This post is about FIFA World Cup 2026 in Seattle. The image above is the view at the stadium where 2026 FIFA World Cup is being played today on June 24th, 2026. This is the stadium two hours before the start of the Bosnia and Herzegovina and Qatar game. As you can see the stadium is starting to fill up even two hours prior to the start of the game.
My journey to Seattle starts from a Seattle suburb of Lynnwood, Washington which is about twenty six kilometers away from the edges of the city of Seattle. The time is eight in the morning and as you can see from the image above the station is already getting filled up with the soccer fans traveling to Seattle to see the game.
Soccer fans are all over the station and this is more than four hours prior to the start of the Qatar and Bosnia game. Getting to Seattle is no small feet during the World Cup, because the public transportation system was not designed for this kind of volume of travelers.
As you can see there is lots of security in the train station and in downtown Seattle as you will see soon.
In the picture above you can see that the train is full of soccer fans, I have seen more Bosnia and Herzegovina fans than I have seen Qatar jerseys, but you can definitely see that visitors from Qatar are definitely here as well.
After a quick half an hour or so ride on the train we have arrived in downtown Seattle. The crowds got even larger as I am not used to seeing the train platform completely full of people.
Above you see the view on the Lumen Field in Seattle around nine in the morning and the stadium seats are mostly empty, but as you can see down below a slow, but steady stream of soccer fans is moving towards the Lumen Field.
Three hours ahead of the game you can still find parking around a mile away from the stadium, but that will change rather quickly. Here you see some fans found parking under my work building in Seattle.
Here you can see people walking to the stadium. A lot of roads were actually closed in downtown Seattle so that people could park a few miles away and actually walk without having to worry about crossing the street.
While I was watching the game-goers from the window at work I saw this un-usual looking ship arrive close to the field, I wonder if this was some sort of contingency for medical emergencies or something like that...
Police presence was definitely heavy both on the ground and in the air. I tracked a few sheriff's office helicopters flying in circles over downtown Seattle. I have also seen four military helicopters two Chinooks and two Apache flying by in a formation, but I was too slow getting out my phone as they caught me by surprise.
Two hours before the game the stadium seats have started to fill up. But most fans were still on the way to Seattle at this time.
Image above shows two Seattle Police cruisers blocking the street downtown Seattle and some fans walking towards the stadium.
Businesses and street vendors in Seattle have really embraced the World Cup. This is the first time Seattle has a major tourist event since COVID. A lot of businesses went out of business at that time and a recovery has been quite slow, but with the arrival of World Cup 2026 the business is starting to look up.
Here you can see a classical Seattle cobble stone street with monument to Seattle firefighters and flags that were put out for the World Cup.
There are lots of World Cup watch parties setup around Seattle, this one is in Pioneer Square o the way to the stadium.
People are hanging out everywhere and the restaurants are a lot more busy than usual...
As I got closer to the stadium you can see people were taking advantage of having their message shown to large crowds of people. I like the message: "Play more sports, cancel all wars" I would sign up under that political message :)
Above you see one of the many entrance lines into the Lumen Field stadium.
I was able to catch this image with no people, that lasted for probably a total of three seconds.
More than an hour prior to the game start, but garbage cans are already overflowing...
Here you can clearly see a soccer fan from Qatar :)
On the way to the stadium there were lots of religious messages as well, I saw Mormons, Church of Scientology, Pentecostals, Muslim church representatives, etc...
Police presence was everywhere...
More soccer fans waiting to cross the street.
It was interesting to see so many people on the streets of Seattle. Usually the streets are completely empty other than cars. The fans were also lucky with weather being sunny and in the eighties.
