Is there anything bigger in Seattle than the 68th annual Seattle Boat Show? The answer may be yes if the Seattle Seahawks make it to the Super Bowl again.

The Seahawks played in the Super Bowl a year ago and show sponsors wisely decided to close the show that Sunday so vendors and boaters could stay home and watch the game, which Seattle won.

The Boat Show has a similar calendar this year: it opens January 23 on South Lake Union and in the CenturyLink Field Event Center, which adjoins the field on which the Seahawks play. The show is primed to close again on the last Sunday (February 1) if the Seahawks play in the Super Bowl again. That, however, is beginning to look unlikely with the team’s 6-4 record so far this season.

Should that happen boaters will still have nine days in which to take in the Seattle Boat Show, the largest on the West Coast and the third largest in the nation.

The show, which attracted nearly 52,000 attendees last year, splits its displays and action between the weatherproof event center and a large in-the-water show at the south end of Seattle’s Lake Union. Free shuttle buses will run continuously between the two sites. The best bet is to park in the event center parking garage and ride the bus to the lake show. Major street and building projects make parking difficult along the lake shore.

Boat show promoters developed a raft of information to emphasize the size and character of the Seattle show and of boating in the state:

  • The value of all boats sold in Washington in 2013 was $454 million. The average sales price was $12,000.
  • The most expensive boat in the 2013 show was a 130-foot craft priced at $21.5 million.
  • The smallest boat displayed was 8 feet in length and could be stuffed into a backpack.
  • Some other numbers: the show offered 225 hours of free seminars; there were 444 exhibitors in the show and 148 brands of boats were displayed.

Although there’s a lot of interest in a full ten-day show, there’s also a huge amount of background noise among boaters and vendors. It sounds like “Go Hawks!”