Northwest now is supported in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.

We're all about football here in western Washington, and the Seahawks are the champs, so that's all that matters, right?

Wrong.

We're not talking that football.

We're talking this football.

The number one game in the world.

The World Cup is coming to Seattle.

And as Trump would say it's going to be huge tonight.

What does it mean for Pierce County.

Can we get a few crumbs that fall off the table.

The answer is yes.

And we're talking about it with the Tacoma Pierce Economic Development Board, the City of Tacoma, and the Puyallup Tribe of Indians.

The World Cup is the discussion next on northwest.

Now.

Music Seattle is one of 16 host cities for the FIFA World Cup.

The World Cup is played every four years.

And for the billions, yes, billions of soccer fans around the world.

It's the Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cup and the Olympics all wrapped into one.

Six matches will be played at Lumen Field starting on June 15th.

Here are the teams coming to the Seattle venue Belgium, Egypt, Australia, Qatar, Iran and of course, the United States.

Now, the last time I checked, ticket prices for the U.S.

versus Australia match started at 1500 bucks.

750,000 visitors from all around the world are expected to flood into western Washington.

And the goal here in Tacoma and Pierce County is to try to get a lot of those people stay eating and sightseeing around here.

One of the draws here in the South Side will be one of FIFA's fan zones.

That'll be hosted by the Puyallup Tribe of Indians.

For more details on what it all means for the South Sound, we've got the president and CEO of the Tacoma Pierce Economic Development Board, Michael Katz, Puyallup Tribe of Indians World Cup project director Amy McFarland, and Tacoma venues and events director Adam Cook.

Welcome, all of you to northwest.

Now, great to have a conversation about the World Cup, which is going to be a big deal here.

In Puget Sound, not only up in the North Sound in central Puget Sound of the Seattle area, but also hopefully down here in the south side where we originate our program.

I also want to, you know, make a disclaimer here for the people who are talking about this here today.

I understand that plans are going to be very fluid.

There's a lot of planning to do, and it's going to be, you know, probably one crisis after another as you guys try to step through this and get things figured out.

So we're going to write this down in pencil.

Nobody's signing a contract here.

The city, the county, the tribe of all come together on the EDB as well.

I want you to just start by outlining your roles in this event and kind of what you're thinking about, what your plans are for each of your your missions here.

Michael, start with you.

What KDB got in the in store.

Yeah.

For us it's really about how do we how do we secure, economic benefit for the businesses and for the communities around our region, the Pierce County?

We don't have any sort of, official function in the, in the World Cup, but, we're really this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, right?

So we want to make sure that it's not just Seattle that gets the benefit from the World Cup and all the visitors and the attention is that we also get it here in Pierce County.

So whether it's businesses ramping up to meet the demand for new people coming in or whether it's, just the, just the sort of the recognition you get, the, the media, the media and, just having us out there, we really want to make sure that Pierce County is highlighted as well as central Puget Sound.

It's always seems to me it's events like this.

Pierce County's kind of like me to me.

You.

Hey, hey, we're down here.

And, this will be another example of that, with the exception maybe of chambers Bay in the US open, which was kind of our, our thing.

Right.

So that was kind of it.

And this is big enough that we can actually be a part of this, you know.

So I think that's a great opportunity.

Amy, talk a little bit about the, the tribes role.

And everybody, of course, is talking about the fan zone.

That's the big one.

You guys are going to be doing.

So I want you to talk about that.

But prior to that, I want to tell people you made me aware, that this isn't the first time for soccer, on Puyallup tribal lands in terms of a traditional game.

Talk a little bit about that and what's going on.

Absolutely.

Well, the there is a game like soccer.

It's a combination of soccer and football, right?

That begins with the harvesting of a goat's stomach.

And so one of the things that we'll be providing at the fan zone is some indigenous youth games to bring some of those traditions back.

And I think it'll be a lot of fun to not only learn the traditions, but tie that into the sport that we're going to be hosting.

The events for.

So talk about the fan zone.

What is it?

Do you have a is there a vision yet for is it going to be tents and contest or talk talk me through about it as you know it so far.

Because like I said, I know there's a lot to absolutely.

Well, one of our goals is to put Pierce County and Tacoma on the map for the place to come for World Cup events.

So we have several viewing parties that will be throughout the city and county for, at least four in each area and in every one of the matches, in addition to some signatory events, a powwow.

We're going to have a World Cup power, which is the destination in the name of that will have dancers from all over the nation coming.

We've already had heard from folks from New Mexico, New York.

So it'll be not just a regional area, but a national and, spaces for our international folks to join as well.

Coastal Protocol, which will give acknowledgment to the canoe families that have originated back to 1998, as well as bringing back stick games, which is slow ball games or bone games.

And that will be a lot of fun because we haven't had it here in a number of years.

And so signatory event viewing parties, we're going to have a World Cup parade.

I was going to say it all kicks off of the parade, right?

Yes, yes.

So a parade with an opening ceremony to tell a little bit about the creation story and about the concept of coming together.

And let's go now, Adam, I know you've been working diligently in the background to get a match down in the Tacoma Dome there in the U.S., the U.S., the U.S.

managed to play it.

Tacoma.

Short of that, though, what is what's in this for?

You know, the Tacoma venues and events, it seems like, you know, you've got a lot of space and a lot of capacity for a lot of people.

If you can kind of get it marketed and get out there.

Absolutely, absolutely.

And we originally approached the Fan Zone concept when, Seattle Host Committee brought it forward as, how can we make this great for the region?

And our first thought, knowing that the tribe had that legacy, sponsorship and partnership with the games themselves was to partner and to bring that together.

And once we talked to Amy and learned all about everything they were doing, it only made sense for us to really lean in there on that collaboration, that partnership that's been so critical to building our community over the last many years and, amplify their message, support their message.

So what you're going to see the city really participating in is how we are supporting the main fan zone activation at the tribal center.

That's through the Tacoma Dome and use of our parking activations, our transit really tying in with Pierce County, Pierce transit, Sound Transit, bringing that together.

That's bringing in all of the community events that happened throughout that window that have absolutely nothing to do with the World Cup, the 4th of July celebration, the Juneteenth celebration, which is the largest in the state, bringing all of that into the mix so that we can really bring that together.

And then it's going to be helping the business communities and how we can help drive additional, traffic for them and get them ready through various playbooks that the city brings together.

Some marketing and some of the marketing and PR is a lot want to dive in a little bit on the specifics of economic impact?

Michael, go back to you.

You know, it's good.

You're all you're thinking about businesses, but you're probably also thinking about business owners who are coming here for the games.

People who are decision makers have the big bucks to looking for a place and see the see the mountain and all those good things.

Will you be handing out cards?

Probably your business cards.

And how do you leverage that kind of exposure for EDB?

Not only on the sell side, but also maybe on the buy side?

Yeah.

That's great.

I mean, 5 billion people will be looking at this region at some point or the other during, during those games.

And, you know, Tacoma, a lot of people know Seattle.

Most people don't know Tacoma.

So this is a great opportunity for us to get the Tacoma Pierce County name out there.

It's a hugely international crowd, so we expect to see business owners and decision makers not only being here, but if they're not here looking and watching from their homes and so I think there's a great opportunity for us to then leverage that and then use that for additional marketing to to companies and countries around the world.

So it continues on with the work we do.

We just have something now that we can actually leverage, right?

Which is, the eyes of the world are on us for those six weeks, and then we can leverage that.

So it's really critical that we get in front of those people, and we make sure that we have the best, foot forward when it comes to, our images going out there.

And are you guys really concerned all that much with the economic impact?

I mean, it's always nice to have some economic impact, or is this more of a cultural impact thing for you in terms of being the first indigenous group, I think, in history, to partner with FIFA on a World Cup anywhere in the world.

So what's the weight there?

You know, when we first started the conversation about World Cup and bringing it here, it was about having the opportunity to share our story with the world and invite the rest of the world to come in and be a part of who we are culturally, traditionally, through language, through all of those aspects.

But we can't ignore the fact of how we got here is through economic development.

So of course, being able to amplify our story and share out that just today, making connections with folks from potentially Ghana for our chocolate company.

So that's what it's also about.

It's it's sustainability of our language, our our culture and our economic development.

So yes, there's an arm in that as well.

And this question is for you and Michael.

You can chime in on this too afterwards because you're both, spend a lot of time in the economic development game and the marketing game trying to get your message out there.

There's an estimated $929 million impact.

And I'm wondering, what's your view on that?

What does that mean, exactly?

And I have often hear analysis coming from various universities.

There's a new study that kind of Pooh poo the whole multiplier thing that says, well, a lot of that money is going to get shipped off to Brazil.

It's not going to go here, it's not going to go there.

So the whole impact things, a little bit of a myth.

Help me interpret that.

Do you agree with that or do you think there is a big impact?

Set me straight.

Yeah.

So when we talk about the economic impact of a mega national international event like this, it is a bit of a variable.

And what isn't known right now is exactly what that means for both the US as well as Canada and Mexico.

This is the first time games like this have been played across an entire continent, across three countries.

Traditionally, they're more in a single or maybe two host cities, as opposed to the plethora that there are across North America right now.

And so the economic impact is going to be there.

But when we talk 929 million, that's not just United States.

That's not just Tacoma.

That is across all games across the entire continent.

So, it's going to be pretty spread out and diverse as we talk about Tacoma and Pierce County specifically, we're really focusing on what that means for our region.

And that's going to be international travel that we are hoping to pull down from, Seattle to come down for a day or a weekend in the in between games.

Amy's great work bringing in folks from across the country for pow wow and what that means.

That's hotels, that's restaurants, that's bookings in the area.

That's the work that Michael gets to do to hopefully have them come back and bring a business.

The economic impact we're looking for is not necessarily what's immediate and going to happen around these three weeks.

It's what's going to be generational in their seats.

Yeah, yeah.

Next many years.

Mike Michael what's your thought on the multiplier effect.

And again I see it's kind of like studies about coffee and wine.

One week it's good for a one week it's not economic.

It once it's big multiplier.

Well does it really mean anything.

How do you take that.

What is your analysis.

Yeah.

Well we use multipliers because I mean I think it's a fairly well proven thing.

If a company spends a dollar to pay an employee, that employee then pays the grocery store, the grocery store, then pay somebody else and it and it goes on download.

There is a multiplier effect.

The question is how well do you do the study?

How well is it your assumptions correct and all you know?

And does it make sense for the activity that you're doing.

So there is a multiplier effect.

My biggest concern about this is we're going to see a big spike in money coming in, revenue coming into the community.

And then when it's done nothing, you know it's going to be up and down like that.

What I would love to see is more of this, you know, sort of a longer term legacy impacts that, you know, six weeks is great for the short term, but we want something that lasts for years.

Trying to get something that sticks to your ribs a little bit.

Yeah, yeah, that's down the road.

Talk a little bit about creating conditions for success.

Ryan Mellow, the, the county executive has talked about the fast ferry for the event.

Adam, you mentioned that as well.

Pierce transit being activated, multi-day orca passes, which I think are so valuable.

There's nothing I go for.

You go to another city, and you sit there.

I'm reading, trying to figure out how to leverage the transit system.

I my got it.

You need to bring your own accounting firm to try it.

But you know, if you can just get an Orca card and go, man, that is really the way, the way to do it.

So there's some good things happening.

Michael, back to you to start.

How can local businesses leverage this?

You've talked about kind of the things you want to stick to your ribs, looking at possible on the, on the buy side, people that will maybe be exposed to us.

But what are some nuts and bolts things?

Have you been talking to local business owners?

Hey, make sure you do this in this and this.

What are some of those things?

Well, the beauty is we don't have to do that.

The Seattle Metro Chamber actually looked at putting together a small business playbook for mega events.

And so they've actually done all the work.

And they have a playbook on their website that anyone can download, businesses from restaurants to grocery stores to, you know, Airbnbs to hotels.

There's a whole bunch of different stuff that they've actually put together that these businesses can actually put in place to benefit from these games.

So I think that's the beauty is that someone's already done the work.

They wanted to make sure that this had a statewide impact, and they put this small business playbook together for mega events.

So this playbooks not just good for the World Cup.

If we get a Super Bowl or we get something else, any mega event, this playbook will work for that.

And one more time they want to Google Seattle Chamber Seattle Metro chamber Seattle.

Yeah okay.

I'm sure they'll somewhere find it.

Yeah.

Yes.

You put them on the right track there any I think about the tribe and I think to myself, well when it comes to yes they'll have the fan zone and some of the viewing and things.

But then I say to myself, oh gosh, you know, think about, you know, bringing in Big Ax to the Emerald Queen and really firing up the buffet and doing all of it, doing some of this big stuff.

It seems like a real great chance.

Is is there anything other than Fan zone and things?

How is the tribe preparing, I guess, across the campus, and what are some of the other things the tribe's doing?

Campus is a great way to frame that.

And that's that's exactly where we're at, looking at some of the entertainment to come in, to fill some of those spots where there isn't matches.

And so we're in negotiations right now to who and what do we want to target to bring those in during the downtime so that it's a constant, party, if you will, for World Cup for the entire time?

I and I can see that because that crowd comes in with their scarves.

Thank you.

By the way.

And who who did this?

So the scarves themselves are from visit Tacoma, Pierce County.

They have some major activations going on throughout the region.

These are the first two of six that will be coming out branded for the World Cup, and specifically around Tacoma, around the activations down here.

They also are doing some promotional activities on, hidden glass giveaway.

So, it's all with respect to our Monkey Shine partners who put those out in the community, take off of the work that they've done in the way they've started.

But there will be over a thousand glass pieces hidden out in the community, starting in the spring.

So do we think there's going to be any infrastructure?

And this is open to anybody?

You know, the the world's Fair left behind, Seattle Center, some Olympic venues that, have to build new facilities, get the, you know, the swimming pool in the opening ceremony, the big new, stadium.

I think one of the countries over in the Middle East built huge facilities for the World Cup.

Was that Dubai or Qatar, you know, spent billions.

We're not doing that, obviously, but the facilities here are already, by and large, built.

Is there anything that's going to stick or stay?

Will I be able to tell a year from now that there is a World Cup here, do you think, or do we know that?

Yeah.

Go ahead.

Yeah.

So, I think one of the things that the, local organizing committee did was make sure that that some of those benefits, again, go to the long term legacy benefits.

I think, soccer fields have been upgraded and built to help support it.

I think some of the facilities have been upgraded a little bit to help support, the teams using them, for practice and things like that.

So there have been some of those, but this smaller level, I know the, the state government and the federal government have contributed, quite a bit of money to Seattle to to sort of for safety reasons and for transit and things like that.

So I think there are some smaller, legacy things that we'll see that I'm aware of.

Adam.

You be.

Yeah.

You're seeing some upgrades to Lumen Field, obviously, as they prepare and get on that world stage as well.

Speaking a little more locally, you're going to see some things around transit.

Our partners.

Pierce, you read my mind.

Sound transit is helping those with.

Maybe the fast ferry will stick fingers.

Absolutely.

And so, yeah, Pierce transit, sound Transit really ramping up their service around the games.

And we'll see some of that continue.

Hopefully the fast ferry is a partnership with the county, the tribe and a few others right now to get a fast foot ferry coming down from Seattle to Tacoma.

That will roll out over the next, probably a year and a half to two years, to see that start and really hope to see that extending continue as that legacy project.

And Michael mentioned the fields those are not just, smaller play fields that are happening up in Seattle around the games.

But I know Amy's team has done some fantastic work with them.

We got a couple, projects going on.

First, I'll mention the one that the LLC is putting together, which is the Unity Loop, and that one will stay long afterwards.

It's a culmination of all of the different cultures and recognition, starting from one end, that folks can walk safely through.

It's going to be a beautiful loop that they will be dedicating here, I think at the beginning of April, if not the park like setting this interpretive, it'll be very nice.

They've been working on it for a bit.

We locally will be partnering with the City of Tacoma, as well as soccer USA and building a couple of pitches.

One pitch in particular is going to be on the east side, where the former Galt area was, and that will be for, soccer for the blind, a training site for Paralympics.

And so we're excited about being able to bring that and have that as a legacy when we're all finished.

Yeah.

When we, we often talk, you know, here in the South sound you know when it comes to workforce development everybody DRI has to drive north for, for a job.

And I think that's changing a little bit.

But you know I want to ask all three of you, Michael, how do we kind of shed that second place, that Second City thing?

We will we always will be to some degree.

But I think Tacoma has changed so much in the South.

Sound has changed so much.

So many great things happening.

How do we make sure that this isn't a World Cup with people throwing salmon up at Pike Place Market and every, you know, and every game's cover shots before we go to commercial, how do we how do we say, hey, South Sound, Mount Rainier, cool things.

What are your thoughts on that?

I think we just have to be us, right?

We just have to be who we are.

And I think Tacoma and Pierce County have this sort of second city mentality, and I think we need to shake that.

We're a city.

We're we're a county and we have our own identity and we have our own, our own cool things that we do.

And I mean, having Seattle, being as well known as it is, is a benefit to us because that means we have a norm, a natural attraction point that we can actually leverage.

But I think, you know, for many years we've sort of looked at, Seattle gets everything and we get nothing.

And I think we've acted like that.

I think we need to act like Tacoma and Pierce County and we own it, and we we be we.

Yeah, that's that's the way I look at it.

And I think you're articulating something I've said a lot on this show in various venues over the years, too, which is I really think Tacoma is the place to be now in Puget Sound, I really do.

Yeah.

I want no arguments there.

Yeah, yeah.

For the tribe from that perspective, how do you guys, you know, view that and, view the idea of you.

You're really not a second city.

You're your own sovereign entity.

So you're a little different in that regard.

How do you guys plan on approaching that or what are your thoughts maybe about approaching it?

Our approach is similar to the canoe journey and, protocols around that which says, come ashore, we are welcome.

Come on in.

And so there's a protocol around how to ask permission to come to shore, but we are extending the invitation wide to say, come join us and be a part of the event.

We don't see that as, exclusive at all.

All day events are going to be free and an opportunity for the community to come together around a shared love of soccer culture and unity.

Yeah.

Adam, you and I have talked about this in the past two, a little bit about that kind of second city mentality.

And hey there's Tacoma to some cool concerts down here.

There's some things to see.

What are your, what are your plans in terms of or what is your early thinking about marketing?

To me, it almost seems like you could use a little humor in some ways.

You know?

Hey.

Yeah, yeah, here, the here, the shiny objects.

But yeah, but this is really affordable.

Cool.

And and that's a nice thing.

So that's just me.

What are your thoughts?

The expert.

Yeah.

And you know, for us one of the things we're looking at from from the city side as we approach this is really that idea of the collaboration and the partnership.

We know that the city of Tacoma could do its thing and go forward.

The tribe could do their thing and go for the county could do theirs.

But really, by coming together, we create a stronger unity that pushes the entire message that much further out into the world.

And it really is that Tacoma is its own city.

As we market our venues, as we market our events, we are our own independent city.

Honestly, we've talked to many of the other nine fan zones that exist around the state.

We are going to have the most activated fan zone in the state.

We are going to have the largest fan zone in the state.

And if I'm being partial, we're going to have the coolest fan zone in the state that is going to bring in people from all over the country, not just people from our local region.

That's how we tell the story.

This isn't about Tacoma versus Seattle.

It's about, no, we're Tacoma and this is what we're I was about to come on.

No, no, we're our own folks now.

Okay?

I'm just I'm just making troubles.

I'm happy to do our last two minutes here.

I want to give each of you a chance for naked self-promotion.

Michael, how can people get involved with EDB?

Where do they go?

What do they need to know?

They can visit our website.

Choose Tacoma Pierce dot OIG.

They can reach out to me directly, where, you know, we focus on recruiting businesses, retaining businesses, helping them expand and marketing the region as a is a great place to live, work, play and invest in me.

How can folks, get with the tribe?

And learn about not only the events you're doing, but also just the tribe in general?

I mean, everybody, of course, interfaces with you at the Emerald Queen, but what are some of the other, channels and pathways?

Well, go to the website Tribe Talk and find all of that on there.

We have our own page for the World Cup.

In addition, if you want additional information that just about World Cup Puyallup all together.org, you can get all that information.

Okay.

And Adam, last but not least, City of Tacoma.

Yep.

So city's going to have a whole rollout of press coming up over the next several months.

Really focus on it.

But anybody who wants information on either what's going on with the fan zone, what's going on for venues in Tacoma, the community events, Tacoma venues, dot org is your best place, and transit would be linked on there as well.

We'll get transit linked on there.

Everything to do with the fan zone.

We'll link right off of that site.

Yeah, because I think that's going to be a big piece of this as getting around, getting up there, getting on back, getting to your hotel, doing the cool dinner.

Yeah.

Great.

Well great conversation everybody.

I appreciate you all coming to northwest now.

And I think World Cup is going to be great.

And, you know, fingers crossed it's a great event.

Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Yeah.

Soccer has slowly climbed the ladder of popularity here in the United States.

A recent study by The Economist says that soccer is now the number three sport behind American football and basketball, beating out baseball and hockey.

The bottom line having this event land in North America with one of the venues right here in western Washington, is a once in a generation opportunity to showcase Seattle and the South Sound.

I hope this program, as always, got you thinking and talking.

You can find this program on the web at Kttc Dawg, streaming through the PBS app, or listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

That's going to do it for this edition of northwest.

Now, until next time, I'm Tom Larsen.

Thanks for watching Music