The pitch isn’t the only green in focus as FIFA 2026 approaches: organizers are also mindful of possibilities for green improvements to civic quality of life across Cascadia borderlands, a commentator notes. (U.S. Air Force, Chase Cannon /Released)
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Commentary: Looking to the power of sport to not only catalyze local economies but also foster improved civic quality of life
Last week, Cascadia’s borderlands were graced with the presence of international soccer royalty of sorts. Gianni Infantino, president of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), swept into Seattle on Oct. 15 to meet with regional civic and sporting leaders, including Gov. Jay Inslee, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell and Puyallup Tribal Council Chairman Bill Sterud.
The FIFA president’s trip was all about checking in on preparations for one of the biggest sporting events to arrive in this region, the 2026 World Cup soccer competition. Seattle and Vancouver are both slated to host games as part of the North America-wide event, which includes other host cities from the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. Infantino, who also toured host stadium Lumen Field, eventually made his way north to downtown Vancouver’s BC Place Stadium for a similar itinerary of meetings, media relations and facilities inspection.
While Infantino seemed to say all the right things in interviews with local press, two points of discussion stood out. One was FIFA’s relentless focus on fan experience, given that hundreds of thousands of fans will attend the matches, while thousands more will participate in related fan events across both metropolitan areas. The other message was about local and regional legacy building.
Though FIFA’s local impact is mostly thought of in terms of tourism and the sports economy, the enormity of the 2026 event has the potential to usher in significant shifts in the way we think about the cross-border region. In my recent research with the Border Policy Research Institute about the borderlands impacts of FIFA 2026, I learned that event organizers are mindful of the regional legacy-building that has come before from mega-events like Vancouver’s 2010 Olympics and Expo 86, and Seattle’s World’s Fair.
FIFA’s organizers, and sporting leaders with other high-profile organizations, are mindful of the power of sport to catalyze local economies but also foster improved civic quality of life. Vancouver’s Olympics, for example, prompted the building of the Canada Line Skytrain network extension, and major improvements to the Sea-to-Sky Highway connecting B.C.’s Lower Mainland to Whistler, B.C.
This legacy-building outlook extends to the sphere of sustainability, which is a growing focus of global sporting organizations like FIFA and the International Olympic Committee. FIFA has already committed to the United Nations’ Sports for Climate Action Framework, which advocates for principles of environmental responsibility and climate action. This was evidenced at the previous World Cup in Qatar, where officials aspired to stage a completely carbon neutral tournament. That lofty goal might enjoy greater support locally in 2026, but also more expert scrutiny, given this region’s longstanding interest in environmentalism at the grassroots level, but also its reputation for birthing relevant organizations like Greenpeace, and industry outfits like the Green Sports Alliance.
The latter, founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and the Natural Resources Defense Council, enjoyed early support from all of this region’s well-known professional teams, including Seattle’s Seahawks, Mariners, Sounders and Storm, and Vancouver’s Canucks. The organization now helps sporting organizations from across the continent reach environmental milestones such as certification for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Total Resource Use and Efficiency (TRUE), or its own green standard called Play to Zero which focuses on net-zero objectives for energy, water, and waste.
The Pacific Northwest made a huge splash in the sustainability-and-sport sweepstakes in 2021 when the Seattle Kraken National Hockey League franchise announced the naming of the reconstructed Key Arena as Climate Pledge Arena. The Climate Pledge, committing to meet net zero carbon targets by 2040, recognizes how sport can shift public attitudes about the environment. The Kraken have cemented their reputation as the greenest team in the NHL, if not all of professional sport, with this and other initiatives including the One Roof Foundation, which has tackled social and environmental issues including water conservation and energy efficiency.
But for FIFA, the sustainability vision is equally ambitious. For example, local boosters hope that the World Cup can give a boost to improved transportation systems that connect the region and reduce automotive emissions, including Amtrak’s Cascades train but also the long-term vision of high-speed rail along the I-5 corridor.
The regional fan experience is also an obvious World Cup priority. This was evidenced earlier this summer, when Seattle FIFA World Cup organizers collaborated with the Port of Bellingham to host a watch party for the Olympics women’s soccer match between the U.S. and Germany. The event, held at Bellingham’s Portal Container Village, highlighted the popularity of soccer in Washington state’s northwest corner but also demonstrated how the World Cup might be seamlessly experienced across the region in 2026.
FIFA is counting on local and visiting soccer fanatics to provide the backdrop for a historic global athletics undertaking. But those same footie enthusiasts might provide a longer-lasting legacy of renewed urbanism and environmentalism in the cross-border Cascadia corridor.
— By Derek Moscato
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Derek Moscato is a professor of journalism at Western Washington University and a 2024 Border Policy Research Institute Fellow.
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