By The Herald Editorial Board
Minor League Baseball’s future in Everett faces three options: Refurbish the current stadium — Funko Field — on Everett School District property; build a new field and stadium downtown across from the Angel of the Winds Arena; or watch another city provide a new home, spurring the departure from the city of the AquaSox, the Seattle Mariners’ High-A affiliate.
The first two options offer their own advantages and disadvantages; the third means the loss of a 40-year history of Minor League Baseball — and its roster of former and current big league players and stars — thrown out at its home plate in Everett.
Those options and details will be further discussed at a community information session at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday at Everett Station, as the Everett City Council prepares a decision in December that will move one of those base runners along.
Build it or they could leave: Among those watching is the big league itself, Major League Baseball, which has forced similar conversations across the U.S. and Canada. In a move in 2021 to improve working conditions and pay for its minor league players, MLB cut some 40 minor league teams from their affiliate agreements with big league teams, a move that kept the Everett AquaSox in the Northwest League, bumped it up to the longer-season High-A designation, but imposed a punchlist of things that would have to be improved on the field and its facilities for players and game officials.
And like the league’s quicker pitch clock, time is running out for Everett and other cities hoping to keep their teams. The AquaSox already have missed a June 1 deadline set by the MLB to show a firm plan in place. The owners of the Everett team paid a six-figure fee this year for missing that deadline, and face further fees if satisfactory progress isn’t shown.
What’s necessary to meet MLB standards are larger clubhouses for home and visiting teams with direct access to and from the field, kitchen and dining facilities as part of the clubhouses, batting and training rooms, better lighting and more; all items currently lacking at Funko Field.
The decision to keep baseball in Everett should be an obvious call for even the most blind of umpires. During its 2023 season — its second with the expanded schedule of 66 home games — the Sox directly supported $10.7 million in business revenue, 90 jobs and $3.7 million in labor income, according to an updated economic impact report prepared for the city.
Indirectly, those stats improved to $13.7 million in business revenue, 130 jobs and $6.4 million in labor income for city residents; with the promise of more to come as the team saw an increase of 200 spectators per game between the 2022 and 2023 seasons.
Utility infielder vs. power hitter: Funko Field, at the Everett School District’s Memorial Stadium facility, can be refurbished to meet the MLB’s standards, and at a lower projected cost than building a new field and stadium downtown.
Renovation of Funko — sponsored by the Everett-based maker of the big-headed Funko Pop! vinyl figures of sports stars, superheroes and more — is estimated to cost between $68 million and $79 million. Building a new facility downtown is estimated to cost between $84 million and $114 million.
In each case, funding would combine public and private investments among team owners, other investors and city, county and state government.
Some public funding already is earmarked or spent. The state of Washington pledged $7.4 million to the project in 2023, and the City of Everett has spent about $1.1 million in preliminary work. And while the city is likely to rely on bonds for funding the project, those bonds will differ from general obligation bonds that are paid back through taxpayer revenue; instead, ballpark revenue from coming seasons would be used to pay back the bonds.
The AquaSox’s owners have expressed a desire to sign a 30-year lease of the remodeled or new facility.
Moneyball: What separates the two options is in their potential for economic power-hitting.
Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin and other city officials are clear that the arrangement with the school district has worked well over the years. Despite early concerns about accommodating schedules for the AquaSox and its longer season and for school teams and uses, the arrangement has worked well, both the city and school district have said.
The downtown site, however, according to the economic study, could provide up to twice the economic impact in revenue and jobs, with between $15.1 million to $21.7 million in business revenue and between 135 to 200 jobs, as compared with a renovated Funko Field.
A second field, said Dan Eernissee, the city’s economic development director, also would allow the possibility of other tenants for the stadium, such as men’s and women’s United Soccer League teams, further increasing potential for jobs, and business and labor revenue. An additional field would also make Everett attractive for sports tournaments that bring in multiple teams for several days.
The downtown site, city official said, also offers greater potential for related residential and retail development that has developed around similar new stadiums in other communities.
“This actually expands our downtown in a way that we’ve been wanting to do for some time,” Franklin said, “to really spur investment and that transit-oriented development by Everett Station, everything that we’ve been wanting to see since we built the station.”
It also offers the potential for additional park amenities, such as a playground, a plaza and open space in a neighborhood that is one of the city’s public park “deserts.”
The school district stadium is hemmed in, Eernissee noted, by the school district offices, Memorial’s football field and stadium, single-family residences to the west, existing retail development to the south and both Broadway and 41st Street.
As well, while the MLB has limited its facility demands to player needs and made no demands regarding seating or fan amenities, that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t in the future, said Scott Pattison, special projects manager for the city.
“There’s really no room for growth” at the school district site, Pattison said. “There would be some concern that a remodeled Funko Field could only be good for seven or eight years before Major League Baseball comes and says, ‘OK, now you need 5,000 seats.’ Well, we just spent $74 million and we don’t have room.”
Tale of two baseball cities: Similar conversations are happening even within the AquaSox’s own league. The Hillsboro (Ore.) Hops broke ground this August on a $120 million stadium, with funding from that team’s owners, bonds backed by future ballpark revenue, future lodging tax revenue, money from the county and from Oregon’s state legislature.
But at the same time, about 110 miles to the south, the Eugene Emeralds announced in May that they are likely to move to a different city in two to four years, after voters in Eugene balked at a $15 million general obligation bond that would have helped build a new stadium at the county fairgrounds.
Considering that there are 40 cities out there who lost their minor league team, finding a new city shouldn’t be a huge challenge.
Keeping baseball in Everett is the first priority, regardless of the site selected.
“You don’t have to be a baseball fan to actually appreciate what happens with a stadium in Everett,” Franklin said. “It’s like one of the only family-friendly, affordable activities, and it provides millions in economic impact.”
But a downtown ballpark could turn a solid single into extra bases from increased economic opportunities; a longer and complementary fan season, paired with Everett Silvertips hockey at Angel of the Winds Arena; more foot traffic downtown supporting businesses, steps from the Everett Station and its eventual light-rail terminus; and development that builds on the city’s livability.
Everett officials should move ahead with plans to keep the AquaSox in Everett and give players, fans and downtown businesses a field of dreams.
Correction: An earlier version of this editorial gave an incorrect time for the city’s informational meeting. The meeting at Everett Station starts at 6:30 p.m.; doors open at 6 p.m.
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