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The world's biggest soccer tournament is headed to the Pacific Northwest, and Everett is ready to welcome fans from around the world.
Host Monica Spain talks with Tyler Chism, Economic Development Manager for the City of Everett, about Everett's role as an official fan zone. Learn about waterfront watch parties, family-friendly activities, local celebrations, and how transit can help visitors and residents get where they need to go.
If you're planning to take part in the excitement this summer, this episode offers a helpful guide to what to expect and how to get there.
Host Monica Spain talks with Tyler Chism, Economic Development Manager for the City of Everett, about Everett's role as an official fan zone. Learn about waterfront watch parties, family-friendly activities, local celebrations, and how transit can help visitors and residents get where they need to go.
If you're planning to take part in the excitement this summer, this episode offers a helpful guide to what to expect and how to get there.
Creators and Guests
What is That Transit Show?
That Transit Show is produced by Community Transit in Everett, WA. It highlights the people, services, and stories behind public transportation in Snohomish County, Washington.
Monica Spain (00:02):
Welcome to That Transit Show. I'm Monica Spain.
(00:04):
This summer, the world's biggest soccer tournament is coming to the Pacific Northwest. While Seattle may be hosting the matches, Snohomish County is getting in on the action with a fan zone, putting Everett on the world stage this summer. Today on That Transit Show, we're talking with Tyler Chism, Economic Development Manager for the City of Everett to talk about what visitors and locals can expect, how to get there, and why you'll want to join in on the fun. [00:00:30] Welcome aboard.
(00:36):
Tyler Chism, welcome to That Transit Show.
Tyler Chism (00:39):
Hi, Monica. Glad to be here, so excited.
Monica Spain (00:41):
I know. There's a lot of excitement, and in Seattle there are banners and the waterfront has been beautified. There's all of this stuff going on, but I want to hear about what's going on here in Snohomish County. Specifically in Everett, we have a fan zone. Tell me, for the uninitiated, what is the Everett [00:01:00] fan zone?
Tyler Chism (01:01):
Everett's one of nine official fan zones across the state. So excited about it, so excited that Everett got chosen to be an official fan zone. Basically what that means is, it allows us to participate and activate during this World Cup season in really fun ways in partnership with a Seattle local organizing committee that's hosting the World Cup in Seattle. I think of us as the fan's living room or one of the fans' living rooms.
Monica Spain (01:28):
I like that.
Tyler Chism (01:28):
Everett is, yeah, smack dab between [00:01:30] Vancouver and Seattle, Vancouver, BC, of course, which is also a host city. We're getting all decked out for it. Everett's going all in. We're not just showing up passively to this. There are probably 750,000 people in the region. They're going to spend a billion dollars while they're here, and we're going to show them a great time.
Monica Spain (01:48):
Tell me about that great time. What do you have in store?
Tyler Chism (01:52):
Our big fans on activation is our waterfront watch party series-
Monica Spain (01:57):
Okay.
Tyler Chism (01:57):
... which is four dates in partnership with the Port of Everett and [00:02:00] the Sports Commission, June 11th, 12th, 18th, and 19th. Boxcar Park, going to be all decked out, 40-foot screen, a dozen food trucks, giant beer garden, so many fun things for kids and families, local emcees, pre-show entertainment, post-show entertainment. That's the big thing that we're working on.
(02:23):
The other thing that we're working on is a series of local watch parties really activating the business [00:02:30] community-
Monica Spain (02:30):
Okay.
Tyler Chism (02:31):
... that we're calling, Game On, Everett. That's in partnership with the Everett Chamber. When we found out that we were going to be a fan zone, we put our heads together and thought, how do we do this in a way that's a great experience and we go all out in this festival style. But then make sure that the businesses and folks who maybe don't want to go to an event with thousands of people, can celebrate World Cup during this five-week season.
Monica Spain (02:59):
It's really [00:03:00] inclusive. It sounds like you've got a little bit of something for everyone.
Tyler Chism (03:03):
Totally, that was the design. Really spread the love, the economic love, the entertainment and celebration, activate in different ways for different people who want different experiences. Everett's really diverse. When we chose our fan zone dates and the teams that are playing, we chose the teams based on folks who lived here around the region, Mexico, South Korea, [00:03:30] USA, things like that. We know it's going to be fun for locals, and that locals will feel like it's their celebration.
(03:38):
Our original concept was we were going to activate on all six of the Seattle home games.
Monica Spain (03:42):
Okay.
Tyler Chism (03:43):
When we first learned about being a fan zone, that was how it was talked about and the expectation. The local organizing committee changed to that requirement. It allowed us an opportunity to go back to the drawing board and say, "How do we do this in a way that, so we're not overlapping those Seattle dates?" We know people [00:04:00] will be here for a five-week period, and how do we get the tourists who are looking for things to do while they're here in between the Seattle and Vancouver matches, but then also activate on dates that are really relevant for locals. We know the tourists are going to be here, but let's make it a very memorable and awesome experience for the locals too.
Monica Spain (04:22):
It sounds really fun. Because we're a transit show, we got to talk a little bit about how you access some of this stuff. [00:04:30] I wanted to ask you, do you anticipate people will be taking transit?
Tyler Chism (04:35):
Heck, yeah, there better be.
Monica Spain (04:35):
It better be.
Tyler Chism (04:35):
We need them to.
Monica Spain (04:35):
Yeah.
Tyler Chism (04:36):
There's going to be a lot of people here. In Everett, one of the things we're trying to do in the economic development department and one of our ways that we're really trying to compete with other cities, cities compete with people or cities compete with other cities for people, and for businesses, and things like that. We're really trying to compete [00:05:00] on experience. Part of that is to make sure experiences are not only fun and vibrant, but also really easy so people feel like, oh, I not only had a fun time, I had an easy time.
(05:12):
For our waterfront watch parties, we've got an amazing shuttle in partnership with Everett Transit. Folks, get to Everett Station via whatever your preferred method is, take a bus, take the Sounder, light rail to Lynnwood, and then bus to Everett Station or to downtown [00:05:30] Everett. You'll see signs everywhere for the free shuttle that we're running. The show runs every 15 minutes for two hours before kickoff for each of our watch party dates. And then after the matches, it runs every five minutes to get people back to their car.
Monica Spain (05:45):
Okay. That's courtesy of our-
Tyler Chism (05:46):
Or back to Everett.
Monica Spain (05:48):
... of Everett Transit.
Tyler Chism (05:48):
Totally, yeah. Everett Transit are the real heroes for this. They've put so much thoughtful work. Our Everett Police Department too, obviously with all the safety stuff. But yeah, love Everett Transit. They do this for [00:06:00] a lot of our city events, culture, 4th of July. We're all about making things easy. What I'm telling people is, if you want to pre-funk or post-funk in downtown Everett, totally do it because every stop on Hewitt will be signed a watch party shuttle.
Monica Spain (06:17):
There's a lot of options too. There's, people may be taking the Sounder. People may be taking light rail, and then connecting to community transit to get to Everett Station. We have quite a few routes that [00:06:30] run there. If they want shuttle information, they can go to everetttransit.org. It's right there on the homepage. You can go to Community Transit's Trip Planner on our website.
Tyler Chism (06:44):
We love our trip planner.
Monica Spain (06:45):
You can figure out how to get there because there are things going on in other cities. There's something going on in Mill Creek. They have their festival. We have at the Lynnwood Library, I know they're going to be having an event. There are things [00:07:00] going on in other parts of Snohomish County. But it sounds like really, if you want to be in the thick of it, Everett is a really great opportunity.
Tyler Chism (07:10):
Yes, Everett is a great opportunity. Everett's where it's at, but we're super collaborative with everything else that's going on around the county. One thing that's interesting about World Cup visitors, people who visit from outside of the country, international visitors, is they book their trips within two weeks [00:07:30] of the match dates.
Monica Spain (07:32):
Why?
Tyler Chism (07:34):
I know.
Monica Spain (07:34):
Who does that?
Tyler Chism (07:35):
Totally, exactly.
Monica Spain (07:36):
Especially with airfares, the way they are right now.
Tyler Chism (07:38):
Totally. We did a learning exchange with Cutter and the Seattle Sports Commission maybe about a year ago and they told us about this, that the visitors book really last minute, the international visitors. Because they're seeing, okay, the draw happens, then weird geopolitical things happen, and things change, and then lotteries for tickets open up.
(08:00):
[00:08:00] Anyway, we know that there'll be people that'll be here that don't have tickets yet to either a Seattle or a Vancouver game. But we want to show, we want them to have the quintessential PNW experience. Part of that is in Everett. Part of that is going to be in the river valleys around Snohomish County too, up in or near Sultan, and up in Arlington, and get out and hike, get out on the water, and then come to our fan zones, watch a game at a local bar. [00:08:30] It's a whole season of PNW soccer.
Monica Spain (08:34):
Yeah. For people who don't have a ticket to go to one of the Seattle matches, don't despair, right? There's stuff to do here, but that's another thing I wanted to bring up. I've heard that they're really discouraging people from going down to what used to be Lumen Field, what they're calling Seattle Stadium for the soccer tournament, because there are going to be layers and layers of security, and [00:09:00] you can't buy a ticket down there, isn't that right?
Tyler Chism (09:03):
That's how I understand it. Yeah, don't show up thinking that you're going to get a ticket. If you don't have a ticket, you can likely get a ticket on some third party ticket reseller, a thing like that. But yeah, definitely don't go to Seattle and think you're going to get into a game because that's not going to happen. But if you show up to Everett on June 11th, 12th, 18th, or 19th, and you want to get into our fan zone, easy-peasy.
Monica Spain (09:22):
Excellent.
(09:24):
The PNW is a big soccer thing, especially for kids. I've got my soccer [00:09:30] badge on.
Tyler Chism (09:30):
Is that you?
Monica Spain (09:31):
That's me.
Tyler Chism (09:32):
Nice.
Monica Spain (09:33):
I once scored a goal with my left foot, but that's a-
Tyler Chism (09:35):
That's awesome.
Monica Spain (09:36):
... that's a whole other story. Anyway, but kids, this must be really exciting for kids who grow up here playing soccer, maybe watching it on TV. How are kids being brought into this experience?
Tyler Chism (09:51):
It's going to be awesome for kids. We have been so intentional with our watch parties to have other activations besides just the soccer matches. [00:10:00] We have a partnership with Imagine Children's Museum, the Sports Commission, and three local soccer clubs and retailers. We'll have an awesome kid zone at our watch parties.
(10:12):
Kids will be able to play, kick the ball, have some fun, meet Sounders players, and things like that. Then they go to the Children's Museum, and they go through a little bit of a learning experience where they learn about physics, physiology with sports, some international culture, and stuff like that. [00:10:30] And then we also have a gaming trailer for kids who want to get in and get a little screen time in. We'll also have face painters.
Monica Spain (10:44):
Have a photo booth of some... Oh, yeah.
Tyler Chism (10:55):
All that kind of stuff. But yeah, we really want families to show up and kids to remember this, the way that I remember stuff like this when I was a kid. We've been really intentional about that.
Monica Spain (10:57):
Being a family friendly event, but there is going to be [00:11:00] alcohol and other things.
Tyler Chism (11:03):
For sure, yeah.
Monica Spain (11:03):
There's something for everybody, like we said. Tell me a little bit about security and what people should expect because we want people to feel like, yeah, this is for me. This is going to feel good and safe, and that kind of thing.
Tyler Chism (11:13):
We looked at a few different sites. Originally, we were going to try to move the fan zone across the city. Police quickly were like, "Please don't do that. That's going to be a security nightmare for us." I'll be honest, I did not understand the complexity of the [00:11:30] security for an international event at this scale when we first started dreaming up the fan zone concept.
Monica Spain (11:37):
Sure.
Tyler Chism (11:37):
But Boxcar Park is perfect for it because it's pretty easy to harden and secure with fencing, one way in, one way out. You've got water on the other side, you got a Navy base right next to it. It's also really beautiful.
Monica Spain (11:50):
It is gorgeous.
Tyler Chism (11:53):
It's not only safe, but it's also just really, really beautiful. Would've loved to have the fan zone in downtown, but downtown presents [00:12:00] a lot of security complexities.
Monica Spain (12:04):
I would think logistical things too.
Tyler Chism (12:07):
Totally. But this will be a similar experience to entering a stadium event. We're going to have two different lines. One line for, "Hey, you didn't bring anything," or, "You brought a small clear bag." Quick little bag check, go through a metal detector, bada bing, bada boom, you're in. You showed up with all your family's lunch, and a diaper bag, and a stroller, this could be a more enhanced security screening just...
Monica Spain (12:30):
[00:12:30] Got to check those diapers.
Tyler Chism (12:33):
Got to check the bags, make sure that nothing is coming in that could potentially hurt somebody. But Everett Police, the Navy, the local Sheriff's Office, Port Security, they've been amazing. They have such a great safety operational plan. Really, what we're trying to balance is, we want it to feel safe, welcoming. We don't want it to feel like you're walking into an outdoor prison. We've been really intentional about making sure that, first and foremost, it's a safe family event that people feel [00:13:00] safe, but they don't feel like, "Okay, this feels like there's a lot of cops around and it makes me feel uncomfortable." We'll have private security doing the bag checks, private security in the beer garden, and things like that. And then the local PD around the perimeter, and roving, and out in the water, and flying drones overhead-
Monica Spain (13:22):
Sure.
Tyler Chism (13:24):
... to watch for stuff, but yeah.
Monica Spain (13:26):
Well, you talked about this having international people [00:13:30] may be coming. There's a lot of culture in Everett being a diverse city. How do you plan for a multicultural experience or to be welcoming to different cultures?
Tyler Chism (13:42):
Lots of community outreach, connecting with the local Hispanic community through lots of different... Obviously, the local Hispanic community is not a monolith. We don't go just talk to one group. There's lots of groups. Same with the local Korean Business Association through the [00:14:00] Korean faith community, things like that to try to just, "Hey, what is fun? What feels approachable? What feels intrusive? What do you want to see? Hey, do you guys know about this? Are we getting the word out to you? How do we get the word out to your communities better?" A lot of just a year's worth of conversations with the community through different avenues.
(14:21):
And then our programming too, like you said earlier that it really is for everything. Sometimes if you design things for everybody, it's nothing. [00:14:30] This is not going to be like that. We were really intentional. We've got, okay, the family stuff set up and we've got our cultural programming. We'll have local heritage arts groups during halftime, for example, things like that. We have a Spanish-speaking emcee on all four days actually, but particularly relevant on the three dates where there's Mexico, Paraguay, and another [00:15:00] Mexico game. Yeah, things like that.
(15:04):
On our 6:00PM kickoff games, we'll have post-show entertainment, headlining bands really. On one of the dates, we have Grizzled Mighty, which is like a local rock and roll band for people who want to drink beer and rock and roll. And then we have this amazing band from California called Tropa Magica. They're this psychedelic rock and roll band, but [00:15:30] they're Mexican. Everything's in Spanish. Really try and...
Monica Spain (15:35):
Will there be dancing?
Tyler Chism (15:36):
... diffuse cultures.
Monica Spain (15:37):
Right.
Tyler Chism (15:38):
Really try and diffuse cultures. Soccer's the most played sport in the world. It's the most adapted sport in the world. We're becoming a soccer city, and I'm here for it.
(15:47):
Also, Everett rules. Why wouldn't we be a fan zone? Everett is just getting noticed in a way that I feel like hasn't been the case since I've lived in Everett, which has been about 20 years.
Monica Spain (15:59):
Tyler, if people [00:16:00] want more information, where do you recommend they look? Do you have a website?
Tyler Chism (16:04):
Oh, yeah. Visit everett.com/worldcup, super easy. You'll find everything there with waterfront watch parties. You'll find everything there for our shuttles. You'll find the whole list of all the other events and activities that are happening around Everett. Snohomish County Tourism has an amazing list of awesome things happening all across the county during the World Cup season. Go to discoversnohomishcounty.com, and there's an endless list of World Cup fun there too. And great hikes, and places [00:16:30] to eat in the county, and fun little rural community. Visit it, it's a great little website.
Monica Spain (16:36):
Well, Tyler, I can't wait to come out and hopefully see you there.
Tyler Chism (16:39):
Yeah. Oh, I'll be there.
Monica Spain (16:41):
We'll be taking transit. Thanks so much for being on That Transit Show.
Tyler Chism (16:46):
Yeah, really appreciate being here.