk from their downtown hotel to the stadium, passing Pike Place Market along the way, and being a part of the vibrancy that the World Cup brings,” she told SportsTravel.

Other enhancements include, “Waterfront Park, our new 20-acre park that connects Pike Place Market and Pioneer Square with our waterfront. The park’s Overlook Walk provides views of Puget Sound, Mount Rainier, the Olympic Mountains, and Seattle’s skyline, in addition to family-friendly attractions like the Seattle Aquarium’s new Ocean Pavilion and multiple playgrounds.”

The city has expanded its light rail and opened a new International Arrivals facility at SEA Airport, adding nonstop routes to several countries that will take part in the World Cup, including Japan, as well as upgrading concourses and logistical areas such as screening machines.

“At Visit Seattle, we’ve prepped for World Cup by launching our Let’s Play SEA 26 community brand, which is a free-to-use brand that anyone, from SEA Airport to hotels and small businesses, is using to get into the spirit of the World Cup,” she added. “The brand’s playbook walks operators through how they can co-opt the brand with their own logo for window clings, coffee cup sleeves, pint glasses, flyers, and other signage. We’ve gotten a lot of buy-in from the business community, and we’re excited to see the brand all over Seattle during the tournament for a cohesive experience.”

The city will offer four free Fan Celebration zones, at Seattle Center, Waterfront Park, Pacific Place and Victory Hall. It will also offer one of the most creative game-watch activations during the World Cup,courtesy of the Sounders and Reign: a floating soccer pitch atop a maritime vessel that will allow hundreds of fans to watch the action while out on the water.