The ball club has already paid about $150 million toward the overruns on the ballpark that opened mid-season in 1999. However, it had been in dispute with the PFD as to whether the facilities district "could pursue additional tax sources or other legal remedies to cover the cost of the bonds for construction." The Mariners believed they could; the PFD said "no."

Until the settlement, the baseball organization had no legal standing to sue the contractors involved in the construction of Safeco Field – the legal standing was in the PFD. As part of the settlement, the PFD assigned the rights to pursue judicial remedy to the Mariners, and now the organization is in a position to do just that. "That's where it stands now," says the Mariners' Rebecca Hale. For its part, the Mariners agreed to release all claims for additional public funds to cover the overruns.

"Our fans were saying to us in so many words, 'If you want to go after the contractors, have at it, but don't go after the taxpayers,"' says Mariners chairman Howard Lincoln.