Board Rejects Stadium Sites, Leaving Three Near Kingdome

The list of sites under consideration for a new baseball stadium has been cut to three, two south and one north of the Kingdome, where the Seattle Mariners now play.

Members of the Public Facilities District decided unanimously Monday to drop from consideration two other sites, one farther south, where a U.S. Postal Service operation is being closed, and the other at a former bus barn near the Space Needle.

The action followed the recommendation of a citizen advisory committee.

“It’s important to point out that baseball’s been played in the Kingdome for 20 years,” board member Shelly Yapp said. “In other areas, we’d be adding an impact that has not existed.”

By late next month the seven-member board plans to settle on one site for the $320 million retractable roof ballpark. Mariners officials want the stadium open by 1999.