In July, the concrete came crashing down on Memorial stadium as demolition began, the renovations being set to finish in the fall of 2027. So the class ‘26, current seniors in SPS, will not be graduating at Memorial, and home games for Garfield this year have been relocated. Memorial Stadium has played a central role in the Garfield and Seattle community for over 80 years, and its absence this year has already taken its toll.
Memorial Stadium opened on September 26, 1947 and was soon after dedicated to the Seattle youth who lost their lives in the Second World War. In 1962, the stadium starred as the venue for much of the opening ceremony of the World’s Fair, the event that produced the space needle, the monorail, and more. Memorial was the first high school stadium in the country to install artificial turf, and 1974 saw the Seattle Sounders moving into the Stadium. In 1975, the Sounders played Pelé and the New York Cosmos at Memorial in the first nationally televised Sounders game. Over the next few decades, the stadium became unsuitable for the growing Sounders games: in the 1980s, illegal fireworks damaged the field; in the 1990s, an earthquake brought a chunk of the roof into the stands. The infamous wooden benches were in need of constant repair, and the bathrooms with the notorious trough-style urinals were becoming outdated. The Sounders began to play at Memorial less and less, and in 2009 they officially moved into Lumen Field. But Memorial wasn’t only a sports venue; from Metallica to Bob Dylan, Memorial Stadium has hosted numerous concerts, including the iconic Bumbershoot Festival.
Memorial’s history has always been tied to the Garfield community, beginning in the 1940s when a Garfield student designed the Memorial Wall outside the stadium. Garfield has also been playing football games at Memorial since the 1970s, Football and soccer games at Memorial being a staple of the Garfield experience. Two-year girls soccer varsity player and senior, Rhia Wenger, shared, “It was a lot more exciting to play and like a professional stadium. I mean, we didn’t get big crowds, but it was more, and it just gave a better feel to the game, more energetic, more exciting.” This year with Memorial demolished, Garfield home games for girls soccer have had to be on the Garfield turf. “It’s kind of annoying, because, like, we’ll go out after school to play and there’ll be lunch on the turf because people leave a bunch of trash out there and there’s nowhere for people to sit,” Wenger said. Garfield is having to adapt many of its traditions this year with the absence of Memorial, and the location of this year’s graduation is still up in the air, this uncertainty leaving many seniors disappointed.
While the exact plan for Memorial is not entirely clear, the project, which is set to complete in fall of 2027, will be a not-for-profit venue. For the first five years following its opening, the new project will also donate $10,000 dollars to support youth access. Memorial’s sabbatical this year cannot overshadow its long and successful career, nor can it diminish the fun and excitement that the stadium has provided for Garfield students.
