Everett AquaSox Axel Sanchez keeps an eye on the ball during a 2023 game.
File photo by Doug Ramsay
EVERETT — This fall will be crucial for the Everett AquaSox minor league baseball team.
The team’s 40th season in Everett will be in the history books, sure, but time is not waiting for them.
Major League Baseball (MLB) has required every minor league team to play in better facilities that meet a strict compliance checklist, and expect the Sox to show it has a clear plan in place to meet these standards.
It’s believed MLB’s deadline is now by year’s end.
The plan could mean upgrading Funko Field, owned by the Everett School District, or it could mean constructing a new stadium downtown near the northeast corner of Broadway and Wall Street, a block east of Angel of the Winds Arena downtown.
The Sox are safe for now. The team just established a contract to be at Funko Field for the 2025 and 2026 seasons, pending the school board’s approval.
Key decisions on a site selection beyond that are expected to be made by the Everett City Council by November.
Work is being done toward this goal.
Last week, the team’s consultants presented preliminary sketches for placing the downtown stadium.
Simultaneously, they’re working with the school district on what renovating Funko Field might look like.
The city would be asked to create a funding package for either route.
In return, with downtown, the city would own a large outdoor stadium that could host festivals and major shows — Cirque du Soleil got mentioned as an example — on a year-round calendar when the Sox aren’t playing.
“If we design it the right way, it has a lot of potential,” development consultant Ben Franz-Knight said in May.
Improving Funko Field would cost $80 million from estimates shown to the Everett Multiuse Facility Fiscal Advisory Committee May 29.
The total package for the downtown site could tentatively cost $120 million, as long as no underground contaminants are found.
New preliminary sketches for a downtown stadium, presented at the fiscal committee meeting last week, show it can fit without requiring eminent domain to take the buildings fronting either Hewitt or Broadway.
Screenshot during July 24 Everett Multiuse Fiscal Advisory Committee meeting.
A graphically detailed conceptual image of how a stadium would fit in the footprint near Wall Street and Broadway.
Renovating Funko Field would require expanding its footprint, consultants said.
On paper financially, operating the downtown site would return a net revenue of $2.1 million per season to the city. A majority of that would be from renting out the stadium for large and small non-baseball events, according to a draft spreadsheet shown to the committee. Revenue would also come from having stadium naming rights, a lease where the AquaSox pays to play and on-site parking income.
Using Funko Field could bring the city a comparative $135,000 a year.
The MLB has been figuratively “screaming” at the Sox to show something, but the team has countered that to be able to make a site selection they first need the environmental studies finished, AquaSox team co-owner Chad Volpe said at the July 10 fiscal advisory meeting.
The goal is to have the enviro analysis for the downtown site done by November. The City Council would make a site selection and authorize a debt financing plan within weeks thereafter.
All 120 minor league baseball clubs were in facilities needing upgrades to meet the new standards, Volpe reported from attending a June owner’s conference held by MLB.
But 113 are now in good standing.
The Sox are one of seven teams not yet there.
Two clubs are in much deeper trouble. One is in California, Volpe said.
The other is the Eugene Emeralds in the Northwest league. The Emeralds have played at the University of Oregon’s field since 2010, but they’ve increasingly seen its schedule collide with the Ducks. The city sought a $15 million bond from taxpayers for a new stadium, which died at the ballot box in May.
Emeralds management didn’t return the Tribune’s inquiries for this story, but it’s common knowledge among league insiders that the Emeralds will relocate somewhere in the Pacific Northwest after their 2025 season.
Volpe said the MLB wants to keep the Northwest League a six-team league.
The AquaSox are affiliated with the Seattle Mariners. The Mariners strongly want the Sox to stay.
Strongest of all are that the Sox want to stay here. Its owners publicly stated commitments to Everett, and that they’d sign a long-term lease for a future stadium.
Snohomish County and the City of Everett jointly want the team to stay. It’s an economic engine.
The package to fund a stadium hasn’t been finalized.
Some options to cobble it together are to have Everett issue public bonds, and tapping the city of Everett’s capital projects accounts (also used for infrastructure) and maybe creating a local improvement tax district around the site, plus other methods. The AquaSox team might put in $10 million, which is practically a few seasons worth of team revenue.
Most teams have been approaching their governments for help meeting MLB’s rule.
For example, the Hillsboro (Oregon) Hops, in a town west of Portland, petitioned the Oregon legislature for $15 million this year, and got it.
Spokane’s team also petitioned its electeds for cash.
In 2023, the Washington state legislature gave the Everett effort $7.4 million to work toward designing the new stadium.
Screenshot during July 24 Everett Multiuse Fiscal Advisory Committee meeting.
A top-down conceptual image of how a stadium would fit in the footprint near Wall Street and Broadway.
