Bannerwood Stadium
Bellevue, WA
Review by Mike
Bannerwood Stadium, or Bannerwood Park, is the home of the Seattle University Redhawks of the NCAA Division I West Coast Conference. What to call the ballpark? Stadium? Park? Both? Who can say? The exterior has signs with BOTH monikers. Regardless, this is a sweet little stadium set amongst lush green trees in a park in Bellevue, Washington, just across the water from Seattle.
The school is understandably proud of its most famous alumni as a huge Tarek Skubal banner hangs from the back of the main grandstand. I stopped by on a classic Pacific Northwestern day, with rain pouring down, but a friendly parks department employee leapt from his truck for 30 seconds to unlock the gate for me. What I found inside was a very compact, very well-maintained stadium.
The main grandstand has an unusual diamond shape when viewed from the field. It’s all painted in a striking black and red color scheme, with red trim on the center set of bench seating. There are two very small grandstands along either line with the same red seats. The dugouts are beyond the last of the seating. The crowds will be tightly packed as there is no place beyond the dugouts to watch the game.
Trees surround the entire stadium, even rising behind home plate. Basically, they built a stadium in a clearing. The field is turf on the infield and natural grass in the outfield. No worries about watering the lawn in Seattle. The scoreboard is out in left-center with line score, balls, strikes and outs. It’s painted… yes, black and red.
Despite the soggy conditions, I really liked Bannerwood Stadium. The unique main grandstand, the total commitment to team colors and the sense that the whole place is carved out of a medieval forest gives me the feeling of total baseball immersion. Even the exterior is well done, with large banners draped on the back of the grandstand celebrating Redhawk baseball. Now, if someone could toss me a towel…
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2026
299
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