Seattle is unlocking more than $18 million in funding and grants including training for the police department to monitor “aerial drone threats” as the city prepares to host six matches of this summer’s men’s World Cup.
The Seattle City Council’s finance committee meeting Tuesday morning is taking up the legislation (PDF) to authorize acceptance of the funding from the SeattleFWC26 local organizing committee as well as $2.1 million in Department of Homeland Security funding for the Seattle Police Department’s anti-drone training.
The SeattleFWC26 grant will provide approximately $15 million in public safety funding from the committee to cover overtime and equipment for departments like police and fire.
SeattleFWC26 is a nonprofit corporation formed to manage local interests in the Wold Cup — namely the valuable Rights Package Agreement. When a city hosts a huge event like the World Cup, there are a lot of rules about who gets to make money and who has to pay for things. The agreement is the rulebook that lets a specific group — SeattleFWC26 — handle those jobs including allowing it to collect and use revenues to fulfill host city obligations.
Another $1 million from SFWC26 will include funding for to support “enhanced ROW cleaning (increased cleaning in high-use city parks, street sweeping, litter abatement, graffiti abatement, etc.) in downtown and other anticipated high impact areas.”
The additional $2,084,569 being approved Tuesday is provided by the Washington State Military Department and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security specifically for the Seattle Police Department to detect and identify threats from aerial drones. No equipment is involved in the grant, according to the council.
The city says this new $18 million in accepted funding will bring 2025-2026 FIFA-related appropriations to just under $32 million. The previous near-$14 million came in previously budgeted spending from the city’s coffers to cover preparation and management of the event.
The state of Washington has also ponied up. SeattleFWC26 generates revenue through a combination of public grants, private contributions, and specific commercial rights granted by FIFA.
State funding looms large. Washington lawmakers allocated $46.6 million for overall preparations, including $19.4 million for stadium upgrades and $22.6 million for transportation investments.
SeattleFWC26 has also generated revenue including local sponsorship tiers and “domestic marketing opportunities.”
Officials have been predicting about 750,000 to attend the Seattle matches, a major upward revision from the initial estimates used during the early planning and bidding phases as leaders have insisted on greater spending around the tournament. The transformed Lumen Field — known as Seattle Stadium during the World Cup due to FIFA licensing restrictions — has a total capacity that would pace the possible full attendance for the six matches at just over 410,000 but the official estimates also include the thousands who are expected to gather here for the festivities and match watching events across the city.
Hotel bookings have reportedly lagged and officials expect fewer international attendees due to concerns about the increase in aggressive federal policies and travel bans.
A joint economic analysis released by Visit Seattle, the City of Seattle, and King County predicts an $845 million boost to the economy in the county based on predicted spending plus follow-ons like increased earnings for workers. Overall, the Seattle matches are projected to generate nearly $96 million in state and local tax revenue.
$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month — or choose your level of support 
You must be logged in to post a comment.