Bert Smyser’s Contribution to Soccer in and around Fife
With the FIFA World Cup games coming to our region this month, let’s dive into another story about what links Fife, WA to the world of soccer.
In 1931, construction of the New Exposition Hall at 2610 E Bay Street in Tacoma began with the original intent of turning the building into an indoor ice skating rink. Due to the Great Depression, construction was abandoned and the site was left untouched for almost 10 years.
In late 1939, Bert Smyser purchased the property. This included the skeleton structure of the original building, which he planned to transform into “a new and modern athletic arena.” Smyser took on the project in response to complaints that Tacoma lacked a civic center. He expanded the building to 73,000 square feet, allowing it to seat up to 10,000 people. While Smyser’s Display Service took up offices in the front of the building, the rest of the space was made available for indoor sports events, exhibitions, conventions, and other ceremonies. Smyser named the building the “New Exhibition Hall” after the original Exhibition Hall that was destroyed in a late 1890s fire.
When completed, the building was 305 feet long and 130 feet wide. The front facade was composed of a series of asymmetric curved corners with ticket booths flanking the entry. The booths were tall oval structures with narrow vertical windows—reportedly the world’s tallest ticket booths. (At some point later in its history, these ticket booth towers were shortened). A 90-foot-wide stage took up the rear of the building, while acoustic panels, lights, and speakers were suspended from the ceiling. 21-foot-wide balconies ran down both sides of the hall.
By February 1941, construction was complete and the first event opened in the new space. The Better Housing Exposition ran for nine days. The following month, Smyser produced another exhibition mimicking the Atlantic City boardwalk, complete with amusement park rides, a Ferris wheel, a merry-go-round, and miniature cars. Style and beauty shows were held in the evenings, and a variety of booths were set up on both floors for attendees to play carnival games. Other events included dance bands (the floor could accommodate 1,000 to 4,000 dancers), a Harlem Globetrotters basketball game, several University of Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran University games, and the opening celebration of the 1942 Daffodil Festival, which featured a revue, a pageant, and a ball.
The following year, Smyser was forced to rent the building to the U.S. government to support the war effort. Initially, the building was used for shipyard storage, but Boeing later utilized it as a manufacturing plant for B-17 bomber parts for planes being assembled in Seattle. During this time, the interior of the building was stripped of all its seating; reports indicate that the bleacher-style seating was donated to Lincoln High School. When the building was eventually returned to Smyser, he found that restoring it to its former state would be too expensive and decided to lease it as a warehouse instead.
By the late 1960s, Interstate 5 had opened just 300 feet south of the building. In the 1980s, the facility transitioned into a soccer venue. Tacoma Stars owner Lane Smith purchased the property in 2006. At the time, he was a sales executive at Hewlett-Packard and wanted to preserve the space for his recreational league to use. The building has proudly served as the Tacoma Soccer Center ever since.
“Soccer is a life sport,” says Smith. “People are playing in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and even their 70s!”
Visit the Fife History Museum to learn about Bert Smyser’s other contributions to iconic buildings in our area!
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