The most effective advertising and marketing {that a} world sporting occasion just like the FIFA Membership World Cup can ask for is a number market that not solely welcomes it but in addition reveals up. And that’s precisely how Seattle suits into FIFA’s sport plan.
Within the days earlier than ADWEEK attended the June 23 matchup between the Seattle Sounders hometown Main League Soccer membership and UEFA Champions League winner Paris Saint-Germain from France’s Ligue 1, a lot of the advance press from the Membership World Cup centered round unsold seats and slashed ticket costs. Amid the Concacaf Gold Cup worldwide competitors and forward of subsequent 12 months’s North American FIFA World Cup, pundits questioned if there was an oversaturation of soccer or simply some dangerous scheduling.
However as days progressed, the narrative modified from bleak to merely inconsistent—with attendance starting from greater than 80,000 for PSG and Atletico Madrid in Pasadena to little greater than 3,000 in Orlando for South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns and South Korea’s Ulsan. Seattle wasn’t immune: The town’s first Membership World Cup match between the Sounders and Brazilian membership Botafogo drew simply 30,151 to Lumen Area—which holds 67,000. The next matchup between Argentine powerhouse River Plate and Japanese membership Urawa Crimson Diamonds noticed attendance dwindle to 11,974.
Nonetheless, amid all of that, the Sounders have constructed momentum by way of occasions corresponding to record-breaking soccer classes, fan festivals, and concert events in Occidental Park simply blocks from Lumen Area, and attendance has grown ever since. The Crimson Diamonds’ subsequent match in Seattle in opposition to Inter Milan from Italy’s Serie A had 25,090 in attendance. The Sounders, in the meantime, noticed greater than 51,000 take of their Juneteenth matchup with Atletico Madrid.
With gentle temperatures, largely clear blue skies, and Paris Saint-Germain on the town on June 23, the FIFA Membership World Cup in Seattle has change into the occasion the town, world soccer, its companions, and the Sounders had been promoting, with every part culminating within the metropolis’s final Membership World Cup match between River Plate and Inter Milan tonight.
Right here’s a more in-depth have a look at how the Sounders obtained the entire group concerned on sport day:
On the bottom
Simply earlier than 10 a.m. on June 23 at Tat’s Deli close to Seattle’s Pioneer Sq., followers in Sounders and PSG jerseys started lining up for the Pacific Northwest’s model of Philadelphia breakfast sandwiches. Behind the counter, an worker answered a buyer’s query concerning the affect of the Membership World Cup by noting that they anticipated a rush through the first few matches however noticed little or no distinction, however had been “slammed” by the point the Sounders took on Atletico Madrid—with sandwich traces snaking out the door.
Traces had been already forming as occasions in Occidental Sq. across the nook obtained underway, as children took soccer classes on a mini-pitch. The Sounders and Reign fielded traces of followers signing up for giveaways and scoring free merch. Companions within the Seattle Parks Division had been imploring mother and father to return again for soccer-themed balloon sculptures after the sport, as they’d be confiscated from children by safety guards on the gate.
A block away, a fenced-in bar space served pregame cocktails from Crimson Bull-branded tables, whereas a stage sat prepared for performances by Sera Cahoone, Smokey Brights, and DJ Christian Science later within the day. Off to the aspect, a storefront gallery hosted by native streetwear model Hometeam displayed not solely its collaboration with the Sounders but in addition the staff’s 2022 Concacaf Champions League trophy that secured its place within the Membership World Cup.
Members of the Sounders’ Sound Wave marching band carried out briefly simply earlier than officers from each Paris Saint-Germain and the Gates Basis took the stage to debate their One Workforce youth soccer clinics in each Seattle and Vancouver, B.C. Because the presentation wrapped up, followers streamed behind the stage to the intersection of Occidental Avenue and Jackson Road and lined up behind the Sounders’ Emerald Metropolis Supporters’ group for the lower than half-mile march to Lumen Area—singing “Duwamish Sown” and “Born in ‘74” whereas opening the occasional blue and inexperienced smoke flares.
At Lumen Area, simply past the north safety gates, the groups and types waited patiently for followers to reach. Anheuser-Busch In-Bev’s Michelob Extremely arrange a beer backyard with a social-ready wall of soccer balls, a large inflatable can, a dribbling problem, and a photograph op with its Superior Participant of the Match trophy, awarded to the fan-elected finest participant of every sport.
Coca-Cola, in the meantime, arrange a camera-friendly tunnel stroll that includes red-carpet-style picture partitions on both finish, push-button fan noise, varied stadium backgrounds, a large red-and-black soccer ball, face paint, and swag together with clapper followers and neck coolers—extra a luxurious than a necessity when gameday temperatures maxed out at 74 levels. The Sounders rounded out the choices by having followers line up for video games, together with “soccer skee-ball,” and handing out prizes.
Michelob Extremely and Coca-Cola benefitted from a 74-degree, sunny day in Seattle.Jason Notte/Adweek
By the tip of the match, 50,628 individuals had made their approach into Lumen Area, the Sounders put in a powerful exhibiting whereas falling to PSG 2-0, and followers lingered round Seattle on a Monday afternoon to wander out and in of eating places and companies, soak up concert events, dance in closed streets, and take group photographs collectively in staff colours even when their staff wasn’t enjoying (River Plate followers had been out in drive for Sounders-PSG).
Seattle is slated to host six matches throughout subsequent 12 months’s World Cup, together with one apiece within the Spherical of 32 and Spherical of 16. By comparability, that’s greater than Guadalajara and Monterrey (4 apiece) or Mexico Metropolis (5) and as many as Toronto, Philadelphia, the Bay Space, and Kansas Metropolis. Solely seven of the 16 World Cup host cities function matches later within the match. Whereas crowds and demand on house could also be larger for these matches, a number metropolis like Seattle makes its pitch by benefiting from what it’s given and exceeding expectations earlier than followers, manufacturers, and the world at giant impose them in larger magnitude.
“With over 130,000 followers filling the stands throughout Sounders FC’s group stage matches, our metropolis demonstrated as soon as once more why it belongs on the worldwide soccer stage,” Taylor Graham, chief integration officer for each the Sounders and Reign, informed ADWEEK. “This match wasn’t only a celebration of elite competitors—it was a second of satisfaction for our total group.”
