This summer, the greater Seattle region will host visitors from around the globe for the FIFA World Cup. For Tukwila, the moment feels especially fitting. Soccer has long played a major role in the city’s culture, anchored by Starfire Sports and its reputation as a premier soccer destination in the Pacific Northwest.
Since opening in 2003, the 54-acre complex has drawn everyone from first-time youth players to professional athletes. Last year alone, Starfire welcomed more than 1.2 million visitors, including over 70,000 children who participated in sports programs hosted at the facility.
“It’s really special when you can see little kids start training here at six, seven, eight years old, and then you read about them playing at some of our local universities,” Starfire Sports President and CEO Eric Olmstead said.
Starfire is one of the few places in the region that is home to soccer at every level: youth clubs, semi-pro, recreational adult leagues, college tournaments, and professional training all share the same complex. On any given day, young players might finish a tournament game while professional athletes train just a few fields away.
“I come here around two times a month to play with EPD, Elite Player Development,” a young Starfire athlete named Jameson told us. “Although it’s a little more intimidating playing with a lot better players, it grows me, not just as a player, but as a person too, just being surrounded by really good players and really good coaches.”
Jameson’s parents make the two-hour drive to the facility so he can train alongside stronger competition.
“It’s so crazy to think about players in the World Cup grew up and played in Washington, the place that I’m playing now, and knowing that I could be there someday if I worked hard enough,” Jameson said.
That feeling is familiar to players who came through Starfire years earlier, including Seattle Sounders forward Jordan Morris.
“It was a big deal, because you were playing on that stadium field, and as a kid, that stadium felt massive,” Morris told The Seattle Times while reflecting on his youth soccer days at Starfire with Eastside FC.
Today, Morris is one of the most recognizable Seattle-born homegrown players in Major League Soccer. Alongside Sounders midfielder Cristian Roldan, he represents the kind of local-to-global pathway young players at Starfire get to see firsthand.
“One of the most unique things was to watch Cristian Roldan,” Olmstead said. “He started his collegiate career at UW, and then ended up training out here with the Sounders when they used this as their training facility, and now is playing for the US Men’s National Team.”
For years, the Seattle Sounders used Starfire as their training headquarters before moving into a new facility in 2024 in nearby Renton. Today, NWSL’s Seattle Reign FC trains there, maintaining the complex’s longstanding connection to the professional game. That proximity to greatness left an impression on Seattle Reign midfielder Sally Menti long before she became a professional player herself.
“I grew up playing tournaments at Starfire, where we train now,” Seattle Reign FC midfielder Sally Menti told The Seattle Times. “But I definitely have memories of seeing the Sounders guys walk by, and just being like, what the heck, I’m about to play in my U10 scrimmage, and the Sounders are training right next door.”
Now she finds herself on the other side of that same dynamic.
“When girls see Jess Fishlock walking by, they all freak out,” Menti told The Seattle Times. “It’s cool that girls get to see us because I know what I felt when I got to see the Sounders.”
Over time, Starfire has come to feel less like a sports complex and more like a place where players can see the next level of the game up close.
“That’s one thing I think is really unique about Starfire, is that it does create a championship atmosphere,” University of Washington Men’s Soccer Midfielder Conner Lofy said. “Every time I played at Starfire, I knew I was playing in a big game, in an incredible atmosphere. Even at a young age, it was a great experience into what playing at a higher level could look like.”
The facility’s role in that atmosphere is closely tied to its origins. Starfire was developed in partnership with the City of Tukwila, which saw the complex as a long-term investment in community recreation and youth development. That public-private foundation helped shape what the site has become today: a civic asset as much as an athletic one, built to serve both local residents and the wider soccer community.
“Tukwila is one of the most diverse communities in the state, and we have set up Starfire to be a safe and welcoming place for everyone,” Olmstead said.
That sense of place matters as the region prepares for a global moment. This summer, FIFA World Cup matches arrive at Lumen Field, which will bring international attention to a soccer landscape that has been building steadily for decades.
The City of Tukwila will be marking the occasion with a series of events and public programming throughout the tournament, inviting residents and visitors to take part in the celebration beyond the stadium.
And while the World Cup itself only lasts about a month, the love of soccer in Tukwila will continue long after the final whistle sounds. At Starfire, players of all skill levels carry forward the same sense of possibility that has drawn generations to the complex, where the next chapter is already taking shape.
To learn more about World Cup-related events and activities happening in Tukwila this summer, please visit Tukwila26.com