New York City FC is taking advantage of the World Cup momentum with ambitious watch parties on a barge in the Puget Sound. The club, in coordination with the Seattle Sounders and Reign, will host massive watch parties on a barge just off the coast, floating on the Puget Sound. This concept has been toying with for a while, and at the end of May, it was finally unveiled to the world. If this sounds ambitious - and maybe even a bit silly - that’s because it is. But it’s also immense fun, and, crucially, creative. There has been a real challenge for Major League Soccer and its 30 clubs as to how, exactly, they can use the World Cup to promote both their side and the game at large. In a sense, it has been assumed that the soccer “bump” will be organic, cultivated by kids watching the sport on TV for the first time, or feeling some sort of primal urge to kick a ball in their back yard after seeing Christian Pulisic score for the United States Men’s National Team. And there is certainly an inevitable truth to that assertion. Yet many MLS clubs - in major cities and otherwise - are putting in shifts of their own. This World Cup is here. What they can do about it? That’s a question that many are trying to answer. “If we did nothing, we would certainly miss an opportunity,” Lauren Scrima, Vice President of Marketing at NYCFC told GOAL. NYCFC is in the right place at the right time to capitalize on the World Cup excitement.