Funko Field
Everett, WA
Review by Mike
Funko Field is the home of the Everett AquaSox of the High-A Northwest League. The ballpark was built in 1947, but there really isn’t any sense that this is an older stadium. There are no classic architectural touches or design features. It looks like it might have been put up last year. This speaks well of the way it is maintained, but less so for the thought that went into its design.
Minor League baseball first came in 1984 with the Everett Giants, who handed over to the AquaSox in 1995 as a Mariners affiliate, a relationship that has continued unbroken since then. The location is a tad sterile, with I-5 racing by beyond the right field fence and a large high school football stadium dominating the landscape along the left field line.
As for the stadium itself, it is made just about entirely of aluminum, with fixed seating in a pleasant blue color wrapping around from 1st base to 3rd base. A pair of small bleacher sections extend down each line towards the foul pole. A low press box sits behind home plate. This structure is pretty close to home plate, thus taking the place of would-be premium seating. There do not appear to be any private suites.
There is a grass berm and picnic area in the right-field corner that wraps around the pole and extends into right-center field. In addition to the video board in left-center, there is a nice manual scoreboard embedded in the right-center field fence. This is probably the coolest feature of this comfortable, but nondescript stadium.
The field is artificial turf, but while that used to carry a stigma, these days it hardly seems to matter. These modern turf fields look so good that you need to do a double-take to be sure it isn’t grass. What really caught my eye is the field dimensions. The fence is tall, but the distances are short, especially in the power alleys. From the left field pole to the right field pole, they are; 325, 342, 390, 357, 330, 345, 329.
All in all Funko Field is a perfectly functional, clean and comfortable ballpark. The quirky fence and the immaculate condition are plusses, but the general lack of anything striking, especially for a ballpark that is nearly 80 years old, is disappointing. I’m not quite sure what I was expecting, but I think I was hoping for a little more. It’s always possible, of course, that the game day experience elevates this nice stadium to the next level. Maybe someday I’ll find out.
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2024
263
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