PSBJ: Seahawks fans packed downtown, and brought their wallets, for Super Bowl parade

A DSA spokesperson added that, according to information from the foot traffic intelligence platform Placer.ai, there were almost 600,000 people downtown that day. That data doesn’t include international visitors or people without smartphones.

“The power of people coming together in the heart of the city is impressive, and it should be a taste of what’s to come when we welcome people from all over the world in a couple of months,” Chris Copacino, DSA’s vice president of communications and marketing, said in an emailed statement to the Business Journal. Seattle will host six matches for the FIFA World Cup in June and July.

The Seahawks beat the New England Patriots 29-13 in Super Bowl LX on Feb. 8. The team finished the season 17-3 under second-year head coach Mike Macdonald, including three playoff wins.

The parade went along Fourth Avenue South from South Washington Street in Pioneer Square to Cedar Street in Belltown. It followed the ceremony presenting the Lombardi Trophy at Lumen Field. The parade crowds provided a boost to small businesses downtown.

According to the DSA March report, downtown had 2.84 million unique visitors in the month, which was about 93% of what downtown had in March 2019. The average weekday worker foot traffic for the month was 144,542, about 60% of March 2019. Average weekday worker foot traffic has hovered at around 60% of pre-Covid levels for about six months.

The Seahawks had two home playoff games in January, when downtown saw 2.55 million unique visitors, according to DSA. Although that number is smaller than the 2.84 million in March, it represented about 108% of the unique visitors in January 2019.

The Paul G. Allen Estate, overseen by Paul Allen’s sister Jody Allen, in February formally announced the team is for sale. Paul Allen, the late Microsoft co-founder, bought the team in 1997 for $194 million. He died in 2018 from complications of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

The Seahawks were valued at $6.7 billion heading into the 2025 season, according to the annual Forbes rankings. That was the 14th-highest valuation in the NFL. ESPN has reported the Seahawks could sell for more than $7 billion. At least 24 of the NFL’s 32 owners must approve a new owner.

A spokesperson for the Allen estate previously said in an email that the estate wasn’t commenting beyond the sale announcement, adding that the estate expects the sale process to go “through the off-season.”