Downtown Seattle businesses prepare for MLB All-Star visitor surge

Even the yarn store expects a rush during Major League Baseball's All-Star Week in Seattle.

The boutique Palihotel is near Pike Place Market. It’s on the walking path tourists are encouraged to take to get to the All-Star game. Front desk manager Harry Kramer says the hotel’s almost full.

“This is unusual for this time of year," he says. "To be booked at 90% this far in advance is a bit unusual.”

Just down the street on 1st Avenue, Betty Clune runs a store called “So Much Yarn.” She's placed sandwich boards on the sidewalk, but says she has faith that baseball tourists who knit will seek her out.

Recently, a woman from Kansas bought two rolls of custom-dyed yarn inspired by bouquets of flowers at the Pike Place Market.

"She wanted souvenir yarn," Clune explained after she left. "People come by, [and say] 'I gotta get a gift for my friend, she's watching my cat.'"

From Pine Street, the walking route to the All-Star Game heads South down 1st Avenue past Metsker Maps.

Skip Ross is part owner. He started with the company as a clerk 38 years ago after graduating from college with a geography degree. Ross loves maps, and sells a lot of them. But baseball fans will walk right by his store on the way All-Star events starting Friday. He's also a baseball fan. So he’s changing up his window displays, filling them with baseball posters, charts, maps, and books.

“So this is the baseball travel map,” he says while unfolding a map that shows major and minor league team locations. "People use it to plan their trips."

“We do get a lot of people that are kind of 'stadium baggers,'” he adds.

Stadium baggers are like mountain climbers who "bag peaks"; they travel to cities and bag stadiums one at a time. For these folks, he offers a "scratch poster" that shows all the stadiums. When someone visits a stadium, they scratch off the plastic on that stadium, much like scratching a lottery ticket.

The group Visit Seattle estimates the All-Star Game will bag $50 million for the local economy.

The All-Star Game is Tuesday July 11, but related MLB events start Friday and continue through the weekend.