When six World Cup games come to Seattle this summer, there’s another game fans can join in on in Pierce County. Around the county, 1,000 glass medallions are being hidden in a scavenger hunt meant to celebrate the World Cup.
Leah Morgan and Anthony Remick are glass artists who were commissioned to create the pieces.
“For me, (glass) feels like it's at the heart of the art community in the Northwest,” Morgan said.
Morgan, who has been creating glass in Tacoma for over 25 years, designed the stamp that’s featured on each medallion. In the center of the design is a soccer ball, meant to honor the event and nod to a Tacoma icon — the Tacoma Dome.
Above and curled around the soccer ball is the Lushootseed word, caləɫali, which translates to ‘place of lake’, a place name used for the city of Tacoma. The Puyallup Tribe of Indians is the first indigenous sovereign nation to be an official host of World Cup events.
Tacoma and glass art
This scavenger hunt borrows from Tacoma’s Monkeyshine tradition, where glass pieces are hidden each Lunar New Year for people to search for.
The medallions being hidden for the World Cup scavenger hunt can be found in some of the region’s popular tourist spots. When locals or visitors find the glass pieces, each will have a QR code that directs them back to the Fan Zone at the Puyallup Reservation. While searchers get to take home any medallion they find, some are even worth prizes.
“ Our goal is to invite them to come explore Pierce County and everywhere from our beautiful waterways up to Mount Rainier, and so these will be hidden all throughout for them to discover,” Morgan said.
Dean Burke, president and CEO of Visit Tacoma-Pierce County, said they want visitors and locals to explore while they’re here for the World Cup festivities.
“ We want to send people out from the game, from the Fan Zone, into the community and back into the Fan Zone and experience all those things together,” Burke said.
As all this local preparation is happening ahead of the event, it’s now less clear how many visitors will travel to World Cup host cities this summer. In March, FIFA began releasing room blocks it had reserved at hotels across the U.S.
“How do you pick up midstream and rewrite that forecast when that's happening?” Burke said.
Seattle hotel owners are seeing fewer reservations than they expected. A similar story is playing out nationwide. Analysts with the American Hotel and Lodging Association now believe the World Cup games in the U.S. will have more domestic travelers than international visitors.
But Burke said that his organization is ready for everyone to enjoy the World Cup.
“ We keep our arms open to receive who we're going to receive, how that's going to look and then I think we'll all take a beat after it's over and stop and try to collect the pieces and see what happened from there,” he said.
The glass art will be released starting in early June. They’ll continue to be placed around Pierce County until mid July.
Some have already been released at tourist hotspots, like Mount Rainier National Park.
