School district would get new, smaller stadium/amphitheater under Memorial Stadium deal

In exchange for giving up Memorial Stadium, the Seattle School District could end up owning a nearby block that now houses a parking garage and gain the use of a new, smaller stadium/amphitheater the city would build on what now is Memorial Stadium's parking lot.

That's the gist of a proposed agreement between the city and the school district about the fate of the district's historic, 62-year-old sports facility at Seattle Center.

The proposed agreement will be formally presented to the Seattle School Board on Thursday and to the City Council next week. If approved by both parties, the agreement would anger some veterans who say tearing down Memorial Stadium would dishonor the World War II troops it was built to remember.

But the deal also would open up four acres of open space for the public at the heart of the Center — something the city has wanted to do for decades.

"Our goal was to gain control of the space, and put it back into public use," said Seattle Center Director Robert Nellams.

As part of the deal, the district would retain ownership of the Memorial Stadium parking-lot property, which it would lease to the city for 60 years for somewhere between $2 million and $3 million a year — an amount officials say is designed to reimburse the district for lost parking fees and part of the value of the stadium.

The deal also would meet the district's goals of maintaining a stadium downtown and keeping open the option of building a new school in the center of the city.

The result would be "a better Seattle Center and a better stadium," said Ron English, a school-district attorney and lead negotiator.

Both sides insisted on preserving, but moving, the wall outside Memorial Stadium that is engraved with the names of 760 area former students who fought and died in World War II. "The [current] condition of the stadium and the condition of the wall doesn't honor anyone and we could do so much better," Nellams said.

The deal will expire in six years if the city fails to come up with about $200 million to carry it out.

City officials have long wanted to reclaim the Memorial Stadium property, which was deeded to the school district in 1946 with the stipulation that the district build a stadium in memory of the fallen students.

Over the years, the stadium has been the site of many high-school football and soccer games, music concerts and other events, including the opening ceremonies for the 1962 World's Fair. But it has fallen into disrepair, and high-school football games no longer draw enough fans to fill its 12,000 seats.

As part of a 20-year plan for Seattle Center approved last year, the city proposed replacing the stadium with a two-level underground parking and a transit hub, capped by a "great lawn" and a smaller facility that, with the use of removable seats, could be used as a stadium for 5,000 people, or an amphitheater for up to 12,000. It would be built on what is now Memorial Stadium's parking lot.

But city officials couldn't do anything without the school district, which owns the stadium property and its parking lot.

The agreement is likely to be scrutinized by elected officials, and many citizens knowledgeable about the school district's past mistakes in real-estate dealings.

After the district sold Queen Anne High to a developer who turned the building into condominiums, the district earned just 12 percent of the proceeds.

When asked how he can assure the public that the school district is getting a good deal this time, English said this deal is "transparent."

"The memorandum of agreement has already been written," he said. "It's available for everyone to look at."

More details of the proposal:

• Once the underground parking lot is finished, the city would tear down the Mercer Garage, and give half of that property — one city block — to the school district. That site, English said, would be big enough to build a new high school if the district ever decided to do so.

• The school district would have priority use of the new stadium/amphitheater for athletic events from the Friday before Labor Day to seven days before Memorial Day, and for graduations in June.