Washington’s and Seattle’s political leader spent Monday taking a victory lap for a World Cup that, by its own numbers, underdelivered on the economic promises it sold to taxpayers. Officials lined up at Overlook Walk to celebrate light rail boardings and airport traffic while the tourism projections used to justify roughly $32 million in public spending came apart. This is what failure looks like when it books a press conference intended to spin results.
The pitch was never complicated. Host six matches, pull the world to Lumen Field, and watch the money reach every neighborhood. The result was much thinner. Online flight bookings for Seattle dropped 21% year over year during the tournament dates, even as New York climbed 7% and Houston rose 11%, according to The Seattle Times. Hotel demand came in under forecast, and entire neighborhoods saw nothing. None of that stopped Democrats from calling it a triumph.
The reality between the spin and the spreadsheet is the entire story. The people running the businesses tell it better than the politicians do, even though downtown Seattle hasn’t looked this clean since the MLB All Star week it hosted.
The numbers the celebration skipped
Craig Schafer, who owns the downtown hotels Hotel Ändra and Inn at the Market, refused to pretend the forecasts came true.
“We did not come close at all in terms of what was projected,” he told The Seattle Times. “We’re behind in what our occupancy projections were, but we’re so far ahead in what our revenue was compared to last year.”
The hospitality picture was grim before the first whistle. The travel analytics firm RateGain measured Seattle hotel bookings down about 20% from a year earlier, in numbers reported by MyNorthwest.com. “It’s kind of a recipe for disaster versus a single ingredient for disaster,” Washington Hospitality Association CEO Anthony Anton told KIRO Newsradio. He blamed a city overexposed to Canadian and Asian travel just as both markets softened.
Who is this victory lap for?
The officials kept reaching for metrics that prove nothing about the promise they made.
“The best is yet to come,” Gov. Bob Ferguson told reporters at the event. He pinned the celebration on a U.S. team that had not yet earned a return trip. Mayor Katie Wilson reached for scooter data. “Lime also recorded its busiest day ever in Seattle,” Wilson noted. Tournament ridership is not the economic case anyone sold. Who cares people rented Lime Bikes?
One official admitted what the party glossed over. “I want to be honest,” said Tuyen Than of the Chinatown-International District Business Improvement Area, in the same Seattle Times report. “The economic benefits have not been equal across all our neighborhoods.” Little Saigon and the blocks farthest from the stadium never got the surge they were promised. They shouldn’t have been promised anything given no reasonable person should presume tourists would venture into that neighborhood if they’re here for the game. Visitors for Seahawks, Mariners, or Sounders game don’t walk over normally. Why would World Cup tourists?
The World Cup did not fail Seattle. Seattle’s leaders failed to deliver what they pledged, then rebranded the miss as a win. Residents who watched the city scrub itself clean for one month of global cameras already know the difference between a result and a performance.
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