Sound Transit is throwing a pep rally for Seahawks fans right outside Union Station on Wednesday, complete with ticket giveaways, temporary tattoos and a live DJ, as the agency leans hard into promoting its light rail network ahead of the Seahawks' season-opening rematch with the New England Patriots. The 12s Rally runs from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the International District/Chinatown Station plaza, positioning transit officials directly in the path of fans heading toward Lumen Field for a Super Bowl LX rematch that also features a halftime show from Soundgarden with Taylor Momsen and Mike McCready.
According to FOX 13 Seattle, the rally will include free Link ride-home tickets, a 12s-themed photo area and giveaways for game tickets, alongside the temporary tattoos and DJ set. Sound Transit says the event is meant to thank riders who already choose transit on game day while welcoming new fans to the system, per the station's report. The agency has framed the gathering around the slogan “1 + 2 = 12s!”, according to Sound Transit, marking the first time both the 1 Line and 2 Line can carry fans directly to a Seahawks regular-season game.
A New Route Over the Water
That slogan is more than wordplay. In March, Sound Transit opened the 2 Line Crosslake Connection across the Interstate 90 floating bridge, the first time light rail has operated over a floating body of water, directly linking Bellevue and Eastside communities to Seattle, as Hoodline previously reported. Eastside riders can now reach the game on the 2 Line, while fans from Kent, Des Moines, Federal Way and other South King County communities have their own connections into the 1 Line, per the FOX 13 Seattle account.
Wednesday's opener effectively serves as the first real-world test of that expanded, connected network during a regular-season Seahawks weekday game. Sound Transit has already proven it can absorb enormous surges: the agency recorded roughly 225,000 boardings on Feb. 11 during the Seahawks' Super Bowl victory parade, according to The Urbanist, and that mark was topped on July 6 when ridership hit an all-time peak of 309,000 boardings during FIFA World Cup matches and summer stadium crowds, per Sound Transit.
Why Wednesday's Crowds Could Get Tight
Parking around Lumen Field is expected to be especially constrained for this opener because the Seattle Mariners have a home game scheduled for 1:10 p.m. the same day at neighboring T-Mobile Park, according to gameday advisories posted on Seahawks.com. That overlap is a familiar headache in SoDo, where two simultaneous stadium events routinely fill nearby garages and choke local streets.
To help spread out the resulting crowds, fans headed to Lumen Field have three station options: Pioneer Square for northbound arrivals, Stadium Station for southbound arrivals, and International District/Chinatown Station for Eastside transfers and step-free accessibility, per Seahawks.com's gameday transportation guidance. Sound Transit has also rolled out contactless Tap to Pay by credit and debit card ahead of the season, joining ORCA cards and digital Transit GO tickets as ways to avoid ticket machine backups on the platforms.
Families can also save some money on the trip. Under Washington state's regional transit policy, all passengers 18 and under ride Sound Transit light rail, Sounder trains and King County Metro buses free of charge, a benefit that dates to the state's 2022 Move Ahead Washington transportation legislation.
