Fairgrounds could fill hoop team’s bill

Published 11:27 pm Friday, August 24, 2007

MONROE — A minor league basketball team that plans to move from Everett to Monroe is setting its eyes on the Evergreen State Fairgrounds as a place where it may one day play.

The Snohomish County Explosion is scheduled to play its 2008 season in the Monroe High School gym, said Nathan Mumm, who manages Courtyard Media, the team’s parent company. Afterwards, the team wants to move into a new arena in Monroe.

Mumm declined to say whether a site has been selected for the new arena or who will build the arena. But he did say on Tuesday that the most promising site for the project is the fairgrounds, owned by Snohomish County.

“We are working both with private and public entities,” Mumm said.

The county has considered building a multiuse exhibition arena for years as part of its long-term improvement plan of the fairgrounds, originally built in the 1940s, said Tom Tiegen, the county’s parks director.

Mumm has expressed interest in moving the team to the fairgrounds, Tiegen said.

“I think it’s a very intriguing idea,” Tiegen said.

But if the county decides to build the new arena at the fairgrounds, it will be for multiple users and to help the fairgrounds thrive, Tiegen said.

“We will not build the facility for a sport team,” he said.

The team, formally called the Everett Explosion, played its inaugural season at the Comcast Arena at Everett Events Center. The team couldn’t get weekend games and failed to break even in its inaugural season, Mumm said.

The team averaged 1,500 fans per game this year. The Explosion went 16-4 and won the West Division in its first year playing in the Portland, Ore.-based International Basketball League.

Mumm announced last week that the team has moved to Monroe. It’s scheduled to play its 2008 season at the Monroe High School gym, which will allow the team to play host to most of its home games on Saturday nights, Mumm said. The new season is set to start in February and end in June or July.

The team’s parent company has proposed to spend more than $20,000 to upgrade the 2,000-seat high school gym, said Rosemary O’Neil, spokeswoman for the Monroe School District. Proposed improvements include adding a new big-screen television, a scoreboard and a speaker system. Those features will remain at the gym after the team leaves, O’Neil said. The company also has agreed to pay about $5,500 for staff supervision and custodial service during the season, she said.

Mumm said he hopes to move the team in 2009 into a new arena. He said last week that construction on the new 50,000-square-foot arena seating 3,500 could start in as soon as a month.

This week, Mumm said that the project has yet to apply for a permit. Other than saying the fairgrounds is a promising site for the arena, Mumm declined to give details about the project.

Courtyard Media won’t build the new arena, Mumm said.

The Explosion and the Snohomish County Stallions, an indoor football team owned by Courtyard Media, would be anchor tenants, Mumm said.

Meanwhile, the basketball team’s business office is trying to move into downtown Monroe, the Monroe City Council was told Tuesday.

“We are very excited to have an opportunity,” Mumm said.

City Councilman David Kennedy said that he didn’t know about the team coming to Monroe until last week’s announcement. He welcomes the team and wants to learn more about the team’s future plan.

“At this point, we’d like to be involved,” Kennedy said.

Mumm originally approached the city in spring, Mayor Donnetta Walser said. The city isn’t aware of a plan for the new arena, she said.

“(Mumm) may already have the site, I don’t know,” Walser said.

Having the basketball team and the indoor football team in Monroe would help local businesses, said Neil Watkins, executive director of the Monroe Chamber of Commerce.

“The potential economic impact to our city is great,” Watkins said.

Reporter Yoshiaki Nohara: 425-339-3029 or ynohara@heraldnet.com.