The Mariners played their first game in Safeco Field
last night before a sold-out crowd of 44,607, but lost 3-2,
as the Padres scored two runs in the ninth to leave the
Mariners with their sixth straight loss and in last place in
the AL West. Despite the controversy surrounding the $517M
ballpark, Mariners owners "wanted to put baseball before
politics" during last night's opening, according to Angelo
Bruscas of the SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER. Nintendo of
America Chair Howard Lincoln: "Now we have the most
spectacular baseball stadium in the country." Mariners
Chair & CEO John Ellis, who has "been thinking of taking a
less active role with the team" now that the ballpark is
complete, said, "Seattle is finally going to have a major
league team for the rest of our lifetime." Ellis refused to
get into whether the new ballpark would enable the team to
keep both CF Ken Griffey Jr. and SS Alex Rodriguez: "For
today, let's just say, 'Time out'" (SEATTLE P-I, 7/16). CBS
SportsLine's Mike Kahn writes that the controversy over who
will pay for the cost overruns has led to "rumblings" that
Paul Allen "will purchase the Mariners within the next year"
(CBS SportsLine, 7/16). In Seattle, Dan Raley writes that
MLB Commissioner Bud Selig met the press and spent "most of
a half-hour defending Mariners ownership, a group suffering
tremendous public backlash for proposing that tax money be
used to cover $60 million in ballpark construction
overruns." Selig "seemed to intimate that Mariners owners
are entitled to their latest financial demands." Selig:
"They're people who saved baseball here. Without them,
we're not sitting here tonight. There's no team" (SEATTLE
P-I, 7/16). Mariners President Chuck Armstrong, when asked
if the public could be upset that the last-place team
doesn't match "what the taxpayers have put out for" the new
park: "I've heard some of that sentiment, so maybe that's
there. Consciously or subconsciously, maybe it's a part of
things" (SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, 7/16).
FINANCIALS: In Seattle, Michele Matassa Flores wrote on
the new revenue streams for the team from Safeco. After
subtracting the team's operating cost responsibility, it
still expects annual revenue to increase by $20-25M a year.
The team took in nearly $90M last year but "ended up losing"
$2M after paying salaries and other costs. At Safeco, the
team will collect all revenue (SEATTLE TIMES, 7/15).
LOCAL REVIEWS: In Seattle, Dan Raley writes the
ballpark "made solid contact with Seattle. On this night,
cost overruns were the last thing on anyone's minds."
Symphony music "set a regal tone as fans arrived, and red,
white and blue fireworks accompanied the national anthem."
Season-ticket holder Cassandra Chew: "It's better than Coors
Field, Jacobs Field, Camden Yards, the Ballpark at
Arlington. The visibility here is better than all of those
ballparks. ... It's more open" (SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER,
7/16). Also in Seattle, Snel & Conklin write that Safeco's
opening "was flooded with superlatives." But one complaint
was over the "long food lines that choked sections of the
main concourse." Volume Services spokesperson Elaine
Richner said the company would re-evaluate placement of the
275 carts and movable food stands (SEATTLE P-I, 7/16).
SAFECO NOTES: Mariners beat writer Tyler Kepner writes
that "as predicted, the ball didn't have the same carry at
Safeco" as it did at the Kingdome (SEATTLE P-I, 7/16).
...Selig, when asked about his efforts to control the
growing payroll disparity in MLB, said, "Some people think
I'm whistling in the dark. When it's over, we'll see who's
whistling in the dark" (SEATTLE P-I, 7/16).
