Safeco Field Stadium

After playing for more than two decades at Kingdome, the Seattle Mariners, a MLB team, moved to Safeco Field located in the SoDo district of Seattle. Built at the cost of $517 million, the stadium was inaugurated on July 15, 1999 . The stadium has the capacity to accommodate 46,621 guests. It played a host to the 2001 MLB All Star Game, the 2001 and 2002 Seattle Bowl, and WrestleMania XIX in 2003. The Kingdome had become a dreadful venue to host the Seattle Mariners games. On March 30, 1994 , King County executive Gary Locke delegated his officials to assess the need for a new Major League Baseball stadium since it was feared that the Mariners would leave Seattle if a new stadium was not built. In order to raise the funds for the new stadium it was suggested a sales tax increase of .01%, but the public disagreed to follow the measure.

Eventually on October 14, 1994 , a new revenue package was introduced to raise the revenues for the construction of the stadium. The new revenue package asserted that the stadium would be funded by a credit raised against the state sales tax, lottery funds, a .3% restaurant and bar tax, special license plates, and stadium admissions tax. It also stated that if the people won't approve this measure they would either sell the team, or move the team from Seattle . On September 9, 1996 , the site was selected for the new stadium, just south of the Kingdome. On March 1987, the ground-breaking ceremony of the new ballpark took place and was constructed on the same pattern that retro styled stadiums followed in the 1990s. The groundbreaking ceremony featured Mariners star Ken Griffey, Jr. Ann Donahoe of NBBJ designed the ballpark. They preserved the nostalgic feel of a classic state-of-the-art facility.

The engineers did an amazing job. They built such a mammoth structure on a very difficult site. Engineers from Skilling Ward Magnusson Barkshire designed a roof with wheels, the roof that covers the playing field, but it does not create a closed environment. Even when the roof is closed plenty of openings allow the fans to view the rest of Seattle . It covers nearly 9 acres, weighs 22 million pounds, and contains enough steel to build a skyscraper 55 stories tall. A push of a button closes or opens the roof in an average of 10-20 minutes. The attention given to the minute details is truly amazing. It has a brick facade, and custom blend of four kinds of Kentucky bluegrass and two kinds of perennial ryegrass to provide the most favorable playing surface for the athletes. Three levels of seating stretches from the left field foul pole to home plate around to the right field foul pole and into right-centerfield. Bleacher seats and a message/scoreboard are located above the bullpens in left field. More bleachers seats are located above the hitters backdrop in centerfield.

Above the bleachers is the main video board. The field is visible from all areas of the lower concourses. The stadium is very wide open, with views of Puget Sound and downtown Seattle . The fans take advantage of the openness of Safeco Field and enjoy watching games from standing areas at various locations around the ballpark. The scoreboard in Safeco Field has 11 electronic displays and an old-fashioned hand-operated scoreboard in left field. The main scoreboard is in the center field and features a high-tech LED technology video screen and matrix board for exhibiting graphics and animation. Safeco Field has numerous of exciting areas for fans to enjoy. The Bullpen Market, located behind left field, features interactive games and activities for fans, as well as the Fan Walk personalized bricks, local food vendors, an open pit barbecue, lookout landing, at the end of the left field line on the Upper Deck, the Outside Corner Picnic Patio, Children's Hospital Playfield, located on the Main Concourse in center field, the flagship Mariners Team Store that offers the world's largest selection of Mariners apparel and merchandise for men, women, and children. Safeco Corporation a Seattle-based insurance and Investments Company bought the naming rights of the ballpark in 1997, thus giving its name Safeco Field.