The 2026 Men’s World Cup kicks off today with a match between Mexico and South Africa in Mexico City. Seattle is hosting six games over the next five weeks. To ensure everyone can easily get where they need to go, transit agencies across Puget Sound are running extra services on match days.
Seattle
Each match will be held at Seattle Stadium (Lumen Field). The Seattle FIFA World Cup 26 Local Organizing Committee is also hosting several fan celebration events during each match at several locations around Seattle.
Seattle Stadium
Sound Transit’s Link light rail system will be the best option for many people traveling to the stadium. To avoid crowding on the trains near the stadium, Sound Transit is asking passengers to a specific station near the stadium depending on the travel direction. Passengers traveling from the north, should exit 1 Line and 2 Line trains at Pioneer Square station. From the east, depart 2 Line trains at International District/Chinatown station. From the south, use Stadium station. Use the same station to board the train on the return trip.
From downtown Seattle, Metro is running a free Match Day Shuttle along 3rd Ave. Countless Metro buses stop near the stadium as well. The First Hill Streetcar will run, but will terminate at 5th Ave & Jackson St because the area around Seattle Stadium will be pedestrianized.
For fans traveling from further away, Sound Transit’s Sounder train offers convenient access to the station. The N Line travels between Seattle and Everett and the S Line travels between Seattle and Tacoma/Lakewood.
Fan Celebrations
All four Fan Celebrations are easily accessible using public transit. Both the Waterfront and Match Day Shuttles stop at the Seattle Center, as well as the Seattle Monorail and bus routes 1, 2, 4, 8, 13, 24, 32, 33, and D Line. Pacific Place is across 6th Ave from Westlake station Exit A1 and just three blocks from all buses that go to downtown Seattle. The Waterfront Park is easily accessible using the Waterfront Shuttle or via a 15 minute walk from from Westlake station. Victory Hall can be accessed using the Match Day Shuttle, Route 21, or a 12 minute walk from Stadium station.
Tacoma
In Tacoma, the Puyallup Tribe is hosting a viewing party for each match at Puyallup Tribal Administration. In addition to Route 41, Pierce Transit will run a free Fan Zone Express bus to/from Tacoma Dome.
Everett
The Everett Fan Zone is located on the waterfront at Boxcar Park. Each match day, Everett Transit will run a shuttle between the Fan Zone and Everett station with stops in downtown Everett. Shuttles will start running 2 hours and 15 minutes before each match, and run every 15 minutes until 2 hours after the match ends. Route 6 runs every 40 minutes from 6am-6pm on a similar route.
Bremerton
Across the Sound, the Bremerton Fan Zone will be on a pedestrianized 4th St in Quincy Square. This is conveniently just a seven minute walk from the Bremerton Ferry Terminal and the Kitsap Transit Foot Ferries. Kitsap Transit routes 212, 215, 217, 221, 224, 225, 226, and 229 stop near the Fan Zone.
P.S. If you have an open Saturday or Sunday with no World Cup events to attend, Trailhead Direct goes from Seattle to several woodsy trailheads in the Cascade mountain foothills. The Downtown Redmond Link station also has several trails adjacent or nearby to the surrounding area, including the Woodinville wine country.
Also of note, bikes will not be allowed onboard sounder and link during game days due to expected crowding. Bikelink lockers will be free to use, so make your account now.
Bicycle commuters aren’t going to appreciate this.
Snohomish County has lots of viewing events in cities around the county. Each one has the Community Transit route(s) it’s on and the last-mile walk time.
Sound Transit sent an email press release with all the things it’s doing for the Games:
– Overhauled/modernized CID station escalators. Added ORCA readers.
– Google Maps has station information in 25 languages for the 1 and 2 Lines.
– Platform wheelchair-entry position placards at Stadium, CID, PSQ, and Westlake stations. (I saw this yesterday.)
– Westlake station information kiosk is open during the World Cup, and station agents are on the mezzanine. (I saw this yesterday.)
– Additional signage showing where to board trains for Seattle and SeaTac airport. (I saw more exit-letter signs at the Westlake escalators platform level.)
– Trains will announce preferred deboarding stations for Seattle Stadium (Lumen Field).
– Trains’ station display at Stadium and PSQ has a soccer ball icon. At CID a soccer ball combined with an accessibilty symbol (I guess a wheelchair).
– Audio welcome and how-to-ride announcements by women’s soccer legend Megan Rapinoe and former Seahawks standout Doug Baldwin.
– Tap-to-Pay: ORCA readers accept contactless credit/debit cars and ORCA cards.
– Extra security staff and informational station agents at stations.
Other Sound Transit World Cup information: https://www.soundtransit.org/soccertournament
World Cup match times, to plan around peak crowding and congestion before and after:
Noon: Monday June 15, Friday June 19, Wednesday June 24
8pm: Friday June 26
1pm: Wednesday July 1
5pm: Monday July 6
Fully expect Link to be packed leading to missed trains and crush capacity as the system is already overstressed. Best avoid it if you can.
In which case, it is good to not forget about the humble bus. I could easily imagine a #70, with plenty of seats getting you downtown faster than waiting for several Link trains. Of course, if everybody knew about it, the 70 itself would fill up, but my guess is that very few people will think to take it.
That is how it was on Seahawks Day, but most people are expecting it to be smaller than that. It’s basically people who have tickets to the game, and that’s similar to a full ballgame. And hotel stays are lower than expected due to the difficulty of coming to the US or people refusing to.
In any case, STB readers know alternate ways to get around via local buses and back ways, so we can use those if Link is particularly crowded and leave space on Link for those who don’t know other ways. It’s similar though not identical to when the downtown tunnel is closed. So if I want to get from central Seattle to Rainier Valley or Beacon Hill, I take the 7 or 36. To the airport, 124+A or 124+Link. From the U-District to Rainier Valley, the 48. From Bellevue to the U-District, the 271, and you might take the anyway to somewhere southwest or northwest of the U-District even if you wouldn’t normally, if Link sounds too crowded to be used. From Roosevelt to Capitol Hill or downtown, 67+49, or 62 to downtown.
So apparently wait times were so bad that people waited over an hour. It’s even on YouTube from local news and on social media. I normally would simply say told ya so, but, anyone who’s been in that area post big event knows the system cracks under pressure
Worse, I hear people were being held back while trains left half-full. If that’s true, there needs to be a huge apology and specific steps publicly taken to change this before the next match.
Link crush capacity of 8 four car trains and 8 three car trains per hour combined is about 16000 riders in all directions per hour. Capacity is much higher in the past few months now that both 1 and 2 lines travel through Downtown.
I’m expecting fans to stay near Downtown and travel in small groups so there will likely be lots of shared rides. Plus many Downtown hotels are not on Link.
So I don’t think it will be worse than a Seahawks game day and it may be lighter given how ST has more trains compared to just last winter. Probably the biggest surge is when a game ends.
FTA spares count doesn’t include special events outside regular scheduled service.
So, if they were able to get enough cars into service, they could have a brief period of all 4 car trains and not violate the spare fleet thing.
However, that would be a significant undertaking that would have had to start months ago.
Social media and local channels already covering the 1-2 hour lines to get a train. I was happy to avoid Link that day
Waiting to get to or from the game?
Why would the crowding be much different than a Seahawks game?
With Friday the 19th being Juneteenth, will some routes be on holiday schedule?
Great piece. As someone running a World Cup schedule site, I gotta say—Seattle’s transit setup is a godsend for fans juggling six matches. Light rail and extra Sounder service? That’s the kind of planning that makes or breaks a tournament experience. I’ve seen too many cities fumble this. Hope they keep the crowd flow smooth, especially for those 1 Line exits at Pioneer Square. Our users are already downloading PDFs to plan around game times—this info helps them figure out *how* to get there too.
Just read this – super helpful for anyone heading to matches in Seattle. I run a site with the full 104-game schedule (downloadable PDF/Excel/ICS), so I’ve been obsessing over logistics. The tip about exiting at different stations depending on direction is gold. Wish they’d mentioned parking options for those driving from farther out, but the Sounder trains sound solid. Great practical guide.
There’s several hundred park and ride lots scattered all over the Puget Sound region, with most transit routes going into downtown Seattle going fairly close to the stadium. There are also dozens of private parking lots in places such as Tacoma and SeaTac. It would be really difficult to mention every single one of those in a single article, and you’d pretty much have to because recommended use of each of those would depend on where someone is coming from.
“From Further Out” is how far out? If someone is coming from any of the places between Portland and Seattle, and further south than DuPont, Amtrak is probably a good option too. The Amtrak station is slightly closer to the stadium than Sounder.
Amtrak between Seattle and Portland must certainly be better than I-5, especially going south. Traffic congestion through Olympia, Lacey, and JBLM has increased significantly in the past couple of years at all hours of the day.