T-Mobile Park

T-Mobile Park
T-Mobile Park (then Safeco Field) in 2007
T-Mobile Park is located in Downtown Seattle
T-Mobile Park
T-Mobile Park
Location near Downtown Seattle
T-Mobile Park is located in Washington (state)
T-Mobile Park
T-Mobile Park
Location in Washington
T-Mobile Park is located in the United States
T-Mobile Park
T-Mobile Park
Location in the United States
Former namesSafeco Field (1999–2018)
Address1250 First Avenue South
LocationSeattle, Washington, U.S.
Coordinates47°35′28″N 122°19′59″W / 47.591°N 122.333°W / 47.591; -122.333
Public transit Stadium
Amtrak Sounder commuter rail King Street Station
OwnerWashington State Major League Baseball Stadium Public Facilities District
OperatorWashington State Major League Baseball Stadium Public Facilities District
CapacityBaseball: 47,929[1]
Football: 30,144
Record attendanceWrestleMania XIX 54,097
Field sizeLeft Field – 331 ft (101 m)
Left-Center – 378 ft (115 m)
Center Field – 401 ft (122 m)
Right-Center – 381 ft (116 m)
Right Field – 326 ft (99 m)
Backstop – 69 ft (21 m)
SurfaceKentucky Blue Grass /
Perennial Ryegrass blend
Construction
Broke groundMarch 8, 1997 (March 8, 1997)
OpenedJuly 15, 1999 (July 15, 1999)
Construction cost$517 million
($909 million in 2022 dollars[2])
ArchitectNBBJ
360 Architecture
Project managerThe Vosk Group LLP[3]
Structural engineerMagnusson Klemencic Associates[4]
Services engineerFlack + Kurtz Inc.[5]
General contractorHunt-Kiewit[4]
Main contractorsThe Erection Company Inc.[4]
Tenants
Seattle Mariners (MLB) (1999–present)
Seattle Bowl (NCAA) (2001)

T-Mobile Park is a retractable roof stadium in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the ballpark of Major League Baseball's Seattle Mariners and has a seating capacity of 47,929.[1] It is in Seattle's SoDo neighborhood, near the western terminus of Interstate 90. It is owned and operated by the Washington State Major League Baseball Stadium Public Facilities District. The first game at the stadium was played on July 15, 1999.

During the 1990s, the suitability of the Mariners' original stadium—the Kingdome—as an MLB facility came under question, and the team's ownership group threatened to relocate the team. In September 1995, King County voters defeated a ballot measure to secure public funding for a new baseball stadium. Shortly thereafter, the Mariners' first appearance in the MLB postseason and their victory in the 1995 American League Division Series (ALDS) revived public desire to keep the team in Seattle. As a result, the Washington State Legislature approved an alternate means of funding for the stadium with public money. The site, just south of the Kingdome, was selected in September 1996 and construction began in March 1997. The bonds issued to finance Safeco Field were retired on October 1, 2011, five years earlier than anticipated.[6]

T-Mobile Park is also used for amateur baseball events, including the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association high school state championships and one Washington Huskies game per season. Major non-baseball events that have been held at T-Mobile Park include the 2001 Seattle Bowl and WrestleMania XIX in 2003, which attracted the stadium's record attendance of 54,097.

The stadium was originally named Safeco Field under a 20-year naming-rights deal with Seattle-based Safeco Insurance. T-Mobile acquired the naming rights on December 19, 2018, and the name change took effect on January 1, 2019.[7][8]

  1. ^ a b "T-Mobile Park". 2019 Seattle Mariners Information Guide. MLB Advanced Media. February 21, 2019. p. 304. Archived from the original on March 29, 2019. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
  2. ^ 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  3. ^ "Safeco Field". Vosk Group. Archived from the original on July 28, 2013.
  4. ^ a b c "Safeco Field". Ballparks.com. Archived from the original on March 2, 2018. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
  5. ^ "Flack+Kurtz: Safeco Field". WSP Global. Archived from the original on February 9, 2013.
  6. ^ Grygiel, Chris (September 27, 2011). "Safeco Field taxes to end (finally) on Saturday". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Archived from the original on August 26, 2012. Retrieved August 15, 2013.
  7. ^ Divish, Ryan (June 13, 2017). "Safeco Field, home of the Mariners, is getting a name change". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on June 15, 2017. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
  8. ^ Johns, Greg (December 19, 2018). "Mariners' home facility renamed T-Mobile Park". Mariners.com. MLB Advanced Media. Archived from the original on December 20, 2018. Retrieved December 21, 2018.