Good morning.
One more time, good morning.
Good morning.
That was great.
Okay, who's ready for the World Cup?
Let's do it.
Well, thank you so much to the Somali Health Board for
welcoming us here today.
I am very excited to be here.
Today is one of those days that reminds us what is possible
when a city comes together around a simple idea: every
young person deserves the chance to be part of
something extraordinary.
In just a couple weeks, all eyes will be on Seattle
as we host our first match of the FIFA World Cup 2026.
Millions of people, perhaps billions of people, will watch
our city on the global stage.
And I am so excited for the opportunity to welcome
visitors from around the world.
But from the very beginning, I believe that hosting
the World Cup could not just be about what visitors
see when they come here.
It had to be about what our communities and our young
people experience when this tournament arrives.
From my first meeting with the local organizing committee,
I emphasized the importance of a more affordable and
accessible World Cup experience, including for our youth.
And I'm excited that today we are announcing the
boldest local youth access initiative in the country.
I am so proud to announce that our Youth Access Program will
give over 1,400 tickets to young people and their caregivers
from across our region so that they have the opportunity to
to attend FIFA World Cup matches right here in Seattle,
free of charge.
For many of these young people, I know that this will be a
once in a lifetime opportunity.
They'll walk into a stadium filled with energy
and excitement.
They'll watch the world's best athletes compete.
and they'll be part of a moment that connects
people across continents, cultures, and languages.
And years from now, when they think about the World
Cup coming to Seattle, they'll know that this city
made sure that they had a seat in that stadium.
So I want to just thank, from the bottom of my heart,
the Seattle FIFA World Cup 2026 Local Organizing Committee,
Our Seattle sports teams, corporate partners, a couple of
which will be speaking today, King County, and the many
community leaders who stepped up to make this vision a reality.
This initiative is only possible because so many people
shared a commitment to making making sure that the benefits
of hosting the World Cup are felt throughout our communities.
And today, I'm especially excited to highlight
three of the over 40 youth-serving organizations
who will be helping to distribute these tickets.
The African Youth Sports Academy, yes, round of
applause, is dedicated to empowering African
African youth through access to sports programs and career
development opportunities.
Your commitment to each other and your futures reflects
the very best of Seattle.
And to the Seattle Youth Safety Ambassadors, thank you for your
leadership and your service.
You are helping to shape safer, stronger communities every day.
You represent a generation that is already making a difference,
and our city is better because of your work.
And finally, to our incredible hosts, the Somali Health Board.
The Somali Health Board Soccer Club focuses on the physical,
mental, and social well-being of every player and exemplifies
teamwork on and off the field.
So today I'm honored to announce these three groups
as a part of this initiative.
Because this is about much more than just
attending a soccer match.
It's about telling young people that they belong in the
biggest moments that our city has to offer.
It's about showing them that the world is larger than they
may have imagined and that there is a place for them in it.
And it's about demonstrating the values that define Seattle.
that opportunity should be shared, that community matters,
and that when something extraordinary comes to our city,
we make sure that everyone has the chance to be part of it.
So thank you all so much for being here.
Congratulations to the young people
who will help make this World Cup a memory
that lasts a lifetime.
Thank you.
- Should I not do that?
Maybe I won't do that.
Okay, I'll just stand on my tiptoes.
This is what happens kids when you're
tiny. Hi everybody and thank you Mayor Wilson.
This is a really fun day.
My name is Jane Broom and I work at Microsoft
and I manage our community affairs and work around
Washington state.
We are so proud to stand
alongside our fellow businesses to help open
doors for the next generation through the Seattle Youth
Access Program.
This is indeed a once-in-a-generation
moment that brings the world together.
As a company that does business all around
the world in pretty much every country that exists,
we know how huge World Cup is to the world.
And it is so exciting for us as a company
who sees this all around the world and know what's going
to happen here in Seattle in the next couple of weeks.
And you all will be front and
center. It is truly a once in a generation opportunity.
At Microsoft, we believe in the power of access,
access to technology, to opportunity and inspiration.
It's what so much of our community affairs
efforts are all about.
By investing in this program, we're helping to ensure that
hundreds of local youth can see themselves on this global
stage and feel the energy of the game and imagine what's
possible for their own futures.
Because when young people feel included, like
they belong, and they can witness something this
big up close, it sparks confidence, it sparks
connection, it sparks curiosity about the rest of the
world, an ambition that lasts far beyond 90 minutes.
We are so honored at at Microsoft to play a small
part alongside our community partners in making Seattle World
Cup a truly inclusive and unforgettable experience
and a very uniquely Seattle experience.
The special, yes, thank you.
Especially the other host city supporters that have put
in a lot of money and a lot of energy to help
make this happen.
the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, Alaska Airlines, Boeing, Amazon,
Port of Seattle, Microsoft, University of Washington,
and many other businesses that have stepped up
to do unique aspects and engagements.
Thanks to everybody today, to Mayor Wilson,
to the local organizing committee, Peter,
the sports teams, the business community
for making today's announcement possible.
And I want to hear it, kids.
Are you excited?
That didn't sound very exciting.
Are you going to work on your cheers?
All right.
Thank you.
Good morning, everyone.
My name is Taylor Huang and I am with Amazon, part of the Amazon
community engagement team.
And I share in my colleague Jane's, you know,
remarks in that this is an amazing experience.
And Amazon is proud to support this historic moment for the
Seattle region, community, for all of you and help
make sure more local youth have the opportunity
to experience firsthand as events like this can
inspire them to enjoy the sport, to get out, to
play in the neighborhood.
And expanding access to the FIFA World Cup for young people
across the Puget Sound region is exactly the kind of
investments that can leave a lasting impact in our community.
So we want to thank all of our, you know, our city, our
mayor, our host committee, many of our community partners,
corporate partners for making this happen and coming together
as a community to really, you know, embrace all
that the region has to give and then getting
getting ready and it just warms my heart to look out and see
all of you with your soccer balls and your jersey really
hyped and ready for this.
So thank you.
Good morning everyone.
My name is Najma Usman.
I'm the Executive Director of Somali Health Board.
Thank you all.
We're honored to welcome you today,
to welcome you to our space, and just grateful to
to be here alongside our host partners.
Thank you first and foremost to Somali Health Board
Youth and Families.
Thank you to our wonderful Mayor Wilson.
Thank you to Microsoft Philanthropies,
to Seattle FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee 2026,
King County Metro, Commissioner Hamdi Muhammad,
and all of our partners for being here today
and for investing in our young people.
The Somali Health Board Soccer Club was built to give our
youth something to run toward.
We started as a grassroots effort through Saturday
community field days, and now we've grown to something
we're incredibly proud of, a soccer club with 12 competing
teams across Washington State, free of charge.
Providing our young people access to this
once-in-a-generation sporting event right here
in our home city of Seattle, it's more than an
exciting experience.
It's a statement that our youth belong on the world stage.
They belong as fans, they belong as athletes, and
as our future leaders.
It's a statement that is incredibly heartwarming, and
we're excited to be here today.
Thank you, all of you, for believing in our youth,
for making opportunities like this possible.
Um and we're just getting started i'd like to quickly
give a an acknowledgement to Coach Muhammad
who i don't see at the moment but um he has really
been instrumental in building our soccer club to
to what it is today.
We have a handful of our coaches here present.
I know I see Coach Gossam, I see Coach Charles.
I know there are other coaches.
Oh, Coach Mohammed, there you are.
Thank you all for mentoring our youth
and for just being amazing people and change makers.
We're grateful for all of your leadership
and dedication to our youth.
And I'd like to quickly ask Commissioner Hamdi
if you'd like to say a couple words.
Thank you so much for being here.
- I won't take up too much time, but I do wanna say,
Najma, thank you so much to the Somali Health
Board and the work you do.
As the first Somali elected official in Washington State,
I'm so proud of this moment and what it means
to our community.
Soccer isn't just a game for so many people in this room.
It's really about safety.
So many of our young kids in this room play soccer to stay
away from so many troubling things in our community.
And so I really want to thank Ali Mario and
Nejima for this work.
And I hope the biggest legacy that Seattle leaves and our
region leaves is continuing to invest in soccer
continuing to create opportunities for our young
people and making resources for them so thank you
great job now I'm up can you tell I'm excited my name
is Deshawn Quinn I'm the director of regional
partnerships at King County Metro King County Metro
is so proud to stand with this coalition thank you
for your leadership Mayor Wilson Peter Tomizawa our
friends at Microsoft our our friends in the community,
the Somali Health Board, and other community groups who
will receive Match Day tickets.
At King County Metro, our mission is--
our entire reason for being is to hold open wide
the doors of opportunity.
Everyone knows that every day we connect
We connect hundreds of thousands of people to their jobs,
to school, to appointments, shopping, but now more than
ever, we also connect people with the biggest moments on
the biggest stages.
We know this global event is a huge opportunity
to celebrate our region's culture diversity and
honor important community traditions that extend
benefits far beyond the tournament itself.
We are counting down the days.
All along we've worked
closely with community organizations to generate
excitement around the matches with grant funding
to help build long-standing relationships as they design and
host experiences that celebrate cultural identity while
expanding access to inclusive community-centered
activities. We are affirming our commitment
to supporting the essential travel needs of our
communities. Our transit network will carry both the
excitement of summer soccer season and keeping people
moving where they need to go most over the next
month. We're already on the move.
Our waterfront shuttles are on the streets
offering free rides thanks to our sponsors and
extending access for riders from here and around the
world to Seattle's soccer summer and some of the
best cultural destinations that Seattle has to offer
including the Seattle Center, the waterfront,
Pioneer Square, Chinatown International District.
It's also fulfilling to create this moment with
our partners.
After months of coordination to
help today's youth be a part of this epic experience.
Most of all, we look forward to match days as we
shepherd hundreds of kids to the games.
Our faces will hurt from all the smiling.
We can already hear the cheers from hundreds of our
biggest fans at the site of our big Metro limousine,
pulling into the community, and it's there
for them, exclusively.
And we'll be there again, like we always are, at
the end of the day, when the confetti is swept up,
and Metro gets everyone back home safe and sound.
I want to end with thank you, but I also want to
echo a conversation we had a long time ago.
This is about broadening the benefit,
and I am so proud and happy to join this coalition,
to join this mayor,
that we make broadening the benefit real.
Thank you.
That's awesome, Deshaun.
I mean, following a guy who is like a foot taller
and a giant of a man with these giant words,
I really appreciate the opportunity to
say hello to you all.
I'm Peter Tomizawa.
I'm the CEO of the Local Organizing Committee.
Mayor, thank you for your leadership in making
sure our World Cup moment reflects the value
of our community and our city.
Thank you for that.
That's genuine.
And I want to say thank you again to the local businesses,
the major corporations that all made this moment possible.
There are a couple of them are standing up with us today,
but there was a coalition well beyond that and I don't
have enough time to name everybody and every people that
helped us but you know we started thinking
about the world the youth access program well before
any of this started and I want to recognize two
two people who are sitting in the crowd today,
Maya Mendoza Ekstrom, Beth Knox.
Beth Knox.
Beth Knox is the chair of our board.
Maya and Beth were co-chairs of the bid,
and when we were proposing that the World Cup
ought to come here, I distinctly remember
I remember Maya getting up on the podium right where I'm
standing and talking about what this could mean for the
youth of our community.
She challenged everyone to think about how would this
look 20 years from now for that eight-year-old to that
14-year-old that would be able to potentially attend a match.
And we took that to heart.
We brought that vision, those words to reality today,
all thanks to all of you.
And I love what you said, Deshaun.
I just want to emphasize the point about making
transportation free.
We're going a different way than a lot of other cities.
I know I was supposed to not compare us to other cities,
but I just can't help myself because we are leaders.
We have the largest--
We have, I can confidently say, we have the largest
youth access program.
We have the most comprehensive free transportation
on match days, free transportation
along the waterfront for the entirety of the summer,
before, during, and after the World Cup.
Transportation along the waterfront is free
because of all of you.
Amazing. I think that's just fantastic.
But we're not just today celebrating access to a
match. It's really about access to belonging.
And I would like to ask the children, because this is really
about you, to please stand up.
This is why we do what we do.
And I hope that 20 years from now when you are
full adults, you'll come back and remember the time
and give back to the community the same way we're trying to
give opportunities for you.
And that's how the cycle of goodness continues
to move forward.
And so, kids, I really, really appreciate everything
that you're doing.
You guys can sit down.
I know that I'm a boring old Asian dude.
But this moment is really all about you.
And then so thank you for being here to--
I guess it didn't take much to skip school, does it?
To be here, but thanks for skipping school.
You know, as we prepare to host the world,
there's been a lot of focus on what Seattle
will show the world, and we'll do that for sure.
We'll show our passion, our beauty, our innovation,
but what more importantly is we're going to show ourselves.
We have an opportunity, and I'm glad that the
mayor's changed her talk track a little bit.
She used to talk about millions on TV.
It's billions, okay?
Sorry. It's billions of people that are
going to have their eyeballs on Seattle for the summer of 2026.
And this is our time to show the world who we are.
And going back to that moment that I talked about,
the Maya moment, yeah, we're going to host six
matches on a global stage.
We're going to do that.
It's going to be amazing.
It's going to be fun.
There's going to be a whole bunch of people from
all over the world celebrating on our brand new beautiful
front porch at the waterfront, but all celebrating throughout
the entirety of the city.
but our true measure of success after that final
whistle is blown is really how do we feel about
ourselves as we move forward as a city as we move
forward as a region as you move forward as a state and
that's really going to be the measure of success that
we're going to do we've got over 40 legacy programs
of which one of these is our youth access,
but the real measurement is gonna be
how we feel as a people.
How do we feel about being together?
We're gonna showcase to the world what unity looks like.
We're the best example of that amongst all the host cities,
and we're doing it in everything that we say,
but mostly in what we do.
And because of that, more than 1,400 young people
will be able to go to a game, but more than that, they're
going to create memories.
They'll be able to create those memories and pass them
along to their families.
Yes, someday you guys are going to have a family, God willing,
and you're going to talk about this as a moment in time,
but it's really more about how we measure impact
over decades of time.
And for most of us, it just for me personally, it
reminds me of who we are.
And that's what makes this project so special.
We're building a legacy and we're building it together.
So thank you very much for listening to an old
Asian grumpy man harangue about the World Cup.
But again, this is really for you.
First, excuse me, sorry.
On behalf of ACA, African Youth Sports Academy, our youth, and
our families, thank you so so much to Mayor Katie, Katie
Wilson, and the city of Seattle and FIFA for this
incredible opportunity.
Those great -- those tickets were great
memories to our youth we'll never forget.
As you all know, the last time America hosted the
World Cup was 1994.
That was 22 years ago.
And today is the 22nd of August, we're about to host
the World Cup here.
That means our kids that born here will
have the opportunity to win this, this World Cup.
Thank you, Mayor, for giving us the
opportunity to make us feel that we are part of this
community. You just made history.
And for all this youth that's
that's coming up this year for all the centuries.
We'll not forget about you.
We'll not forget about your leadership.
Lastly, I would like to thank Somali Health Board
for the great milestone.
Thank you for amazing opportunities.
I am so nervous, guys.
But we are going to make sure that our youth
youth will be involved in this soccer, in this academies.
We will be amazing to witness this World Cup, and I am so, so,
so glad for this opportunity.
I would like to thank my partner, Deputy of Asia,
Ahmed Hassan, and all the families.
And finally, all the sponsorships,
thank you so much for the opportunity to help us out.
and I would like to thank Allah for this opportunity.
Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
I think that concludes our comments.
I don't know if anybody has questions.
Is that what you're going to do?
We're going to do a group photo?
There's a question on the floor.
You want to do the picture then the question?
You want to do the question first?
Let's do the question first.
And why don't you get set up for the picture?
Thank you, Peter.
Felipe from .
I know who you are, man.
Thank you for the effort.
I mean, 1,400 tickets is a lot.
I mean, easily, you know, taking an account that is really,
These tickets are going to be used as a clarification
for this organization.
They're going to be distributed among other organizations.
There are over 40 organizations that will be
participating alongside of the Somali Health Board.
And thank greatly to our corporate partners, honestly,
because, as everyone knows, the tickets are not cheap.
and we were not gifted these tickets.
We had to go out and actually raise the money
so that these kids are going to be going to a match.
They're going to get food vouchers.
25% of them will get free transportation
depending on the location.
Thank you, King County.
And it's the most comprehensive
youth access program of any host city
in the entirety of the world cup.