New turf at Memorial Stadium helps the community



EVERETT - Everett’s Memorial Stadium is the home of the Everett AquaSox, it is also the home of Everett High School’s baseball team, and several others. Dozens of games and practices happen at the baseball field, and after many years of use, the grass field became chewed up. And with so many springtime games, drainage became a huge issue.

“Everett High School didn’t play a single home game,” says Danny Tetzlaff, General Manager of the Everett AquaSox. “It just didn’t drain properly. The School district wanted to replace it. They twisted of the arm of the AquaSox and said ‘We need a little money to close the gap on funding’.

Snohomish County, The Everett School District, and the AquaSox all teamed up to close the gap on a $1.2 million pricetag for new turf at Memorial Stadium, in the form of rubberized field turf. It handles water much better than natural grass and dirt, easily handles the heavy use on the playing surface, and doesn’t need much maintenance at all.

“We put in state-of-the-art AstroTurf,” Tetzlaff says. “It’s called ‘Grass Series.’ It is the best stuff out there.  It’s very grass like.  It plays like grass. It doesn’t play too fast, like a lot of turf fields. Not one complaint out of our team and the Mariners are very happy that we switched to it.”

The AquaSox will pay off their portion of turf in the form of 30-thousand dollars over ten years to the county, with the understanding that the franchise will have the opportunity to sell the naming rights of the stadium at some point.