Small business owners in SODO gear up for busy holiday weekend with Seahawks & Winter Classic fans
SEATTLE - Small business owners in downtown Seattle are gearing up for a busy holiday weekend. There is a Seahawks game at Lumen Field on New Year's Eve, followed by the NHL Winter Classic at T-Mobile Park on New Year's Day.
Business owners tell FOX 13 it's an exciting time. With the arrival of sports fans, it means that 2024 will kick off with a bang for bars and restaurants in Pioneer Square and SODO. Those two events alone are expected to draw huge crowds to the area.
Many of the businesses are planning to stay open for extra hours or hire extra staff to handle the thousands of fans expected in that part of town. Because the Winter Classic is new this year, they're excited to welcome hockey fans to SODO
At Bad Bishop, Jesse Spring will be serving up specialty Bloody Marys and cold-brew cocktails over the long holiday weekend. He says the bar is adding extra staff not only to help ring in 2024 but also to serve sports fans flocking to the Seahawks game and Kraken match-up in the outdoor Winter Classic.
"We are planning a couple of events for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day," said Spring. "Anytime we have events like this, it just brings people back into the neighborhood."
"I’m excited about the weekend. It’s going to be a long one, but it will be fun," said Farshid Varamini, owner of Gantry Public House.
Varamini is also preparing for a busy weekend with the bar opening Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning.
"We do have the Seahawks obviously on Sunday keeping their playoff hopes alive, crossing our fingers, and the Kraken will be playing the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday for New Year’s Day for the Winter Classic," said Varamini.
"Lower Queen Anne or Uptown gets lots of love for the Kraken games, but to have an NHL game in our neighborhood is super huge," said Chris Woodward, the Community Development Director with the Alliance for Pioneer Square.
Woodward says new and established businesses have been helping to revitalize Pioneer Square. He says the sporting events in SODO this weekend will provide a big boost for them.
"Every game brings down thousands of folks and that’s thousands of dollars in the wallets of business owners," said Woodward.
This weekend's game will offer a big opportunity for new and old customers to visit those businesses.
"Anytime we get the opportunity for people to see just how much the area has grown since then. I mean, 30-plus businesses have opened down here in the last year and anytime there is an event that brings people down to see how much the neighborhood has grown, it is a blessing," said Spring.
The Pioneer Square Alliance says there is also a lot of development going on at the nearby waterfront, with the addition of a beach and other businesses that are moving to the area.
"So you have groups like the DSA activating Occidental Square and city parks and recreation, activating Pioneer Park," said Woodward. "The important thing to focus on is how the waterfront is changing right now and what that will look like in a couple years. We have a beach that will open now in the neighborhood, there will be a Molly Moon's that will open along the waterfront. There’s a lot more happening now, but there is a lot more coming soon."
