How Seattle's Urban Stadium Brought World Cup Success, While Others Floundered

A large number of soccer fans make their way along the waterfront, through Seattle’s streets, and up to the entrance gates of Lumen Field. Known as the “March to the Match”, the fan tradition of walking to the game has been part of Sounders fans’ pre-game ritual since 2005.

But this time around, Lumen Field is known as “Seattle Stadium” and the fans aren’t Sounders fans: they’re passionate Bosnia and Herzegovina supporters, walking to the FIFA World Cup game to support their team in its match against Qatar.

“It was honestly awe-inspiring. At one point I caught it, and it took 15 minutes for [the crowd] to pass this one intersection where I was standing, which is frankly unheard of,” said Jeremiah Oshan, editor of Sounder at Heart, a publication covering Seattle's professional soccer teams including its Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise.

World Cup fan experiences so far throughout the US

The image of the Bosnia fans forming a sea of blue and yellow, U.S. fans uniting as a sea of red and white, or Egypt fans creating a Nile-like river of pharaoh-hatted fans marching along the streets of Seattle, lies in stark contrast to many other matches that have taken place across North America over the past few weeks. In numerous other cities, planning hiccups have overshadowed the revelry.

https://www.theurbanist.org/how-seattles-urban-stadium-brought-world-cup-success/