SODO is already in playoff mode: unboxing jerseys, prepping restaurants and cleaning up Hawk Alley.
SEATTLE — Nearly a decade after fans last packed Lumen Field for a Seahawks playoff game, the neighborhood around the stadium was already buzzing Friday as Seattle counted down to a long-awaited return of January football.
Across the street from the stadium, employees at Pro Image Sports unboxed and hung fresh Seahawks gear ahead of Saturday evening’s divisional-round matchup against the San Francisco 49ers — the team’s first home playoff game with fans since before the pandemic-era postseason.
Clay Frongner said the store brought in more than 50 new styles of hats, new division championship merchandise and jerseys ranging from throwbacks to new blackout designs. Among the most popular items: anything with Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s name on the back.
“We’ve actually even already ordered the stuff for the Super Bowl champs, so they make you go through and order the gear way in advance, so we already know what we want and what we’ve tried to get for Super Bowl gear,” Frongner said.
Frongner said the steady flow of deliveries is different this week because the store is stocking up not only for this weekend, but for what comes next.
“We’re getting more product in and really just kind of loading up, not just for this game, really looking beyond,” he said, adding that the store is preparing in advance because “you can’t get the gear in later on.”
Inside the shop, he pointed to custom hats the franchise designs through New Era and described the broader surge as a “hot market,” saying fans are eager to refresh their closets. Sometimes replacing jerseys they’ve worn for years.
“It might be fans where they’ve had the same jersey for the last 10 years, and now all of a sudden they have a new excitement level where they want to get that new jersey,” Frongner said. One fan bought a new 12s throwback jersey to replace his “old” Russel Wilson jerseys.
Next door, Pioneer Tacos & Tequila was also gearing up for the weekend rush, with owner Joe Piano describing preparations that go beyond food and drink. He said the restaurant was “just cleaning up, getting ready for all the people,” and compared the scale of the moment to the kind of citywide surge Seattle expects for major events.
“I haven’t seen hype like this since what the year we went to the Super Bowl,” Piano said.
A few blocks away, that same pregame energy was turning into volunteer work along South Royal Brougham Way in the stretch many fans know as Hawk Alley. Volunteers with We Heart Seattle gathered with gloves and bags to pick up trash and remove debris ahead of game day. Among them was superfan Captain Seahawk, who said the area’s tailgate spirit has faded in recent years.
“The life and blood of a Hawk Alley has been gone for so long. It’s time to bring it back,” Wallace Watts said.
He described the scene he hopes returns Saturday: “completely packed with thousands of 12s screaming and yelling and partying, barbecuing, having fun.”
For him, the cleanup was a direct response to what he sees as a simple choice for fans who want the neighborhood around the stadium to feel alive again.
“Either sit on the internet and complain or get your butt here, grab some gloves, grab a tong and start picking stuff up,” he said.
The Seahawks play Saturday night at Lumen Field, but in SODO on Friday, the countdown was already visible: in the boxes being opened, the restaurant getting ready, and the volunteers trying to make sure the streets outside the stadium look ready for the crowd that’s coming.
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