Everett AquaSox Axel Sanchez keeps an eye on the ball during a 2023 game.
File photo by Doug Ramsay
EVERETT — The public’s chance to comment on the environmental impacts of building a new multi-purpose baseball stadium downtown or expanding the site of Funko Field recently opened.
The draft environmental impact statement came out in August. Comments are being taken until Friday, Oct. 5.
The options are to enlarge Funko Field owned by the Everett School District, to build a new stadium in downtown near Hewitt and Broadway by displacing businesses or to do nothing and expect to lose the Everett AquaSox team.
One opportunity to give comments is at a meeting on Zoom to be held Tuesday, Sept. 24 at 6 p.m. A shortlink to the meeting is bit.ly/EverettFacilityDEISMeeting
The final version of the environmental statement is expected in November after a swift turnaround.
Stricter facility standards by Major League Baseball are driving the conversation. Funko Field, where the AquaSox play, doesn’t cut it.
MLB’s facility requirements include separate women’s staff spaces, umpire spaces, enlarged dugouts, larger home and visiting team spaces, approximately 32 parking spaces for players and staff, and more, from information noted in City of Everett paperwork. Baseball America magazine has corroborated many of these requirements in its own reporting.
There was a revamp for the whole minor league system in whole minor league system in 2021 that focused on better professional working conditions. Teams such as the Sox signed agreement licenses to be part of Minor League Baseball. Other teams got shaken out and now play in independent baseball leagues.
The AquaSox has committed to a 30-year lease if a new stadium is built.
The option to enlarge Funko Field would keep the stadium at its current general spot, from a map. Enlarging the site would include potentially buying the one-story building property at the southwest corner of Broadway and 38th Street. It houses offices including a podiatry clinic run by Western Washington Medical Group.
Not affected is the nearby historic Longfellow Building, a map of the proposed expansion in the environmental impact statement shows.
The Everett School District owns Funko Field at Everett Memorial Stadium. The field also hosts Everett Community College games.
The option to put a stadium downtown would place it across the road east of Broadway from Angel of the Winds Arena.
The 12.5-acre footprint being studied is a whole block that goes from Hewitt to Pacific, and from Broadway to the railroad tracks.
Graphics of the downtown site show the buildings fronting Hewitt and Broadway would stay. However, the site being studied includes all of these buildings. Ten of the 35 buildings in the block are over 100 years old.
When would it be built
Paperwork submitted to a state committee in mid-August from project manager Scott Pattison within the mayor’s office outlines some of the timeframes.
The MLB demands that the Sox have a plan in place by the end of the year, according to what AquaSox team owners have said previously. The deadline is not necessarily that the stadium is finished.
The new site will be selected in mid-November, designing the stadium will take most of 2025, and construction will start as late as March 2026, with move-in planned in 2027, under paperwork the city sent to the state.
The City Council will be asked to approve a financing plan before the first months of 2025.
The city is asking the state the allowance to construct the stadium on a progressive design-build basis, where-ever it is built. The idea of this is to expedite the stadium’s development.
“The traditional design-bid-build delivery method is not practical” because of the speed needed, the city wrote to the state.
The state body is the Project Review Committee, which approves the special case of using design-build for public projects, and that committee will decide yea or nay to Everett’s application Sept. 27.
What would it cost
The Funko Field project would cost $66 million, of which $44 million would be construction.
The downtown site would cost $137 million, of which $77 million would be construction. A breakout shows land acquisition would be about $25 million of the total.
A full funding plan has not been decided yet. The AquaSox have proposed giving $10 million toward the project. Other money could come from taking out municipal bonds.
To submit a comment on the environmental study:
Email city planning director Yorik Stevens-Wajda at ystevens@everettwa.gov or write mail to:
Yorik Stevens-Wajda
City of Everett Planning Dept.
2930 Wetmore Ave., Ste 8A, Everett, WA 98201
