Seating Project Begins at ‘The Orchard’

Demolition work under way to remove 30-year-old seats

YAKIMA, Wash. — Removal of nearly 30-year-old seating at Yakima County Stadium began Monday, one of two major improvement projects on tap before the Yakima Valley Pippins’ eighth season begins June 3.

The seating project, announced last fall by Yakima County with Nor-Pac Seating Inc., will replace more than 1,000 chair-back seats that originally were installed at the stadium in 1993. The old blue seats will be replaced with just more than 1,500 green Hussey Legends seats, the same seats in T-Mobile Park in Seattle and Parker-Faller Field at Yakima Valley College.

Demolition of the old seats and supports is expected to take about two weeks, Nor-Pac representatives said. Shipping containers with the new seats are either in the Seattle area or in Long Beach, California, on their way to the Northwest.

“We’re excited to get this project off and running,” Pippins general manager Jeff Garretson said. “We were expecting the demolition to start in a few weeks, but Nor-Pac is getting an early start.”

Nor-Pac, based in Enumclaw, has undertaken several seating projects around the Yakima Valley, including in the Yakima Valley SunDome, at Central Washington University and at Prosser High School.

In addition to the new seating, a maintenance and repair project is expected to start this spring that will improve the stadium façade and replace old roofing inside the structure.

The Pippins are set to host two area district baseball tournaments in May. The Class 2A district championship is slated for Friday, May 13, and the Class 1A district tourney will be held Saturday, May 14. The Class 1A and 2A WIAA state tournaments will return to County Stadium on May 27-28 after a two-year absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Pippins will open their eighth season at Yakima County Stadium on Friday, June 3, hosting the reigning WCL champion Corvallis Knights. Opening night tickets are now on sale at PippinsTickets.com.

By Yakima Valley Pippins

February 28, 2022