By Dan Catchpole
EVERETT, Washington, June 8 (Reuters) - Every World Cup is memorable, but Seattle's two pro soccer clubs -- the Sounders and the Reign -- hope they have created an unforgettable waterfront venue for fans to watch games and for kids to play: a pierside barge with a mini soccer pitch, a huge video screen and amenities.
The barge commemorates a campaign by the RAVE Foundation, the clubs' charitable arm, to build 52 mini soccer pitches in communities around Washington state where children
had nowhere to play.
"If you give a child a ball, and a place to use that, in (a) community that maybe doesn't have access to a free park ... it's going to change your community," said Courtney Carter, chief revenue officer of the two clubs.
The World Cup is being co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico this year, with a number of matches in Seattle.
About 18 months ago, Sounders and Reign executives "looked around the room at each other...and said, 'How are we going to show up for the World Cup?'" Carter said.
Getting attention amid the World Cup is a bit like shouting into a hurricane. To cut through, they landed on hosting watch parties on a barge, an idea inspired by Puget Sound, the waterway connecting Washington's biggest cities, she said.
"What if we put the 52nd pitch on a barge, put a screen at the end of it, and we delivered it to the waterfront of the City of Seattle and said, 'Here's a global game, come celebrate,'" Carter said.
She started calling maritime companies looking to borrow a barge.
The reaction of plenty of people on the other end was "Are you crazy?" she said, "I'm like, 'Maybe.'"
Not Western Towboat, though.
"If it floats, we can move it, and if you have an idea, we can usually make it happen," said Russ Shrewsbury, vice president and co-owner of Western Towboat, which hauls barges to Alaska.
The company once helped put a Wendy's restaurant on a barge and helped the Seattle Kraken, the city's pro hockey franchise, broadcast the National Hockey League draft on a barge in Lake Union in the center of Seattle.
Angela Dunleavy, owner and founder of Rally, a Seattle-based hospitality company, jumped at the opportunity when a representative from the Sounders and Reign pitched it to her unexpectedly at a local brewery.
Figuring out how to get pallets of food, drinks and other necessities, and hundreds of people on and off the barge is unlike any other project she has worked on, said Dunleavy, a veteran of Seattle's restaurant industry. "There have definitely been some strategy sessions that have gone late into the night to figure out, you know, pumping (out) port-a-potties."
The barge is ringed by shipping containers turned into concession stands and info booths about the Seattle soccer clubs and their mini-pitch campaign. Above is a VIP area. An 18-foot-by-30-foot video screen dominates one end of the barge. It will have stadium staples, including the Seattle dog -- a hot dog with cream cheese, caramelized onions, and jalapeños.
The barge will also host several free soccer clinics for kids ages 14 and younger.
Western Towboat will tug the Seattle Soccer Celebration barge from the Port of Everett to Seattle on Tuesday.
A few months ago, the barge was hauling goods to Alaska.
Last week, it was still coming together at an Everett shipyard, across from a U.S. Navy destroyer parked at Naval Station Everett. To get from the shore to the worksite required crossing five gangways, going through a decommissioned state ferry that has been turned into shipyard offices, and crossing a floating dry dock.
"It's totally different from every project I've worked on," said Jorge Cardenas, who was laying down artificial turf.
"When they told us we would be working on a barge, we didn't believe them," he said.
Cardenas, a lifelong soccer fan, said he won't be watching any World Cup games on a barge, though. He said he will be at his home in the San Francisco Bay area with his wife, rooting for Mexico, where they grew up, another stitch in soccer's global community.
(Reporting by Dan Catchpole in Seattle; Editing by Kim Coghill)
