Those six FIFA World Cup matches in Seattle during the summer of 2026 are about so much more than soccer. They’re an opportunity to sell Seattle to a global audience on sports’ biggest stage. Peter Tomozawa is ready.

For two years, Tomozawa has led the effort to create memorable experiences for fans across Washington state and around the world as chief executive officer of the Seattle World Cup Organizing Committee.

Seattle is among 16 host cities across Canada, Mexico, and the United States for the 48-team, 104-game tournament. Lumen Field will host games starting June 15 through July 6, including one involving the United States Men’s National Soccer Team on June 19. Seattle is one of only two cities where fans can be assured of seeing the team — Los Angeles is the other.

Tomozawa points out that the 2022 World Cup drew a staggering 5 billion unique viewers. “That’s 55% of the world,” he says. “It’s mind-boggling.”

Tomozawa recalls seeing fans from all walks of life — differing religions, races and political views — at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. “I mean, this is an amazing opportunity,” he told Seattle magazine Publisher Jonathan Sposato recently on a Seattle magazine podcast. “We’re hoping that the impact of the World Cup is very much similar to what happened to Seattle post-World’s Fair, 1962.” Listen to episode 1 here and episode 2 here.

Among his many innovations is what he calls a “Unity Loop” similar to Boston’s Freedom Trail. Think of it as a pathway through the city, a connection from the stadium to the waterfront, from the waterfront to Myrtle Edwards Park, to Pacific Science Center and the Westlake neighborhood, through the Chinatown-International District and Pioneer Square.

“That’ll be a walking path connected by breadcrumbs of culture,” he says. “And I’m hoping that 30 years from now this loop still exists, and that we’ll have little spikes off of it to Capitol Hill, to South Lake Union, all around Queen Anne.”

Demand for tickets will be “off the charts,” he adds, and many people can’t travel or afford to see matches in person. The organizing committee is selecting nine “fan zone” sites across the state as part of a community development strategy, and is also creating an “economic playbook” for future initiatives.

Tomozawa — whose career spans technology to finance to government in several countries — was managing director–partner at Goldman Sachs in New York when he retired from the finance business and moved to Hawaii to become more engaged in civic affairs. He then served almost two years as vice president and executive director of partnership and board relations for the LA 2024/LA 2028 Exploratory Olympic Committee, the privately funded nonprofit organization that secured the rights to host the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles.

He moved from Hawaii to Seattle when the youngest of his five children made the Seattle Sounders Youth Academy soccer club. He later served as president of business operations for the Sounders from 2019 through 2022.

He came to Seattle, he recalls, knowing almost no one. He says he identifies with Seattle because “it’s a gritty town.”

“It has a little bit of a chip on its shoulder,” says Tomozawa, who can often be seen traversing the city on foot or via scooter. “We probably are the best in technology in the world, yet everybody wants to talk about Silicon Valley. It’s always been kind of a town that thrives on that little chippiness and grittiness.”