On many weekends in Seattle's Pioneer Square neighborhood, it can feel like you’re inside a sports stadium, even though you are actually on the street
There are vendors selling hot dogs, bottles of water and t-shirts on Occidental Avenue near Lumen Field and T-Mobile Park.
In addition to these pop-up stands, brick-and-mortar shops and restaurants in Pioneer Square also see an increase in traffic before and after sporting events.
Among them is Cone & Steiner on King Street, a few blocks from the stadiums.
“Cone & Steiner is a neighborhood market, corner store, specialty convenience store, you name it,” said Dani Cone, the store’s founder and CEO.
In a little more than a year, one of the world’s biggest sporting events, the 2026 World Cup, comes to Lumen Field. Seattle is set to host six World Cup matches next June and July.
One projection says this is expected to generate $929 million for the local economy.
‘Standing room only’
Cone said she’s learned that when sports fans come by her store, they love anything they can take with them, and, “lots of candy, lots of drinks... is what people are mostly here for. We also serve alcohol here. So these seats [inside and outside her shop], it becomes standing-room only.”
The foot traffic depends on which team is in town.
Cone said for Mariners games, the crowds depend on who the M’s are playing and the weather. She said the Sounders bring in consistent crowds and she sees the most customers around Seahawks’ football games.
But next summer’s World Cup is expected to draw 750,000 people to the area over several weeks – roughly the population of Seattle. And crowds are expected to surge around the Lumen Field.
That’s why the neighborhood booster group, Alliance for Pioneer Square has hired a brand new position, a sports economy coordinator. Her name is Nadia Flusche.
“With the World Cup, there’s projected to be so many visitors from all over the world there’s not going to be enough room in the stadium and not everyone’s going to have tickets to the games,” Flusche said. “There’s going to be a lot of people in the area.”
That means thousands of fans looking for a place to eat and drink. Shops and restaurants have to be ready to serve them.
The job of the sports economy coordinator, Flusche said, is to act as a liaison between Seattle’s World Cup organizers and Pioneer Square businesses, keeping everyone updated on when to expect big crowds and how those crowds will flow through the neighborhood.
“There’s webinars that we’re putting on, we have monthly newsletters that are going out with updated information," Flusche said. “Just making sure that they know that they can come to me with any questions and concerns.”
A warm up
Back on King Street in front of her store, Cone said a warm-up, if you will, for the 2026 World Cup, this summer’s FIFA Club World Cup involving several international soccer teams (and the Sounders).
The crowds will likely be smaller, but businesses will use it to gauge what snacks and drinks are popular with soccer fans.
Cone is also hopeful that soccer’s popularity around the world will help off-set any geopolitical tensions that have already started to keep some international sports fans from traveling to the U.S.
“Maybe just the sure strength of that will overtake any other political things,” Cone said. “I’m hoping people still show up.”
The first World Cup match to be played in Seattle is set for June 15, 2026.
In preparation for the World Cup, the recently-passed budget from the Washington state legislature includes $2.75 million to boost security at events.
That funding comes as Seattle Police continue to investigate multiple acts of violence in Pioneer Square in recent days, including an early-morning shooting outside a nightclub May 17 that left three dead and one critically injured.
