Seattle’s LGBTQ community members say they hope that this Friday’s World Cup “Pride Match” between Egypt and Iran, two countries where homosexuality is criminalized, can be an opportunity to change minds.
Seattle, WA
Can Seattle Mariners be next 2013 Seahawks or 2004 Red Sox?
Big games allow for lasting memories. Fans will forever remember this Seattle Mariners postseason run. Cal’s historic moments. The long wait rewarded in Game 5 against Detroit. The thrill of the first two wins in Toronto. And Geno’s grand slam, which put them in position to go farther than ever before.
Drayer: Where the Mariners are left after falling short of World Series
No one can take those memories away. They were real and they were spectacular. But, unfortunately, they will be superseded by the nightmare of George Springer’s prodigious blast, which ended this season before the ultimate goal could be reached.
The Mariners aren’t the first team to experience this kind of heartache. And, in fact, Seattle fans wouldn’t need to press too hard to remember a similar feeling.
The 2012 Seahawks seemingly came out of nowhere. Their ferocious defense was just starting to show what it could do and their rookie quarterback wasn’t generating a lot of respect. But the young members of the Legion of Boom and an offense keyed by Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch were hitting on all cylinders by the time the playoffs rolled around. Their December was very similar to what the Mariners just did in September; they won five straight games with three massive blowouts.
After dispatching with Robert Griffin III and Washington in the wild card round, the Seahawks were poised to beat the Falcons in epic fashion. Marshawn scored from the 2-yard line and the team was 31 seconds away from going to the NFC Championship Game.
We all know what happened next. The summer started early, the Niners went to the Super Bowl, and the Hawks spent the offseason trying (and eventually succeeding) to get to the next level.
In my own sports fandom, this one for the Mariners felt a lot like the 2003 Red Sox who lost Game 7 in Yankee Stadium after manager Grady Little left Pedro Martinez in way too long, and Aaron Boone walked it off a few innings later with a home run that I remember shutting off before it ever left the yard.
In fact, this one was even more similar because of the questions regarding the in-game decision making. Little was somewhat similar to Mariners manager Dan Wilson, a well-liked skipper who brought together people in the clubhouse and empowered them to succeed, but with some questions regarding his strategic decision making and comfort with the then-burgeoning field of analytical data.
Seattle Mariners’ Dan Wilson backs Game 7 bullpen decision
Both losses for the Seahawks and Red Sox were excruciating. Both felt a little like the end of the world and a little like the potential beginning of a new era. And both teams won championships the next season.
So can the 2026 Mariners be the 2004 Red Sox or 2013 Seahawks? That depends on them.
After the loss in Atlanta, the Seahawks went out and got Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett to augment their already impressive pass rush led by Chris Clemons and Bruce Irvin. The new duo combined for 16.5 sacks in the regular season and added three more in the playoffs. The numbers were great, but the personality, depth and intensity they brought to the team may have mattered even more. Signing them both in the offseason was the ultimate signal of belief from the front office to the players.
After 2003, the Red Sox hired Terry Francona as manager and acquired Curt Schilling. The former won them two titles and is now widely considered among the best managers of his era, and the latter won 21 games before becoming a postseason hero. Both were renowned for the leadership and dogged determination that helped break an 86-year curse just 12 months after that disastrous night in the Bronx.
As a fan of both teams in those moments, I can tell you the sting was similar. No Seahawks fan nor Red Sox fan at that time could tell you about seeing their team hoist a trophy. But a year later, I believe many (if not most) would say the victories tasted even sweeter after the horrible endings that preceded them. They would also say the organizations recognized how close they were to being at a championship level and made the moves to get themselves over the top.
The 2026 Mariners have some big decisions to make. As of today, Josh Naylor, Eugenio Suárez and Jorge Polanco (if he wants) are all free agents. As of today, the combined salary of the two Mitches (some $28 million) comes off the books as well. I think every single Mariners fan alive would prioritize signing Naylor. But there are lots of questions that follow.
Is J.P. Crawford back for the last year of his deal? What are you going to do in right field where Victor Robles never got untracked and Dom Canzone flashed in the season but fell flat in the playoffs? When will Colt Emerson be ready? Polanco is going to get a serious raise – do you want to be the one to pay him for his age 32 season and beyond? Are Cole Young and Ben Williamson ready to play every day at second and third base?
And do you have enough pitching? Improbably, it was that, the team’s greatest strength, that most fell apart in October.
The 2013 Seahawks and 2004 Red Sox are the models. But there is also a cautionary tale.
The 2016 Baltimore Orioles won 89 games, finished second in the AL East, but lost in a dramatic wild card game. Tied in the 11th inning, Toronto’s Edwin Encarnación took Ubaldo Jiménez deep while the O’s best pitcher, reliever Zach Britton, never entered that game. Sound familiar?
The following offseason, they did next to nothing. They re-signed Mark Trumbo (yikes), traded for Seth Smith, and that was about it. Not surprisingly, 2017 did not end well. The Orioles finished 75-87, dead last in the AL East.
Let me be clear, the M’s team we just watched is a whole lot closer to the Seahawks and Red Sox than to the Orioles. They have more talent, a better farm system, a younger roster and more opportunities ahead of them. They will take a few weeks to decompress, self-scout, and start to plan for next year. And hopefully this will be, as ESPN’s Jeff Passan said this week, more of a beginning than an ending.
It is entirely up to them.
More on the Seattle Mariners
• Passan: Mariners’ playoff run ‘a beginning, not an end’
• Mariners’ Cal Raleigh breaks one last record with 65th HR of 2025
• The real reason M’s lost ALCS is about more than a pitching change
• Morosi: Two decisions stand out from Mariners’ Game 7 loss
• What They Said: Seattle Mariners after losing ALCS Game 7
Seattle, WA
Council eyes street barricades in fight against violence, sex trafficking in north Seattle
SEATTLE — The Seattle City Council is expected to vote next week on a plan that would give the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) the authority to close off street access for public safety reasons.
The proposal comes after months of outcry from residents in north Seattle who say sex traffickers and sex buyers are looping through the streets surrounding Aurora Avenue North.
The street-closure proposal passed the council’s Public Safety Committee on Tuesday and is expected to be voted on by the full council next week.
“I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say the crime has gotten much worse, much more violent, and much more predator,” said District 5 councilmember Debora Juarez. “I think that we do have the authority to shut down a street for bullets flying and endangering the lives of those who live there.”
Frustrated neighbors have installed their own homemade barricades after a spate of gun violence between sex traffickers in May.
RELATED | SDOT removes street barricades near Aurora Ave; neighbors doubtful of temporary measures
Councilmember Bob Kettle says street closures will help tamp down sex buying in certain areas, but he emphasizes it must be accompanied by an increase in outreach and enforcement.
“We have to have a sustained effort,” Kettle told KOMO News. “My concern is for every action, there’s a reaction. We need to take this flex and then really attack it … because if we do just a bit and our attention wanders, we could have this conversation three months from now and we’re talking about the same thing.”
A 15-year-old boy was shot near 95th Street and Aurora Avenue North around 10:45 p.m. last night. The teen initially claimed he had been shot while walking down the street, but investigators now say he was shot by a passenger in his car.
RELATED | Seattle police say ‘drive-by’ on Aurora Ave. was actually passenger shooting teen driver
Kettle credited the city’s Real Time Crime Center cameras with helping investigators quickly piece together the events of the shooting.
“Just as important to finding out what happened, the cameras help police determine what did not happen,” Kettle said.
According to Seattle police data, reports of shootings and shots fired in the north precinct area are at their lowest levels since 2021.
Through the end of May, there were 48 total reports of shootings or shots fired, with one fatal shooting and seven nonfatal injury shootings.
That’s down from 63 total reports of shootings and shots fired – one fatal and seven injuries – in 2025; and 64 shootings or shots fired reports – one fatal and 17 injuries – in 2024.
At Tuesday’s committee meeting, councilmembers pointed out residents are calling for a new police precinct to be built on Aurora Avenue.
Ten years ago, a new North Precinct building was slated to be built at 130th Avenue and Aurora Avenue North to replace the existing precinct building, which was decades old and did not have enough space for the department’s needs.
Led by former councilmember Kshama Sawant, the “Block the Bunker” movement successfully got the North Precinct replacement project killed in city council.
Kettle said the city’s current financial issues make it essentially impossible to bring back a project similar to the one the previous council defeated.
“We have to connect the dots back,” Kettle said. “If we want to know why we are where we are today, we have to look at decisions made over the last two councils.”
Seattle, WA
Iran and Egypt to play in Seattle ‘Pride Match’ despite earlier complaints | The Jerusalem Post
Seattle revels in its reputation as a welcoming place and Pride flags are visible all over the city, all year round. Its June Pride weekend is one of the biggest in the United States.
So, ahead of December’s World Cup draw, it was only natural that local organizers designated the June 26 match to be held in the city as a “Pride Match.”
Then the draw happened — and the two teams scheduled to play the game were Egypt and Iran.
Egypt’s Football Association urged global soccer governing body FIFA to prevent any Pride-related activities, arguing such events clashed with the Muslim-majority country’s cultural and religious values. The governing body in Iran, where same-sex relations can carry the death penalty, filed an objection with FIFA.
Some in Seattle have doubts over the teams in the ‘Pride Match’
But in Seattle, there is no question that the Pride Match will go ahead as planned.
“The World Cup is going to come and go in three weeks,” Hedda McLendon, from Seattle’s local World Cup organizing committee, told Reuters. “The Pride celebration … has happened on this weekend for 50-plus years.
“It is going to happen this weekend, it is going to happen long after the World Cup.”
Some in the city’s LGBTQ community had mixed feelings given the participants, said Jon Cairns, 49, manager of local LGBTQ+ club Kremwerk.
Cairns, however, said his own view was that it provided a platform to promote acceptance that only the world’s biggest sporting event could offer.
“My reaction is let’s have them,” he told Reuters. “International sports is one of the biggest brokers historically of social change and individual rights and freedoms worldwide, including in the U.S.”
He cited black U.S. sprinter Jesse Owens’ four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Nazi Germany and Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ raised-fist protest in 1968 as moments where “only international sports could reach that big of an audience.”
“They’re not going to turn off the World Cup on state television in Iran or Egypt to block out a Pride flag in the audience,” Cairns said.
The Pride Match is “a host city initiative” and separate of FIFA, a spokesperson for soccer’s governing body told Reuters.
Seattle’s LGBTQ community sees an opportunity
Egypt and Iran’s involvement in the Pride Match is not the first time the World Cup has grappled with stark differences in attitudes between hosts and visitors.
In 2022 World Cup host Qatar, the emir said visitors should “respect our culture” when asked about gay people attending the tournament.
FIFA threatened yellow cards for captains wearing the “OneLove” armband, citing its rules against political slogans. Teams including England and the Netherlands that had been planning to wear the armbands to protest Qatar’s laws against same-sex relationships abandoned the plan.
For Ryan Webster, a 40-year-old lifestyle manager who was at Kremwerk the weekend before Pride, Seattle’s “Pride Match” was an opportunity to show solidarity with people in countries where their sexuality was outlawed.
“I’m choosing to believe that this is our moment to allow the members of the LGBTQ community that come from those countries to have the opportunity to celebrate themselves in totality that they might not have otherwise,” he said outside the club, which will host a watch party for Friday’s game.
Inside, ‘Venus Fengz’ lip-synced to Cher’s “Believe” before introducing fellow drag performers to the stage, clapped and cheered by a raucous crowd.
Fengz, who only wanted to provide their stage name, said Pride coinciding with the World Cup would bring increased visibility, anticipating perhaps some new audience members.
“I think it’s always great for us to be able to share space and share places with people who don’t have the same experiences as us,” they told Reuters.
“Sometimes you just have to be the bigger person and show grace where you can and know that everyone is a human learning (from) different experiences, but also it can get hard — because you’re on the shorter end of the stick, always trying to have to explain yourself around people who don’t grow up with the same worldview.”
LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Las Vegas could be years away from landing an NBA expansion team, but the league’s commissioner is now offering a clearer sense of the timeline.
On Tuesday, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told “The Dan Patrick Show” that Seattle and Las Vegas remain the cities the NBA is focused on if it expands. “If we expand, at least we’re thinking ’28-29 season,” Silver said.
Silver had previously signaled before that March meeting that Seattle and Las Vegas were at the center of the expansion discussion, while cautioning that no decision had been made.
“We will make decisions in 2026,” Silver said in February.
At the time, Silver said the league was not expected to vote in March but could emerge from those meetings ready to take the next step and begin discussions with potential ownership groups.
Las Vegas has long been viewed as Seattle’s most likely expansion partner if the NBA grows from 30 to 32 teams. Silver, however, has repeatedly said the league could expand by two teams, one team, or not at all.
The potential of an NBA Las Vegas expansion team has already drawn interest. This week, majority owner of the Vegas Golden Knights, Bill Foley, announced he is putting together a bid for the expansion team in Las Vegas.
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