The stadium will cost around $100 million.
In Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred’s world, he has one less stadium problem in 2025. Everett, Washington plans to build a new stadium that will be designed for the Minor League Baseball Northwest League’s Everett AquaSox franchise and for a United Soccer League team should soccer’s tier two level circuit decide to put a team in a facility about 30 miles north of Seattle. MLB’s Seattle Mariners franchise has a working agreement with AquaSox ownership to supply minor league players to the team. The only fly-in-the-ointment for Everett politicians is how to pay for the estimated $100 million price tag for the stadium-entertainment district that would house the baseball team and a potential soccer franchise. The stadium would open in 2027.
Major League Baseball, which gutted Minor League Baseball about five years ago by eliminating 42 teams, told minor league city officials that they better get their ballparks up to MLB owners’ standards or the team will disappear and be relocated. Everett was one of the cities that was on the list of needs improvements or else. The present Everett ballpark is in need of major renovations, including larger clubhouses, new locker rooms, lighting improvements, facilities for female staff and new training facilities. The AquaSox ownership missed an MLB imposed June 1st, 2024 deadline to have a stadium plan in place. The Everett ownership group was forced to pay a six-figure fee for missing that deadline. Everett elected officials could have done nothing to improve the city’s present stadium or renovate it or build a new stadium entirely. The new stadium will end up in another part of Everett and that may cause a problem because 17 businesses located on the parcel of land earmarked for the entertainment district could be impacted. It appears Everett elected officials have saved minor league baseball in its town.
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