The Seattle Sounders, Seattle Reign and their charitable arm the RAVE Foundation, in partnership with Friends of Waterfront Park announced Seattle Soccer Celebration powered by Lenovo on Wednesday. This will be a floating installation on Elliott Bay, and will feature the symbolic 52nd pitch in RAVE Foundation’s initiative to build 52 mini-pitches by the end of 2026 as part of their celebration of the World Cup.
More than just a floating mini-pitch, the installation will be “an iconic, floating festival of football, culture and community set against the backdrop of Elliott Bay at Waterfront Park’s Pier 62,” according to RAVE’s announcement. The barge will be on Elliott Bay through the World Cup.
“This is a defining moment for our city and our clubs. Seattle Soccer Celebration is more than a fan experience, it’s a global expression of who we are and what we believe sport can do,” said Hugh Weber, President of Business Operations for Seattle’s professional soccer clubs. “By bringing the world’s game onto Elliott Bay, we’re creating something never seen before while delivering on a promise to our community. This is Seattle showing how a city, a waterfront and two clubs can come together to build something that resonates far beyond the tournament.”
Lenovo, the Official Technology Partner of the FIFA 2026 World Cup and presenting partner of Seattle Soccer Celebration, will be providing the technology necessary to host watch parties and immersive experiences throughout the tournament. Edward Jones will be presenting VIP areas on the barge, while the space will be utilized for brand activations, ticketed events, and public use throughout the installation.
“It will be open to community for certain dates. It will be rented by groups for other dates,” Fosberg clarified during a conversation with Sounder at Heart. “We’re gonna be very intentional about using that space and inviting community groups down to be part of this amazing event that's coming to the city, that they may not be able to attend. So let’s bring it to them. And watch parties and opportunities to play on the symbolic 52nd field. So super excited about including community in this moment, because they should be.”
Seattle Soccer Celebration will serve as an addition to Waterfront Park at Pier 62, a uniquely Seattle demonstration of love for the game as the pitch and surrounding elements are built on a barge and floating on Elliott Bay with the entire city and surrounding natural beauty as a backdrop for fans to take in while enjoying games throughout the World Cup. Along with Seattle Soccer Celebration, Waterfront Park will also host one of Seattle’s official free fan celebration sites.
Based on the numerous parties involved, it’s no surprise that this project took some time to come to fruition. Fosberg explained that “it’s been an idea percolating for a good 18 months, almost 2 years. I think once we found the right location, it took on more speed.”
Although the installation will not be a permanent fixture, the opportunity to have this crown jewel of a symbolic 52nd pitch as part of the mini-pitch initiative was important to RAVE Foundation.
“When you think about it being the symbolic 52nd rave field, that is meaningful, because that is the legacy, Sounders and Reign, are building, as a result of World Cup coming here,” said Fosberg. “World Cup will come, and World Cup will go. And we have committed to make soccer more accessible in the state after World Cup's long gone. And so, I’m proud that we had been doing this work for years to get to this point, so we could actually tell this story and put real demonstrable investment behind it.”
While the Seattle Soccer Celebration will sail off along with the World Cup later this summer, RAVE Foundation isn’t necessarily done building mini-pitches as permanent fixtures in communities throughout the region.
“We’re gonna keep going,” said Fosberg. “I know that we will be looking around a new goal for possibly around the Women’s World Cup, 2031. Deciding what that number is we’re gonna reach.”
While 52 fields was an important mark to meet — original plans tied to the pitch to bring the World Cup to Seattle were for 26 mini-pitches by 2026, which they met well ahead of schedule and opted to double it to 52 — Fosberg emphasized that the number of fields is much less important than the people and communities they can reach.
“When I think about numbers, it’s important to note that it really is about the people. So the 52 is a metric number of fields, but you think about thousands of people that are impacted by those fields, and it gets pretty deep.”
