Texas Rangers

Last visit: April 5, 2024

It seems that when the Texas Rangers open a new stadium, we don’t get a full season of baseball. In 1972, they moved to DFW from DC but had the start of the season delayed by a players’ strike. They moved to the Ballpark in Arlington in 1994 and saw the last month and half of the season wiped out by a players’ strike. And they moved into the $1.2 billion Globe Life Field in 2020, but COVID threw the world a massive curveball.

Globe Life Field replaces the not-that-old Globe Life Park. The Texas heat was just too much in July and August for an open-air venue, hence the need for a climate-controlled facility. And after due diligence that determined it to be impractical to retrofit a roof onto their “old” stadium, the Rangers and the city of Arlington worked quickly to build something new.

When you erect a new facility, you’d expect it to be a big upgrade over the previous one. Sadly, this is not the case here. It’s a relatively bland structure with uninspired exterior architecture and a sense of utility over romance. Functionally, it works great ———— awesome sightlines, nice leg room, wide concourses, and guaranteed comfortable baseball, rain, shine or 100-degree Texas summer heat. But unless you’re seating in one of the impressive premium seat areas, it doesn’t have a ton of amenities; Atlanta’s Truist Park, a similarly utilitarian suburban structure that opened in 2017, blows this one away on that front. Its total score and ranking is virtually identical to its predecessor. Meaning the city of Arlington and Rangers ownership really spent $1.2 billion on a lateral move. That’s pricy air conditioning!

I’m hardly alone in this harsh critique. Most ballpark aficionados share my sense of meh. But the “average” Metroplex baseball fan seems happy with their new toy. So my fear is this new park proves successful with the casual fan and sparks a wave of new “practical” ballparks over the romantic ballparks built late last century. That would be a backwards step for us stadium chasers.

STADIUM 36/50

Exterior aesthetics 5/10; Interior & Concourse Aesthetics 9/10; Sightlines 5/5; Seating 5/5; Traffic flow 5/5; Scoreboard 7/10; Amenities & entertainment 3/5; Bars & Restaurants 3/5; Celebrating history 5/5; Grand entrance 5/5; Sense of place 11/25; WOW Factor 6/10. Total 69 points divided by 2 for 34.5.

Everything is bigger in Texas.  The old ballpark felt huge at 1.4 million square feet.  The new one is 1.8 million square feet despite a capacity that’s 10,000 seats smaller.  With the 5.5-acre, 24-million-pound roof, it dwarfs the old park. 

The roof is the main reason this stadium exists. It’s the largest single-panel retractable roof in the world and features north and south sloped planes and a flat center. It’s conceptually simple ———— slide west to open. It towers 210 feet above second base, 278 feet at its tallest and has 223 clear panels made of ETFE allowing for natural light, although I always found it dark when the roof was shut. Alas it isn’t the most attractive, especially from the outside: some critics have compared the new park to a huge Costco or a giant backyard shed.

THE GOOD:

• Fan comfort is tip top.  Any baseball fan who has sat through July or August baseball in Texas knows how uncomfortable it got.  Day games were outright cruel if you didn’t have a shade seat.  The new place is air conditioned and offers a ton of shade.  And while the roof was mainly designed to protect against Texas Heat, it also protects against spring thunderstorms meaning your ballpark trip won’t be ruined by a rain out or a flash storm.  In fact, the park doesn’t even have tarps (which is good since they’d block the view from those below-ground clubs they have down the lines).
• The seats are angled nicely toward the infield, which made it easier to follow the action.  Leg room is good. Seats are 20” wide (instead of the usual 18”), and were installed on rails instead of being bolted into the concrete, meaning they have a little more “give” to them (something of which to be mindful if you have a full beer in your cupholder and the guy in the row in front of you is readying to sit down or leave his seat).
• The concourses are open in both the main and upper concourse, allowing you to walk around 360-degrees on both levels.
• For a modern park, the upper deck seats are relatively close to the action.  The Rangers still have a lot of suites (it’s Dallas), but they cantilevered levels and kept the upper bowl somewhat close.
• Like most new parks, the scoreboards are good sizes ———— Top 5 or 6 in the MLB in terms of shear size.  They are used nicely for baseball while the game is on, and solidly for promotion between innings.
• For a team without much history and zero World Championships, they do a nice job reliving glory years and honoring the club’s all-time greats.  There are bobbleheads out in centerfield of recent Ranger stars Pudge Rodriguez, Adrian Beltre and Michael Young. From the old park, they moved the statues of Nolan Ryan and Tom Vandergriff (the man who brought the team to DFW). They added statues of Pudge (cleverly placed out behind home plate in front of the home plate gate, which is little used, so you have to search for it), and of the 2010 celebration of the Rangers going to their first World Series.  The stairway leading to Club seats includes a cool Ryan art piece made of bats and balls, has a life-sized Ryan bobblehead, and lists the names of all the batters he fanned along the walls.  There are murals, paintings and shadow box displays through the concourses that pay homage to past Ranger greats. In all, it’s an impressive collection of the (recent) past.
• One of the coolest little quirks is how the Rangers have incorporated their retired numbers and team milestone years into the wall dimensions.  Left field is three-29; Beltre had his 29 retired;  Before the fence juts out, there’s a mark for three-34 (Nolan Ryan).  Dead center features four-07 (Pudge) and four-10 (Michael Young).  Right field is three-26 (Johnny Oates).  The power gaps are three-72 (the year the team moved to the Metroplex from Washington ), and three-74 (their first winning season in Texas).  The backstop is exactly 42 feet from home plate in honor of Jackie Robinson. And while it’s not a park dimensions thing, even the address, 734 Stadium Drive, honors their their two Hall of Famers, Rodriguez (7) and Ryan (34).
• The arches in left field are there as an homage to Globe Life Ballpark (which used the arches as an homage to old Comiskey Park).  They provide some architectural flare to a park that largely lacks it and are likely the park’s signature feature.
• IF (and only if) you somehow score seats to one of the premium levels down low, you will enjoy some of the better amenities in baseball.  The clubs and lounges are excellent with lots of baseball memorabilia and sharp design.  My favorite was the Speakeasy Club which felt like a cool downtown place where I’d hang out. The Lexus Club was also very nice.  The food is way better down there as well.  In fact, the gap in the overall fan experience between the fancy club seats and the general public seats may be greater here than in any other ballpark.

THE BAD:

• From the outside, the place looks like a giant suburban office park consisting of brick and glass (with an ugly roof to boot).  The old stadium was attractive; it still sits proudly across the street and is now used to host high school football with no plans to demolish it.  The Rangers’ former home used Lone Star pink granite and had bas-reliefs of lone stars, cattle, the oil boom, and the Alamo “ in the building’s red brick façade.  The exterior of the old place said “Texas”.  The exterior of the new place says “Vandelay Industries”. 
• The Rangers’ previous venues, all had a lot more “Texas” cues such the shape of the scoreboard and the bounty of Texas flags.  That’s more muted here, especially from the seats.  
• As part of their “function over form” mantra, they chose to use artificial turf allowing them to keep the roof closed on those sweltering days and minimize the loss of air conditioning.  While the new turf looks good –––– it uses crushed coconut husks instead of rubber pellets and actually needs to be watered occasionally –––– it’s still turf, and the baseball purist in me bristles.
• Perhaps my biggest beef was the elitist nature of the place.  Most places have a moated area, usually right behind the plate, for the corporate or well-heeled crowd able to afford multi-hundred dollar seats that includes all-you-drink and all-you-can-eat features.  In Globe Life Field, the entire lower bowl was essentially moated off. The Rangers dubbed this the “District Concourse”, but it should just be the “Lower Concourse” and serve as the the hub of the park like it does in every other ballpark.  As well, all infield tickets in the “District Concourse” (i.e. where I usually sit) are Club tickets with ridiculous Single Game face values.  Access to the lower bowl is controlled through elevators or guarded stairwells, so you need to show your ticket to get down –––– forget sitting low unless you have big $$$ to spend.  You’re looking at well over $150/ticket to get down low.  The Club seat that I was in (courtesy of a friend with Dallas connections) would have cost me over $400.  Am I at Yankee Stadium?  I know there’s money in DFW, but this seemed crazy. 
• If you weren’t in the fancy club seats with the amazing amenities, there wasn’t much to do other than look at all the displays and murals.  The kids’ area was modest.  The only social area is the Karbach Brewing Sky Porch in leftfield (which is nice) but its coolest feature –––– a row of wooden Texas rocking chairs with a (distant) view of the field originally designed for fans to sit in for an inning and move on –––– became so popular, they had to become ticketed seats because they were snapped up within seconds of gates opening and never got turned over.  There were a few concourse picnic tables available for dining but that pales compared to other parks putting in Ziplines and mini-putts and brewpubs.  There’s no full service restaurant that can be accessed by any ticket goer, no Rangers Hall of Fame or Legends of the Game Museum (like they had at the old ballpark), and no “Wow” feature for the average fan.

In all, a new ballpark should score much higher than this. But my rating system rewards function AND form, and this ballpark skews hard to function.

FOOD 6/10

When the park first opened, I complained that the food was decidedly non-memorable. While still not a Petco Park / T-Mobile Stadium / Citi Field culinary experience, they have gotten better with some new additions.

They didn’t bring all of their monstrosities over from the old park, but they did bring the Boomstick, a 2-foot hot dog smothered in chili, onions and jalapeños. Not satisfied with simply making cardiologists and nutritionists gently weep, they have since added a triple play Boomstick, and 2-foot Boomstick chili burger which may be the messiest ballpark fare ever. 

As the place has aged a little, they’ve added to the repetoire by adding more local and locally-inspired. Arlington BBQ joint Hurtado’s now has a permanent stand out in left field, raising this score a point; the brisket sandwich was great, but the birria tacos may have been better. Whataburger opened a stand to enjoy these classic Texas burgers. Arlington Eats is a stand offering rotating local fare in Section 105. Austin-based Pluckers offers its delicious Baker’s Gold wings, DFW-based Golden Chicken offers their chicken tenders, and Lubbock-based Bahama Buck’s Shaved Ice offers some cool treats. Concessionaire Delaware North offers decent Texas tacos and some really good Korean pork steamed buns. Still, the place is dominated by nacho, ice cream and hot dog stands, and the overall food experience feels light compared to others.

My personal fave: As good as the Korean buns were, the Ranchero chile relleno “Hot Dawwgg” introduced in 2024 was silly good. It’s a Texas chili beef hot dog stuffed with queso, wrapped in a roasted banana pepper and bacon, served on a fresh potato roll and topped with grilled onions.  There is not a weak link in that above sentence.

BEER 6/10

Anheuser-Busch rules the roost and owns most of the taps.  Macro brews abound as well as the beers from the acquired Karbach Brewing Company.  You can get easy access to a Hopadillo. And Ziegenbock was plentiful everywhere.  You have to do a little hunting, but you can find you stuff from Rollertown, St. Arnold, Deep Ellum Brewing, and Shiner.  While it may not do true justice to the Metroplex’s strong craft beer scene, fans of good beer will be fine. (I just wish it was a little easier to get).

NEIGHBORHOOD 6/10

The park is in Arlington, the halfway point between Dallas and Fort Worth.  It sits beside Jerry World, the old Rangers ballpark and Six Flags.  Most places around it are suburban offices, chain hotels and fast food joints.  A decade ago, I’d have given this a 3/10.

But in 2018 they opened Texas Live!  In a similar vein to the Battery in Atlanta or Ballpark Village in St Louis, Texas Live! is a sprawling entertainment venue featuring several bars and restaurants.  Yes it’s all pre-fabricated and manufactured versus neighborhoods that organically evolve.  And it’s not cheap.  But since it opened, I’ve had a couple of my most fun nights there including a bender that went late (and I’m old!).  The main arena features incredible screens and a stage for consistently good cover bands; there are an additional 14 food and/or drink places as well. It’s not a place for the hipster as it’s totally mainstream, but if you just like to cut loose and have a good time Texas-style, you’d be hard-pressed not to have a blast.  As an added bonus, they mimic the scoreboard on their big screens pre and during the game ———— I’d argue the Rangers’ player intro hype video may well be cooler to see in Texas Live!

If willing to drive or fund a cheap Uber, there are a couple of places within 2 miles of the stadium worth checking out as well. I deduct a few points given they aren’t walkable.

COST 2/5

New normally costs more.  While concessions and parking are about league average, tickets can be very expensive, especially for a good seat.  And the dynamic pricing model makes those weekend games (i.e. the ones with the more lively crowds) significantly more costly. BUT, if you can find tickets in any of the clubs that include food and drink for a good price on the secondary market, you may come out ahead especially if you’re a beer drinker ———— if you were going to have a few at the game, your beer tab can run $40-$50 per person easily, but that’s covered (or pre-paid) with those good seats.

ACCESIBILITY 1/5

Unless you were staying right in Arlington, this involves a longish drive, likely in rush hour traffic. Arlington is the largest U.S. City without public transportation (the Arlington Trolley doesn’t count), so you really have to drive. Be careful with the beer or just stay close to the stadium. Parking is plentiful and relatively easy, though the walk from the cheaper, further General Public lots could be a haul in the Texas heat.

WEATHER 4/5

This will be a dome most of the time, so it gets a dome score.  The roof will only be open on dry days with game time temps below 82-degrees, so if you’re lucky enough to get an open air day, it will be perfect.  As with every other retractable roof stadium, it feels way more like a ballpark with an open roof, so perhaps plan for an early season game.

VIBE 17/25

Texas fans can be loud.  Attendance is normally solid and probably will be even more so post the 2023 World Series win.  But truth is, DFW is not a hardcore baseball market.  You’re in football country and baseball is merely the appetizer.  The place lacks the intensity of other large-market teams for all but the most crucial games.  So the crowd noise only comes in spurts and the scoreboard operator often has to be the one to ignite it.

There are some cool features in a Rangers game to remind you you’re in Texas. They play Cotton Eye Joe in the 7^th inning stretch.  The 6^th inning dot race narrated by legendary in-stadium announcer Chuck Morgan still generates a buzz.  They play the theme from The Natural after a Rangers’ home run.  And the place has visual appeal in the stands ———— there always seemed to be a disproportionate number of good-looking women in summery Rangers gear.

GALLERY

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OTHER THINGS TO DO

Three fun DFW restaurants:

• A BBQ joint: Dallas used to be a little bit of a barbecue wasteland.  No more.  It can rival most places for smoky deliciousness.  I love barbecue and have hit a dozen or so in DFW.  There’s an outpost of Lockhart Smokehouse right in Texas Live which is easily the most convenient.  This is a legit outfit.  While their Dallas location has more consistent quality, you can’t beat the convenience, and if they’re on their game, it’s very, very good.  But if you want to go further and you’re willing to wait in line,  here are my top 4:
  1. Cattleack (Dallas, near Love Field). Only open Thursday and Friday. The Texas Trinity (brisket, pork rib, sausage) was among the very best I’ve ever had. I think I purred once.
  2. Pecan Lodge (Dallas, Deep Ellum). Probably DFW’s most popular, so you’re guaranteed a line. But it’s popular for a reason. As a bonus, you can walk over to the Deep Ellum Brewing Company’s taproom for some excellent craft beer if your stomach has room.
  3. Hurtado’s (Arlington). Just two miles from the ballpark. If you’re famished or eat a lot, the El Jefe platter is smoked heaven.
  4. Hutchins (Frisco). Voted by Dallas Morning News readers to be the best in the region. They do all the classics extremely well (including a great smoked turkey) and have a nice dine-in facility.
• Babe’s Chicken Dinner House (Arlington plus 8 other locations in DFW).  If you have a hankering for excellent fried chicken or smoked chicken served in an atmosphere that takes you back to 1940’s rural America, you’ve found your place.  There’s one just a few miles from the ballpark that’s perfect for getting a pre-game carb load.
• Grease Monkey Burger Bar and Social Club (in the Vandergriff Town Center in “downtown” Arlington). Great burgers, live music and a decent tap list. They also offer a $6 round-trip shuttle to the ballpark.

Three places to imbibe before the game:

The easiest choice for infrequent visitors is to hit Texas Live! There are several bars and pubs from which to chose, and it can get really hopping on weekends. Post-game they often have cover bands and you can extend your night by several hours. But if you want to explore stuff in the “area”:

• Tipsy Oak Gastropub.  A short drive from the stadium, this place has good grub and an amazing beer list.  Cool patio as well.
• On Tap.  Wonderful selection in a no-nonsense beer bar 2 miles from the stadium.
• Turning Point Beer. I’m including this great craft brewery located in a nondescript strip mall in Bedford TX, about 12 miles from the park because I’m a big fan of their New England IPA’s. And you’re likely closer to them coming out for game than you would be at any other time while visiting DFW.

One bar in the area worth hitting:

Billy Bob’s Texas, Fort Worth. In the Stockyards area of Fort Worth lies the mecca of cowboy bars. Billed as the world’s largest honkytonk, it delivers every Texas cliché and stereotype in one amazingly fun place.

Three craft breweries in the area worthy of your time:

• Celestial Beerworks (Dallas, Design District). Celestial makes some fantastic hazy IPA’s as well as other worthwhile selections.  It’s not too far from Peticolas Brewing which is another great stop.
• Lakewood Brewery (Garland).  A little bit of a hike from Arlington but worth it for their stouts, sours and ales.
• Odd Muse Brewery (Farmer’s Branch).  Within walking distance of Cattleack BBQ is a nifty little brewery that opened in 2019 and serves up some great hazy IPA’s and some nice lagers.

Three fun tourist attractions in the area:

• Sixth Floor: (Downtown Dallas. Great museum chronicling the Kennedy assassination.)
• Fort Worth Stockyards (See longhorns roam the streets.)
• GW Bush Presidential Museum (SMU. One of the better presidential museums in the country regardless of your political leanings.)

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SUMMARY

The Rangers built a functionally fantastic ballpark with little to amaze and delight ball fans not sitting in the Club seats.  If you’re lucky, maybe you can enjoy an open air day; if not, relish the air conditioning. It may not Wow you like other parks, but it’s certainly comfortable enough for you to kick back and enjoy baseball time in Texas!