Mariners return to Seattle for ALCS Game 3 with World Series two wins away<\/a><\/p>\nOn Friday afternoon, the Clipper from Victoria docked in Seattle with about 275 passengers, many wearing Toronto jerseys and ready to make themselves heard.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s go Blue Jays!\u201d shouted Kayden McLellan, one of the youngest fans off the boat, echoing a rally cry that carried all the way up the pier.<\/p>\n
Clipper officials say that kind of mid-October rush is unusual and a welcome surprise. It\u2019s shoulder season for tourism, but the arrival of the Canadian Invasion has given the route, and the city, a jolt of energy.<\/p>\n
From the waterfront to T-Mobile Park, Canadian fans could be spotted all over even though they were clearly outnumbered by a sea of navy and teal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re B.C. boys grew up watching Griffey and Ichiro,\u201d said one Canadian Mariners fan. \u201cWe don\u2019t fall into this bandwagon stuff with the Jays fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even some visiting Blue Jays fans admitted the odds were against them in the stands.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not over yet,\u201d said Nathan Bird, who made the trip from Vancouver. \u201cThe last time we came here, we won all three, just saying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, their presence was undeniable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going to overwhelm the Mariners fans today with our Blue Jays chants \u2014 \u2018Go Canada Go!\u2019 and \u2018Let\u2019s Go Blue Jays!\u2019\u201d said Chris Barrington-Foote of Victoria, grinning as he adjusted his cap. \u201cWe\u2019re going to start that in the first inning and it\u2019s not going to end.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Seattle\u2019s tourism industry, the rivalry couldn\u2019t come at a better time. According to Visit Seattle, 1.7 million Canadians visited King County in 2024, accounting for 73 percent of international visitors and just over 4 percent of all visitors.<\/p>\n
And they\u2019re not just cheering, they\u2019re spending. Canadian visitors dropped $586 million in Seattle and King County last year, representing more than 60 percent of international visitor spending and nearly 7 percent of total visitor spending.<\/p>\n
Downtown hotels, restaurants, and bars near the ballpark are reporting packed tables and record weekends.<\/p>\n
The next Clipper ferry from Victoria is already looking just as full: roughly another 275 passengers are expected to arrive in Seattle around 4 p.m. Thursday, just in time for more playoff baseball.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy that either team will be in the World Series,\u201d said Bird, smiling. \u201cBut I\u2019m cheering for the Blue Jays first.\u201d<\/p>\n
No matter which team advances, the Canadian Invasion has already scored one clear winner, Seattle\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of Canadians are crossing the border for the ALCS. Visiting fans are making plenty of noise and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":["post-228516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}