Snohomish County’s 2026 Soccer Summer: Welcome to From Pitch to Puget Sound

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Emily
What is this? What are we doing?

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Kyle
This is from pitch to Puget Sound. Our goal here is we wanna get folks familiar with soccer, familiar with what's happening, and honestly get people ready for the World Cup, which is coming to Seattle this summer. And hopefully we can share a little bit with them about what they need to be doing and getting ready for this.

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Emily
Yeah, and well, why should people listen to you?

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Kyle
I'm a little bit of a soccer person. I grew up playing soccer all throughout my childhood. I'm still involved with soccer and some youth adult leagues. And honestly, I just love soccer. It's a passion of mine. And hopefully I would love to share that with folks. Emily, tell me a little bit about yourself and how you're involved in all this.

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Emily
Well, that makes a lot of sense. I'm not sure why I'm here. Just kidding. I am your civic nerd. That's what I'm bringing. I'm a former state representative with kind of knowledge and insight and some friends that love civics and democracy. And so they're also excited about sports and especially soccer and especially the World Cup. So I'm gonna bring us those connections and I'm going to bring the questions, I think, because I have a lot of them.

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Kyle
We're gonna be two peas in a pod. I can imagine. I know nothing about civics.

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Emily
I know nothing about soccer.

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Kyle
But together, we're gonna bring to you guys some awesome information, awesome history, awesome background about what to expect with everything that's gonna be going on over the next six to nine months here at Puget Sound.

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Emily
Welcome to "From Pitch to Puget Sound."

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Emily
Kyle, what's your favorite thing about soccer?

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Kyle
Oh, that's a good question. I think soccer is one of those sports where you can just see the music playing out there almost. Like when you start to see the movement of the players just start to jive, when you see the ball moving back and forth, it just feels like everything's flowing so smoothly. The most recent example is when the Seattle Sounders were playing Atletico Madrid. We went down, because we had a teammate from my Madrid office, and she was a big Atletico Madrid fan, and she said, "Hey, can we go to the game while I'm here?" And I said, "Absolutely." And when you watched a small team like the Seattle Sounders going up, it's Atletico, but you saw the teams both playing so well, and you can just see the ball just move effortlessly between everyone, oh, that was just music to me. I just, I love that part of the sport. I don't think you get that in a lot of sports.

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Kyle
In football, it's five seconds of smash each other, and then you're done. In basketball, you have up down the court, and maybe you have one person that dribbles it for 20 seconds, and you kind of just sit there. With soccer, because everyone has to be involved, it's not typically just one person holds the ball. It's just so much of more of an orchestra type feeling as opposed to a one-man show out there, which I absolutely love.

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Emily
Yeah, I was gonna say symphony.

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Kyle
Exactly, I love that, I love that. Yeah.

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Kyle
What would be the one thing about soccer that you're most interested in learning about?

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Emily
I like the vibe. I love that everyone's standing all the time. I love hearing the music. I think there is actually a real civic sense in space when we're all in unison, and you wanna sit in that section. I was like, how do I get in that section? That section seems way cooler. That shows community to me, and that's the kind of the sense that I get when I go to the Mariner Games, but only when, because I'm a Mariner's fan, for sure. I love the sounders, I love the timbers, but that energy is so important for everything, and you have to bring that in everything you do. So I think that's what makes soccer stand out the most.

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Kyle
Makes sense. I would say for sure, if you get a chance just to go experience the World Cup, I think soccer in the US is still always growing, but seeing it in other countries,

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Kyle
it's head and shoulders with that community element. My wife and I have had a couple chances to go see soccer games in other countries, and it is fascinating to see the amount of people that just stream into these stadiums. I mean, we were at a stadium in Spain, and it was 120,000 people, so bigger than any NFL stadium in our country, and just every person streaming out of the subway station, coming out of restaurants, it was just, gwah, so. So, yeah. You just said, I don't even know this team. I don't know who any of these players are. I don't know who they're playing across the field, but I'm in love with just this vibe and this energy that you get. And so I'm super excited, because I think the World Cup brings that tenfold. It is just unbelievable, that amount of energy that you get to feel.

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Emily
Yeah. We went to Brazil, and there wasn't games playing, but we did go by the stadium, and we saw it, and my husband got a shirt. I can't even remember the team's name, but he wears it. It's black with red, and it has Rio on it, but he was just like, this is cool. And we talked so much about the fighting, and it's intense, because Argentina and Brazil already fight already, and so then you put soccer in the middle of it, and it's actually kind of dangerous.

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Kyle
Yes, oh my gosh. I had a chance to watch a World Cup game when I was on the travel to the Middle East, which I would have never, my wildest dreams expected to be in the Middle East, but we were watching a game, I think it was between Morocco, and I want to say Egypt or another country, and I have no clue about the history of those countries. I'm not going to pretend to be a historian, but the energy, there was nonstop chanting the entire time. I mean, for 90 plus minutes of this game, it was as if they were singing fight songs from my college back and forth and back and forth all throughout this, and I was like, oh, I thought our Seahawks were loud, right? But we just, ah, we yell at the stadium, but they're singing songs about players. They're yelling just said everyone, it's infectious. It's amazing to me how soccer can do that. And again, every other sport has a similar vibe, but there's something unique about soccer. It's almost romantic in a way where I don't know how best to describe it, but I have always fallen in love with soccer. I mean, it's the sport that to me connects communities the most. It's something that a three-year-old can pick up. You don't need to be rich. You don't need to have a lot of money. You don't need a lot. You can just a soccer ball in an open area and you can kick it and now you're playing soccer. It's imperative. So many sports where you have to have X and you have to have Y.

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Emily
So Kyle, I come from the civics perspective and in all the spaces that I'm in right now, whether it was today in a presentation with King County Metro, everyone is bringing up the World Cup. They want to know about it in every conversation, whether it's transit, transportation, hotels, how are we preparing? What do you as a soccer fan want to know about civics as it relates to soccer here in Snohomish County, in Washington State? How do we make those connections?

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Kyle
I think that's a great question. I would say first off, how do I get to my games on time? Probably the most important question, but I think it's also interesting to understand how much effort goes into this and what it takes to really bring this experience together. Because I think it's really easy for us just to walk into a watch party, to tune into something, to show up at the stadium at day one. I think it helps to have a feel for what it takes to bring this home. I think I would love to hear some of the firsthand accounts of what it takes to organize transportation around this region for such a big event, to understand what it takes to be able to house so many people that are flocking to the state just for this event, to understand what are the complexities of housing so many different cultures all of a sudden in a region where maybe we weren't used to some of those cultures, right? And what has to go on in thinking of all that? I would love for us to deep dive that and I'd better understand it, especially for someone like me that is nowhere near involved in the civic side of things. It sounds like you have a heck of a lot more experience there.

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Emily
I just hear a lot, that's about it.

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(Laughing)

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Kyle
Now I'm gonna ask you a question. If you were in charge of any of this planning, what would be the number one thing that would keep you up at night?

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Emily
I mean, transportation. I mean, how people are gonna get there, that's absolutely what it is. There was a fish truck that got in an accident on the five. Anything that happens on the five starts pushing people into downtown Seattle.

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Emily
The trains will be overloaded. We're not necessarily prepared for what we are about to experience. I mean, we know how crazy it is when the mariner game gets out, the sounders get out at the same time and everyone's trying to get, well, over here back to Linwood so we can get back to Everett. Don't even get me started

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Kyle
on the lines about the light rail, how they're a thousand people deep. Oh my gosh.

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Emily
Yeah, so that would keep me up. And I think any little tiny thing that can go wrong with King County Metro, with Sound Transit is going to create some backlog. So I'd love to talk more with people about how they're preparing for that, what things they have in place. I know we're doing a lot, but we just don't necessarily have all of the infrastructure that we need. Well, and because transportation keeps me up, I don't really want to leave my community to go watch these games. Like I'm not gonna battle that, but I wanna follow the World Cup. So where do you go? Where is the best place to watch? Where are the places that are gonna be prepared for this?

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Kyle
I won't say my couch because that can't support a hundred people, unfortunately.

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Kyle
Honestly, the best places are probably gonna be the same spots where you watch any sports game. So any bar, any pub, any dining area that you're used to, I know where I live, we have a great little spot that everyone goes to to watch Seahawks games. It's probably gonna be the similar spots. So certainly please support your local community. If you're not going to downtown, go find your community. And I guarantee every spot in your area, there's probably someone that's hosting the games. But I'm sure there are some other opportunities. I know I've heard some watch parties that are going on. What are those? Do you know much about them? Or should we start getting more involved with that as we go throughout this kind of series?

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Emily
I'd love to hear from local businesses. They should reach out to us and let us know how they're preparing. And if they want to be featured on this podcast, so we can hear about why we should go to that specific pub. Why we should go to this specific restaurant. What are you offering? I'd love to give them a heads up and-- Help get them connected with the community. Help get them connected with the community, learn what they're doing, learn what opportunities they have in their space, why they're the best spot to go and why their community should check them out. And why some people from one part of Snohomish County should go to another area to experience this pub or this bar. I'd love to know. I mean, we have some amazing places around here. I was just at McMinnemann's earlier today, the Anderson School. It was awesome. Just what a seller place. Are they gonna have a lot of TVs? I don't know. Like I'd love to know where the best spot to watch is and what food we should order.

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Emily
What's the best beer?

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Kyle
Gotta get aligned with the country that you're watching for sure, at least at minimum. So maybe we'll do some special segments on that one at some point in time.

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Emily
Yeah, I wanna know the best beer.

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Kyle
For these local businesses, I'm not someone that's involved in any business. I'm not a small business owner myself. I have no clue how that world works. Is there something that as small businesses get involved in this that they need to be aware of? Or can we maybe help them as we're talking through this podcast and get them connected with the right larger stakeholders to help them make sure that they aren't doing anything nefarious when it comes to big bad FIFA at times?

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Emily
Yeah, first of all, I've heard from a few different organizations that are planning to do some really big events and a lot of decorations around the World Cup about how they have to be really careful. They can use soccer, but they can't use FIFA. So you can talk about the World Cup, but you have to be really cautious about using the logo, the name even, using it. I mean, yeah, that's something we should definitely dive into a little bit more and provide some resources for people because we want everyone to have a lot of fun around this, but also just to follow the rules and make sure they don't get in trouble and that it's a great experience to celebrate soccer in Snohomish County and celebrate this World Cup coming here.

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Kyle
Absolutely, absolutely. And I'm hopeful that the experience that we all have this summer is going to lead to one, more people watching the sport that I love soccer, but also two, proves that we as Seattle can be a major sports hosting area. I mean, wouldn't it be great if this is the proof for other big events, other future activities, whether it's maybe a future Olympics, a future Super Bowl. Honestly, this is our chance to prove from the top all the way at the highest of levels of our state organizations, all the way down to local businesses to prove that we are capable of handling this event. So absolutely, I'm looking forward to seeing how all the businesses show up and prove how awesome Snohomish County and Washington State are.

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Emily
Kyle, so obviously we've established that I'm a novice. I don't know soccer. I don't know why I'm here, honestly. So what do I need to know? What do you need to share with me to get me excited about soccer? Why is it so important here in Snohomish County, here in Washington? Why are we like the soccer capital of the country? It's a big statement, but I'm gonna say it, why? Prove it.

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Kyle
I'm glad you bring it up. Honestly, Seattle is a big hub for soccer. You might say that a little bit facetiously, but honestly, Seattle has always been a massive pipeline. So just for some context, we've had at least three or four soccer players that have made it to the Premier League, which is the number one league in the entire world. We actually have one that's about to go on transfer to Athletic Madrid as of recording this episode. We have hundreds of youth soccer teams that have competed at the largest tournaments all around the country. And our team, local team, the Seattle Sounders, is one of the most prolific teams in all of Major League Soccer in the United States. So it's not crazy to say that we actually are pretty cool when it comes to soccer. Now, why does it matter? Honestly, soccer runs deep in the history of Washington State. There's a big history as to where soccer came from, how we actually maybe started some things ahead of the rest of the country. And we've always, I think, leaned into soccer. Soccer has always been one of those sports that's a little bit more of a black sheep of the family when it comes to American sports, but it's becoming more of a big part of our community. And so hopefully throughout this podcast, I can share some of my thoughts with you. We can actually hear from some guests. I'm really excited about who we're gonna pull on to this podcast to be able to learn more from. And hopefully by the end of it, you will be able to say that you're no longer a novice, that you're at least an apprentice. And when it comes to soccer, and when you go to the World Cup, you'll actually know what a offsides is, what a three, four, three means. I know that probably is French right now. And we'll talk about the French team and why they're actually such a big team.

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Emily
Let's get me to journeyman level, not just apprentice. Okay, I wanna be at journey level. We can get there, I have faith. I'm gonna be in my admin's license. Sorry, my husband's an electrician. So I know how hard it is to get there. And that's how I'm feeling right now, but I'm excited to be a complete convert.

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Kyle
Fantastic. And a huge shout out to the Washington Legends of Soccer. They're a massive nonprofit organization with a ton of information about the history of soccer in our region. So definitely go take a look at them, but we'll be bringing some of that information to this podcast as well. I'm also gonna wanna share a little bit about what is soccer? What are the countries all about? I know you were telling me that one of your friends said, what is every country that's involved? I've never even like knew that these countries had soccer teams. Hopefully I can bring some of that to help set us up. So Emily, from your perspective, what are you hoping to bring to our audience here?

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Emily
I'm excited to bring my network of people that I know and I can get connected with that are both behind the scenes and in front of the scenes doing the work today. So tying that history back to the present and what we need to do to make this possible. And that takes everyone that takes our elected officials, mayors, legislative officials, it takes the people behind the scenes doing policy, preparing for that, managing our transit system, managing our roads, getting them prepared. There's so many little pieces of this. We have chambers of commerce that are working. There's layers and layers on layers of people. Every day I hear talking about the World Cup coming and stuff I didn't even think was connected is actually connected. Everyone is talking about this. Everyone is excited. Everyone wants to know more. And so there's tons of people. We're gonna bring in those interviews with the people doing the work right here on the ground and find out some interesting information so that everyone can be super prepared for this to happen. Whether you're gonna come to the games or you're just gonna enjoy all of the people visiting, there's opportunities.

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Kyle
That sounds fantastic. And I know I'm sure our audience is gonna have more questions than we can ever think of. So certainly audience, if you have thoughts, things you'd love us to dive into, dig into, reach out to us. We'd love to get your thoughts on what things you want us to give you. Because our goal with this whole podcast is to help you all as well as ourselves get ready for this World Cup. Because this is gonna be a frickin' awesome experience. Tell us what we need to know. Honestly, so I'm really excited about what we can bring to the audience. So certainly you guys let us know what you're looking for and we want to help you guys out. Because that's the whole goal of this podcast is this is meant to bring Snohomish County into this journey that is the World Cup.

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Emily
Yeah, this podcast is for you and we're here for it.

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Kyle
Fantastic.

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Kyle
Next episode, we're gonna give you a little tasting of the history of soccer here in the Puget Sound and Washington State. We're gonna cover just a few of the things for you just to get a feel for why soccer is so important here.

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Emily
And I'm gonna talk to State Representative Julio Cortez from the 38th Legislative District, the person who raised their hand as fast as they possibly could to be on the committee to help set up for this event. So we're gonna hear from him, everything that they're doing to prepare, all of the cool insights that he has and what he's looking forward to.

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Emily
Every episode, we are going to give you action items for that week, for that month, everything that you can do to prepare. Today's action items are easy. Like and subscribe to our channel. You can also sign up for our newsletter using the signup in our show notes.

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Kyle
And as we go forward, we're gonna be diving deeper and deeper into history, civics, all sorts of different topics on our podcast. So definitely be staying tuned because this has been from pitch to Puget Sound.

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Emily
Presented by Snow Homage Podcast Network. I can't wait for these history teasers and to dive more in with all of you.

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Kyle
We'll meet you back here on the pitch.

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Emily
What's a pitch?

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Emily
Quick note, this podcast is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by FIFA or the FIFA World Cup.