Tour of Safeco Field

This week the focus for Summer Extravaganza was on careers in the athletic field.  The goal was to get students thinking beyond becoming a "professional athlete" and instead discover other athletic career opportunities.  So, today we loaded the big yellow bus and took them to Seattle for an official tour of Safeco Field.  Our tour guide informed us of the MANY jobs there are around the ballpark that have nothing to do with being a pro athlete on the field.  We got to visit the locker room (the visiting team only, as the Mariner's keep personal belongings in theirs). 

It was pretty amazing, fully equipped with just about anything a player might need before or after a game!

We got to sit in the dug out... 

Walk on the field (not on the grass)...

We also got to visit the press box, The Key Bank Diamond Club, and the owners suite (which by the way you can rent for $7,000/game...)! 

Of course I had to pick up a little something for Lincoln at the Team Shop...  I can't wait to take him to his first game!

Some interesting facts I learned about Safeco Field are:

• The head grounds keeper makes approximately $100,000/year and can make or break on average 5 games per season due to field conditions.  The groundskeeper makes sure the field is fit for each individual player and for the team as a whole.  For example, when Jay Buhner got older his field was not mowed as short as center field in order to slow the ball down.

• One of the 11 owners of The Mariners has never set foot in Safeco field!  Hiroshi Yamauchi (the third president of Nintendo), who owns 55% of the Mariners does not fly and has never been to Seattle!  According to our tour guide he was upset with the talk of the Mariners leaving Seattle and he felt that he owed the city of Seattle a little something for it's contribution in the sales of Nintendo.  So, he paid $75 million to keep them in town!

• The Mariner Franchise earns approximately $48/person every game....  Wow!  The stadium holds about 47,000 people...

• No one has hit a ball out of Safeco (well, with a wooden bat at least!) :-)

• Safeco has made a profit every year with the exception of one.

• Safeco Field cost about $500 million to build and is the most expensive ball field to be built to date.  It will be paid off by 2012 and the Kingdome is still not yet paid off...  Go figure?

• Safeco is tied for 2nd place in being the ballpark that recycles the most.  They currently recycle 70 some % (can't remember the exact number...) of all the garbage at the ballpark.  The goal for next season is to hit 80% Check out    http://www.seattlepi.com/default/article/Safeco-Field-hits-grand-slam-for-recycling-1240836.php    for more info.