Tuesday's Major League Baseball All-Star Game at T-Mobile Park and surrounding events this weekend are expected to bring thousands of visitors to Seattle's Pioneer Square.
Restaurants, bars and the gathering space at Occidental Square Park – all in the shadow of the ballpark and Lumen Field – are preparing for big crowds.
City officials predict an economic impact of $50 million dollars from the game and related events.
It’s likely to provide a boost for businesses in a part of town that's struggled to recover from the pandemic, when offices closed and games were canceled at the height of the lockdown.
“It was a really hard and quiet period here in the neighborhood,” said Lisa Howard, executive director with the Alliance for Pioneer Square.
She hopes All-Star week will "re-introduce" many people to the neighborhood.
"We've definitely been seeing that, even over the last couple months as the games are happening, there's more people in the Square with offices returning that energy is definitely down here on the streets,” Howard said.
She said the city has been active in repairing streets and sidewalks to prepare for All-Star festivities. Howard added that the Alliance has been communicating with area businesses to share scheduling and event information for the week.
“As more people come down here, they realize it's not all what you see, necessarily on the media, there’s a lot going on, there’s a lot of things to do and places to come,” Howard said.
There will be outdoor movie screenings at City Hall Park related to the All-Star Game. Seattle-based Ebbets Field Flannels is hosting a pop-up shop. There will also a gallery of baseball and Mariners-themed artwork at the RailSpur development at Occidental and Jackson, including tributes to Ichiro and the Griffeys.
Henry Watson is development manager with Urban Villages, which owns RailSpur.
“The two strongest communities in the Pioneer Square neighborhood are the arts community and the sports community,” Watson said. “This was a great opportunity during All-Star weekend to kind of intersect those two things. So we came up with this open-air art gallery.”
All-Star related festivities are scheduled throughout the weekend in Seattle. The Home Run Derby happens Monday evening, with the main event, the All-Star Game set for Tuesday starting at 5 p.m.
It will be the third time Seattle has hosted the mid-summer classic, but the first since 2001.
