The Visitor Wave Is Coming—Here’s How Kitsap Can Catch It

Next summer, the world’s largest sporting event is heading our way: The 2026 FIFA World Cup. With it comes significant potential to boost Kitsap tourism and small business.

Slated to be held in 16 different cities across Mexico, Canada and the United States, what’s important for us here in the Pacific Northwest is that two of the host cities are Seattle and Vancouver, Canada. Experts expect around 750,000 to come to our region for the games. Seattle has meaningful matches to host in this tournament: A US game on June 19, a knockout match on July 1, and a round-of-16 match on July 6. This is in addition to three other games Seattle will host on June 15, 24 and 26.

Why Now: Eight Months Out Is Exactly the Right Time

It might feel early to be talking about next summer, but when it comes to FIFA World Cup, it isn’t. At least, not if you want to take advantage of the economic potential of these games, whether that’s positioning your small business for upside or renting out that extra room in your house on AirBNB. While the World Cup is eight months away, and hotel rooms aren't sold out across the region yet, they could be soon. Experts expect few hotel rooms to be available and significant price hikes from late May into early July next year. Right now, many Washington communities are getting ahead of the game, working to identify how to maximize their World Cup opportunity.

Bremerton Fan Zone: Quincy Square as the Downtown Engine

That includes us here in Kitsap, where Bremerton has been recognized as an official Fan Zone by the Seattle organizing committee. That means Bremerton is one of nine cities across the state where the games can be publicly viewed with an official license. The City of Bremerton’s plan is to use the newly-opened Quincy Square to create an open-air, pedestrianized, public space where the games can be shown outside, so that both established and new businesses in the downtown core can take advantage of increased foot traffic. The City of Bremerton has even adjusted their permitting processes for this by allowing “pop-up” shops to operate in vacant buildings next summer, extending their temporary merchant license to 60 days instead of the normal 30. This temporary license allows these pop-up merchants to be exempt from business and occupancy taxes, as well as certain code requirements, as long as capacity is limited to 48 or fewer occupants and other conditions of the permit are met.

From here on out, there’s going to be a lot of focus on the World Cup across Kitsap. That’s why KEDA’s Fall Forum this year is exclusively dedicated to the intersection of small business and how they can capitalize on World Cup activity. Local World Cup experts the Greater Kitsap Chamber, Love Kitsap / staykitsap26.com and the Downtown Bremerton Association will join us along with others to talk about what’s headed our way with the World Cup, and Kitsap’s plan for the games. We’re calling this year’s Fall Forum event Kickstart Kitsap: From Pop-Ups to Profit, Winning Strategies for Small Business. It’s going to be held October 30 from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. at Kitsap Conference Center, Bremerton Harborside.

Lessons from Spokane: Event-Driven Growth That Works

While there will be plenty of local expertise at the event, we also want to learn from other communities. That’s why Cherié Gwinn, Director of Sports Development at Spokane Sports, is serving as our keynote speaker.

“Sports have an incredible ability to drive economic growth and community pride,” Cherié said, discussing the two seemingly different disciplines of sports management and economic development. “When cities invest in hosting and supporting events of all sizes, the return goes far beyond visitor spending. It strengthens local businesses, energizes downtowns, and puts communities like ours on the map.”

When it comes to sports-related economic development, Spokane really knows what it’s doing. The city is home to multiple world-class facilities like The Podium powered by STCU and Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena. Spokane also hosts massive sports events like Hoopfest – the world’s largest 3-on-3 basketball tournament– as well as the Lilac Bloomsday run, March Madness games and scores of other large-scale events. When it comes to the World Cup next year, Spokane is both a Fan Zone and proposed Base Camp location, a place where one of the national teams can use the local sports facilities, set up and prepare for the global competition.

Join the Forum: Kickstart Kitsap, Oct. 30 (Register)

Soccer is the world’s #1 sport: The 2022 FIFA World Cup final between Argentina and France drew 1.5 billion viewers. Over 5 billion–more than half the world’s population–engaged with the 2022 tournament, either watching the games on TV or interacting with them digitally. We know that along the I-5 corridor and in Seattle, we’re going to see a big economic impact from these games. Visit Seattle’s preliminary numbers are that the event could generate $652.6 million in direct spending, $929 million in economic impact, and support 20,000 jobs for King County. As for what happens here in Kitsap–well, a lot of that is up to us. To do well, we’ve got to start working on our World Cup strategies now. Join us on October 30 at KEDA’s Fall Forum to learn more and be part of the conversation.  Register at https://kitsapeda.me/kickstart

Joe Morrison is Executive Director of the Kitsap Economic Development Alliance (“KEDA”). E-mail him at morrison@kitsapeda.org. To get tickets for KEDA’s October 30 “Kickstart Kitsap: From Pop-Ups to Profit, Winning Strategies for Small Business” event, click here.