I really loved The Ballpark in Arlington but yeah... you could literally fry your backside trying to sit in the upper deck, even for early evening games. And day games? Forget about it. I remember going to a game one August where we couldn't even sit in our seats until the fifth inning.
God forbid the seats in the stands were warm. Yeesh bunch of pansies, what do ppl like that even do during the summer lol. Imagine the people that build the stadium.
What is staying is why would they play games in the daytime to begin with? You know they could have played only night games. Hell, most hockey and basketball games are played at night.
My dad had season tickets and I hated going to the games at the old field in it's last season. My dad was a Rangers fan all his life and all he wanted was to see the Ranger win a world series. He past away in 2022 a year before they won. I am sure he had a front row seat all season long in heaven.
Another factor that I believe was considered in making The Ballpark in Arlington an open-air park: In the early 90s, artificial turf was still pretty crappy for simulating natural turf. Balls would bounce like flubber on artificial turf, and it also caused considerable wear and tear on the players' bodies. So making the stadium open-air also made it easier to go with natural turf.
That and we wanted to be better than the Orioles and Camden Yards. The technology was there for a retractable roof, the Blue Jays had SkyDome. But with a roof at that time, you compromise the aesthetics of a true retro-era ballpark. The Mariners and Brewers aced their ballparks. American Family Field is a good example of how to properly build a true ballpark with a retractable roof.
My family and I are Life long Rangers fan from the area. The new stadium was a welcome change but also a bitter pill. EVERYONE loved the old ballpark. How could you not ? It was just so beautiful, iconic, classic. But it was too damn hot. We all knew we would have to say goodbye to it but no one wanted to. I have been to about 3 games at the new stadium (in the terrible times of 2021 and 2022, brutally bad teams) and I absolutely adore it and defend it to anyone who says its not a good venue. It is not perfect, in no way. Nothing can be. But the fact the my 60+ year old parents got to see the Rangers play in person for the first time since i was a kid without fearing the heat was a true blessing that i hold very dear, and i know there are many other people with similar stories. On the other end of the spectrum, i saw a bunch of kids play and run around in the padded play area in the upper concourse where they and there parents now dont have to worry about getting sunburnt, dehydrated, or straight up sick from the heat,. It was a heartwarming thing to see. The food prices aren't to terrible either, especially when Jerry World's $7 water is in eyeshot. The views are great too. You have a great look at the field and both jumbotrons from any seat. Us Rangers fans all loved the old ballpark. But we all knew a long time ago it wasn't gunna be around forever. It was unsustainable. While some heart and character was lost in transition inside, the benefits of getting people out of the oppressive sun is and will be worth the loss. A shiny new trophy sure does make help a lot to make you feel at home too ;) Let's go Rangers! 2023 World Series Champions!
i will stop you at the seats part! I live in dallas & was at almost 20+ games last year so it was crazy to see the WS win. but my only complaint is there are so many blind spots if you dont sit in their luxury sections…. with is pretty much the whole bottom row. in the outfield there are so many blind spots… i had to wait for the crowd reaction bc i didn’t see if it was an out/ or over the fence. Multiple HRs couldn’t see either bc of the blind spots.
@@ReelGrande The Blind spots are at ALL MLB parks. I have attended games at all three parks the Rangers have used. Loved "The Ball Park in Arlington" but it could be super hot. Really like the new stadium and control temps.
I loved the beauty of The Ballpark at Arlington, but sans a nuclear winter, there is no way that players can suffer in that sweltering heat and go all the way. It’s too much for too long. I always believed if you had put some of Cocaine Ron’s teams in a dome, they would’ve won the WS. It was fun to watch them last year and hopefully they can repeat for the Arlington faithful.
Any Rangers fan would be lying if they told you they rather be watching a 3 hour baseball game in 100 degree weather at the old ballpark rather than watch a game inside globe life field.
@@brasshouse-fireball I loved the old ballpark too, 7 years ago took my godmother to a rangers game at the old ballpark in mid April about the start of the season she loved the park as she is a big baseball fan and wants to visit every stadium in mlb in her lifetime according to her everything was great about the stadium but the weather even though that game was played in mid 70s degree weather she said she would not attend if the temperature was above 85 degrees and even then we went we sat in the shade and were constantly hydrating. Last season I took her to globe life field she wasn't impressed by the stadium but said she even though the ballpark was beautiful she would rather watch the game at globe life.
The argument isn't about A/C or no A/C. Here is my thing. They said it would cost about the same to build a new ball park of add a roof to the old ball park. SO they went with new one...wrong decision. That being said, if they would have built a better looking new park, there wouldn't be AS many haters. My biggest problem is the new park is ugly as hell.
Great job on the video! I'm a Red Sox fan, having grown up 8 miles from Fenway Park. But I moved to the DFW area in 1996 for work, and decided to "root for the Rangers" unless they were playing my hometown Red Sox. I've attended over 200 games at the Ballpark in Arlington and was a partial season ticket holder in 2011. What a great place to see a game and the Rangers weren't bad either. But....in 2018? I went to the "Red Sox" series when they were in town. There was a Sunday afternoon game in the series and we had tickets in the Club level, just above Home Plate. But the seats could NOT be sat in. I even brought a white t-shirt to sit on, and I couldn't do it, neither could my sister, who had flown down from Boston. So I had smartly also purchased 2 "All you can eat" seats in the right field home run porch. Meaning we had air conditioned seats as well, and we did that, plus all the crappy ballpark food we wanted. haha. I have yet to attend a game at Globe Life Park, but that's due to medical issues I'm still working on. Maybe this year or next I'll be able to see a game? I know I won't have to worry about seats over 175 F....which they used to be at the old park. When the Rangers won in 2023? Of course I was rooting for them....since the Red Sox now seem to suck annually since 2019.
2011 was one of, if not the hottest summer on record in DFW, so of all the years to have any kind of season ticket plan you just so happened to have that year! I also love Boston, if I had my way, I'd spend summers there and winters in DFW.
As an Arlington native I remember the ballpark at Arlington so vividly and I loved it. I remember when they built AT&T stadium and how crazy that was to see. When they built the new rangers stadium I wasn’t as big of a fan of it, the outside like you said reminded me of a BBQ grill. However, I graduated high school in 2020 and the rangers graciously allowed us to use the stadium for our ceremony due to Covid. We were the first event held there, we were there before the players even played on the field. The inside was so nice that I was genuinely taken aback and it felt amazing all through the entire stadium. It really is an amazing thing for us to have.
Footnote, the Rangers are still legally called "The Washington Senators DBA Texas Rangers." The Rangers never gave up the rights to the name Senators which is why the team in DC is called the Nationals.
@@Caderic From Wikipedia: "Even after the move, the Rangers retained the rights to the Senators name." They own it, just like the Titans still own "Houston Oilers." It is done to sell expensive throwback jerseys.
I got to do a fiber optic and ethernet + CCTV overhaul at Globe Life in 2016. Got to go all over the stadium and even into locker rooms, press rooms, all kinds of support offices, and even the dugout. I even got permission to get to walk out from the main service tunnel onto the warning track, with a warning I'd be fired if my foot touched a single blade of grass lol. As someone who hung their helmet up for the last time in High School it was a really cool experience and awesome to get to stand inside a MLB dugout and out onto the warning track. Most of the grounds crew guys were dudes that played college/minor league ball and never got called up to the show but they'd work on the field, then hit and catch on it with each other before putting the finial finishes on the field a couple hours before the first batting practice started. It was cool to see those dudes who may not have achieved their dreams to still be able to play on a MLB field.
Was in Dallas on business in August of 2001. A group of us went to the Yankees-Rangers game at The Ballpark. It was still about 95 degrees at game time (7:00). The Rangers were clobbering the Yankees early in the game. It was so hot that we were consuming beer as if prohibition were about to come back. By the time the game ended the Yankees were finished, and so were most of us!! Not sure how we ever drove back to the hotel in Dallas.
It’s obvious now, but it was simply too much of a risk at the time. Rangers Stadium would have been the first purpose-built baseball stadium with a retractable roof (the Skydome was built as a multi-use facility) and would have 2-3x’d the cost.
@@JonesteinTX I think the statement is more nuanced. They could have build a dome which was known tech when the ball park was built. The retractable roof was a major point of the video. The Rangers open the roof so infrequently that they could have saved all that money and just domed it and no one would know the difference from a simpler dome.
@terrybell3495 Yes, people knew how to design domes. They designed the Kingdome, the Astrodome, Olympic Stadium in Montreal (which was supposed to be a cable-stayed retractable roof but the mechanism didn't work outside of five years), and the Metrodome. They weren't popular by the early 90s. And anything besides circular donut stadiums in the 90s would've cost way more than $130 million.
Behind home plate to the netting behind the catcher it is 42 feet, 42 feet for Jackie Robison. I do miss the the old park made so many memories, but the new stadium is so nice. It feels like a mall, but I don’t care. I am not dying of heat and my grandma can actually stay for awhile. Also they have great handicap and special needs accommodations at the new ball park which is great since my cousin is in a wheelchair. My only gripe about the staduim is how you walk on the second floor when you enter the staduim and you’re not on the first floor.
Enter behind home plate or by Texas Live and you'll be on the first floor. Or what I call the first floor. Unless you consider the exclusive club section right on field level "the first floor.:
Feels like a mall... that's exactly how I described AT&T Stadium when it opened in 2009. Like going to a mall and a football game broke out. Same feel with the antiseptic Globe Life.
You missed a key component why the Rangers got new a stadium that had absolutely nothing to do with air conditioning. The Ballpark in Arlington had a 30 year lease with the city of Arlington starting in 1994 and was set to expire in 2024. Had the city not either negotiated a new lease or built a new stadium, the Rangers would have been free to leave. Given its location away from where most of the wealthy companies and residents are (as well as lack of transit), it would have surprised nobody if they opted for downtown Dallas or one of the many prosperous suburbs like Plano or Frisco. Anyone familiar with Arlington knows it doesn’t top any desireable destination lists. The Rangers, Jerry World and Six Flags are literally the only reasons anyone visits Arlington. So knowing that losing the Rangers would assuredly mean disaster for the local economy, Arlington cut a deal with the Rangers to foot half of the construction costs (from the continued Jerry World tax) to keep them in Arlington. Ultimately, the Rangers took the deal and got their new stadium for basically half price. As for the old stadium, it would have cost approximately $80M to have constructed it with a roof. The stadium cost was already in the neighborhood of $190M, so nearly paying an additional 50% wasn’t thought to be in the best of the stakeholders- a gamble they ultimately lost. There were many studies done around 2015 to determine if the Ballpark could support a retractable roof, but it was not structurally capable. It also would have taken a year to build at a cost near or exceeding a brand new stadium.
@@Caderic Structural feasibility aside, where then would the Rangers have played an entire season? Unlike the Oakland dumpster fire, Texas at least has a fan base who shows up to games.
@@Wells306 "...where then would the Rangers have played an entire season?" Um, good point. I don't know. But apparently, that was thought of to some degree, seeing how they crunched the numbers. LOL I still think it was the wrong choice. But that's just my nostalgia talking.
I owe the Ballpark at Arlington my life, literally. My parents met there on chance and the rest is history. To me their history is just heartfelt. The struggles, the hope, the heartbreaks. All of it. The way they honor tradition is 2nd to none in my opinion. One thing the Rangers have always had is great team dynamics. No matter if they’re a losing team, a 500 team, or a World Series winning team, they’ve always had chemistry. I always get teary-eyed when I see replays of our 2010-11 losses. But our recent win just makes it so much sweeter. Beltre, Andrus, Nolan,Napoli, Arod, Seiger, Garcia, Pudge, Saltalamacchia Molina,Hamilton (for better or worse 😂) I can go on… they’re what make this team. So many memories. I LOVE the rangers. ❤ Ps, Arlington IS a baseball town. Suck on that Hamilton!
Even as a former food/water hawker at the Ballpark in Arlington, I will forever prefer the old home to the new one. That's the stadium I grew up with. It was everything baseball was to me as a little kid. And nothing, I mean nothing, beat the view you got when you walked through the tunnels from the concourses to the seats, and you got to see the field open up in front of your eyes like the field of dreams. It was absolutely majestic. The only thing that it lacked was proper air conditioning, and I hate that I'm stuck here saying that. Now, yeah, the new stadium has a roof and A/C, and yeah that likely won us a ring, but I can't get over just how corporate and soulless it looks both inside and out. Not just as a Rangers fan, but as a fan of baseball, it just feels empty, and I hate saying that, because I want to like it. I want this new stadium to feel like home. But heat or no heat, there's nothing that will ever replace a day out at the Ballpark.
This is the exact same view that I have. Thanks for wording it so well. I also think the heat led to cheap tickets during the summer when I was growing up, helping spread the love of baseball to kids all over the dfw area.
spot-on comment... "corporate and soulless". When I first saw the design and later the finished product, my thought was "industrial warehouse". The word "fugly" also came to mind. You hit the nail on the head, there was nothing like the feeling you got in the old ballpark as you entered the park from the concourse. Having said that, we rarely went to afternoon games and even many night games were close to unbearable the first few innings. I will still take that feeling over the new "ballpark".
Day games were absolutely miserable at the Ballpark, I never sat through an entire day game there especially when I had seats in left field. But man what a gem and a beautiful park. I loved the feel of the game when I visited. The new stadium is just as awesome in its own way and is perfect as a symbol of a new era in Rangers baseball.
The Ballpark in Arlington looks far better than the new stadium. It is a beautiful stadium. The heat in Texas with DFW now having 110 degree days as the norm, it makes sense to have an indoor stadium.
While I do acknowledge that the move to Globe Life Field probably led to the free agents that helped the Rangers to the World Series, I do miss going to games at the Ballpark. I loved that place, even when I was at the game where it was 107 degrees at first pitch.
Late April, 30 minute rain delay, wide open night sky, beer in one hand, hot dog in the other, and a date sitting next to you. Find me a better setting in America I dare ya!
Last August I invited my parents to a Rangers game and my father immediately said no. When I asked him why he didn’t want to go he replied that it was too hot. I then told him that the Rangers now played inside and he goes: "That’s right! I forgot…..sure were in" The heat at rangers games used to be unbearable.
I'm a lifelong Ranger fan and was a resident of Arlington when the proposition for a new ballpark was on the voting ballot. I voted against it. I felt like it was a waste of taxpayer money, and I adored the Ballpark despite its many imperfections. Ironically I think the new ballpark may be the biggest contributor to the team's first championship which I savor to this moment. Simply put the team needed better players, and without GLF Corey Seager and Marcus Semien probably don't sign here. Both were absolutely crucial to the title run. So I'm conflicted. The new ballpark is boring but it's air conditioned. It was expensive to go out there before a championship, and now it's even more so. One of the beauties of the old park was being able to sit in the upper deck for $30, parking for $10, and buying a few $5 concessions. $60 on a random Sunday in May was a pretty fun thing to do on a whim. It's just different now. Last year was the first time in about 30 years that I didn't see a Ranger game in person. This year I'll probably go to a couple of games, but that has more to do with personal reasons than it does fandom. The process of getting this stadium bordered on extortion from team ownership and mayor Jeff Williams, but I say that as a flag flies.
Don't forget, Jon Daniels was gone by that point too. If they would have got rid of him instead of letting him run-off Nolan Ryan, the team probably would have done more in the 2010's. As for your second part, " The new ballpark is boring but it's air conditioned.", etc. I agree. The A/C is so nice. But the new park has no real character. It is ugly. It is difficult to get around. It cost an arm and a leg to go, and now it's going to be even more expensive since winning the WS.
I remember George Brett saying years ago that the Rangers would never win a world series because no matter how good their teams were, the heat of playing outside in Texas would always wear them down until they collapsed by season's end. He said that when they still played in the old Arlington Stadium, which was more open to breezes and therefore much cooler than the Ballpark. I think Brett was probably right.
I knew they made a mistake with the outdoor ballpark before it was finished. Someone argued with me about how hard it would be to air condition a huge facility like that in Texas. My reply: ever heard of the Astrodome in Houston? It was built in 1966.
The issue would probably have been the playing surface. If you had a dome or a retractable roof, you'd probably also have artificial turf. Only the SkyDome was a retractable roof stadium then.
I’m someone who can handle heat but I went to a day game for my first and only time to the ballpark in Arlington for a game in June. I have never felt that type of heat in my life. There was no wind and it was just sun the entire time in left field. I saw that it felt like 115 degrees after adding the humidity. Insane heat.
Only thing I wish had been different about the new stadium is how it appears outside, it just looks like an ugly aircraft hanger. The old park was really something to look at and you could put it on a coin it was so iconic. At least the inside is really nice and the addition of the facilities next door for watching and eating is a great addition.
It's not like Arlington is full of beautiful architecture. The old ballpark was beautiful by itself but kinda ruined by being surrounded by parking lots. They finally built Texas Live and that hotel which makes it seem like more of a place, but for years none of that was there. I remember Bush talking about how the area around the Ballpark in Arlington was supposed to fill in with businesses and stuff, but that was an empty promise. Asphalt in every direction.
I've lived through all three Rangers home fields - old Arlington Stadium was my childhood, I attended the first regular season game at the Ballpark shortly before graduating high school, and now Globe Life Field will be my home park for my middle age and sunset years. I recall that when GLF was put to a vote, there was very strong sentiment against tearing down the Ballpark because it was still relatively new, so Arlington had to promise to preserve the Ballpark to get the new stadium vote passed. Personally, I don't think it makes sense for the Ballpark to continue to exist as a stadium since there are two other state-of-the-art stadiums within walking distance - I'd be in favor of an adaptive reuse, where the exterior, the main concourses and the field are preserved, but the stadium seating is replaced for multi-use like apartments, condos, offices, etc., similar to what was done with old Arsenal Stadium in England. One possibility I wish they had considered was to build AT&T Stadium with the ability to convert for baseball (i.e., no big screen over the field and one side of the stands retractable) - that way, the Rangers could have split their schedule between the two venues, playing home games in the air conditioning at AT&T in July and August, and then the Ballpark could have continued to host the Rangers the rest of the season for many years to come. I also think that instead of completely tearing down old Arlington Stadium, they could have reduced it to its initial minor-league configuration and used that as the basis for a concert amphitheater.
I will disagree about one point here: that Atlanta isn't as hot as Tampa. It's considerably hotter, actually. The issue in Tampa is it rains most of the summer. It rarely exceeds 96F there.
As a young kid, I remember going to a dozen or so games in the old Arlington Stadium. Family nights (and a horrible record) made tickets cheap, promotion nights were just as plentiful, and there has never been a crowd in those steel bleachers in the outfield as loud as it got on the annual Bat Night. Several thousand kids slamming their new bats in rhythm on the steel floors will do that. I still have two Ranger bats I used in little league - a blue one and a red one. I got my glove autographed by AL Rookie of theYear and Ranger's first baseman '74, Mike Hargrove. When the Rangers won the World Series, I got my 90 year old Mom a championship t-shirt - she earned it.
I live in Dallas, TX, and I'm not that far away from Arlington. I went to my first Rangers game since the last game played at Chochaw Stadium last year on a field trip in my senior year of high school, and as me, my girl, our friends, and other that was towards their new stadium, Global Life Field, I saw the old stadium and I just had alot of great memories at that stadium. That stadium will forever have a special place in my heart. Man I miss being at that stadium
Great video. Lifetime Ranger fan myself, I miss the Ballpark in Arlington. But summer games were very difficult to get through. Upper deck in left field would have the sun on you and in your eyes until 8:30 (6:05 games that's practically the whole game, for 7:05 it is still nearly half). Oh and it was a little funny that for the "hot Texas summers" you picked a news telecast with a temperature on the screen at 72°. July and August highs average around 96°. Seriously though, really great video.
My wife and I sat behind home base in Sept. 2019 just to where a shadow from the upper deck cast across our legs. She had a tan line that lasted 2 years on her legs from that 1 game! Glad we have a roof now.
Lifelong Rangers fan, too. I loved the Ballpark in Arlington but good god it was freaking miserable for an evening game in the months of July - mid September. If you're sitting in left field the sun is baking you until about the 6th inning and on day games the attendance was just plain horrendous. My biggest gripe about the new park is that I really think they had the opportunity to design something that embodied the Southwest part of the country but they went with something architecturally sterile. The Texas Live! entertainment venue just next door is unmatched by anywhere else in MLB.
I scored 26 times in my high school career and I never once dropped the ball before crossing the goal line. No one taught me to hold the ball. I just used my brain. It’s inexcusable for anyone to drop a ball before crossing the goal line. Such recklessness can cost your teammates a win.
I'm at least glad they found a good way to reuse Arlington Ballpark. None of the teams playing there expect to draw like the Rangers, but at least it provides a high level experience to two legit teams (and NTXSC, who lost any shred of legitimacy of being a real team once MLSNP arrived). Too bad the stadium dimensions are so wonky cause of baseball. It makes me wonder what sort of utopia we'd have if we as a society could fit football and baseball fields in better so multipurpose stadia didn't have to be concrete donuts. Oh, and to be clear, this was a great video! It does make me want a video from you about the migration of stadia from cities to suburbs in the late 20th century and the mild comeback downtown stadia have made since then. I always found it interesting how soccer stadia in the UK have been so resistant to that trend to where parks like the Amex outside of Brighton are downright notorious for being on the outskirts of the places for which their teams are named.
@@Maapify For the record I don't want you to have to take a super thorough look at all of the factors that caused it, since it's not reasonable to expect you to learn and regurgitate all about the interstate highway system, white flight, the mortgage interest tax deduction, school integration, and all of those infinitely complex public policy issues. But if you can find an easier way to sum up the factors that started and ended the boom of suburban stadia migrations I do think that topic would be perfect for your channel. I'm not an expert on them either but I'm sure I could rustle up some of what I read for my degree if you'd want any entry level materials
It also became the corporate headquarters of Six Flags. However, with the Cedar Fair acquisition, Six Flags will leave the Metroplex for Charlotte, NC.
I went to the last Rangers game played at Globe Life Park. I loved that stadium. I grew up going to the stadium and watching the team play. Seeing them go to the world series in 2010 and 2011. The stadium is just iconic to me. It reminds me of Camden Yards. I understand why they had to leave glp. I just wish there was a way that the Rangers could still use both stadiums. On special days/ good weather days/ all post-season games could be played at glp. Then, if it's hot or rainy or any number of things, it can be played at the indoor glf. I just miss watching them play in glp. Glf doesn't have the charecter or feel of glp. I do like when glf has the roof open it's nice. Otherwise, i would rather take a parasol and sit in the heat. I can't deny the accessibility of the new stadium. Having it so people that can't stand heat for long periods can now go to the games in very good for the sport. So it gets points on that. Overall glf is a good stadium, just not my personal taste.
I know we used to fry in those seats BUT i LOVEDDDD that damn stadium. I’ll never forget the feeling of seeing the field as i walked out the tunnel. I miss seeing fans going for home runs in centerfield
The Texas Rangers have been playing Sunday night ball for decades since the early 1970s. Maybe a few Sunday afternoon games in April, but by May those ceased. The former Arlington Stadium and the Ballpark in Arlington never had much of a problem playing during the evenings even on the hottest days of the year as the temperature drops significantly after the sun sets. However when the players association demanded Sunday afternoon games so they can get to sleep before midnight on that travel day, many fans suffered heat stroke... The players could care less about the fans, hitting that bed before midnight is more important to them with their million dollar salaries...
You missed stating that one of the other reasons Arlington Stadium was so hot was because of the Aluminum stands. However on bat nights it was also deafening!
Great video! I went to Rangers game outdoors years ago. It was over 100 degrees at night! Why did you not mention the Houston Astros? They were 1st indoor team and located in same state. It seems odd Houston figured out the need to play indoors very early on in the early 1960s but it took nearly 50 years for the Rangers to go inside. The heat was often the blame for players being worn down by season's end and affecting the performance of the team.
One thing I wish they would’ve incorporated into the new ballpark was Greene’s hill. Such a cool, beautiful, and unique feature replaced by a green wall with a window for what?!
Good explanation. I was Dallas native but moved out of state to start career at start of '90s. I had forgotten what little if any info I had on design process b/c without your video specifics, it sounds crazy to most they didn't add retractable roof. I was Dallas kid of mid '70s/early '80s when Rangers almost always played on Sunday night in summer due to heat, depriving visiting teams (and themselves if playing Mon on road) of a "getaway day" game to give max travel flexibility to fly out of DFW Sunday at reasonable hours. Also, mid-70s in futile attempt to fight heat, Rangers started summer games at 8:05 PM CT or on rare occasions 8:35 PM. They could get away with it then with TV games not yet on a daily basis and games being far quicker (before pitch clock). It was still "futile" attempt b/c in summer it's common in DFW for it to still be 94 to 98 degrees at 11 PM.
I loved the old ballpark. I had friends who worked there and the views were immaculate. If you stayed up top, you caught a slight breeze. If you sat in the 200s or below in the open air, you were victim to the brutal Texas sun. I literally got heat stroke twice a the old ballpark. It was charming, but the lies of a roof for years was my only wish and they never came to fruition. I love Globe Life Field, it just took some getting used to.
The new stadium is fugly. If they’re going to spend money like that, they should make it at least pretty like ATT stadium. The new one already looks like an ancient stadium in SF.
I'm extremely familiar with The Ballpark (Globe Life Field), as well as their new facility. Their new facility is a MAJOR REASON why they were a competitive post-season team (and ultimately champions). The new field increased their chances of winning it all by a hundred-fold. First the equipment...then the talent. That's the bottom line.
I live in Ft. Worth, and I remember back when it was being built, I thought it was a bad idea. It's a pretty ballpark, but it's just too damn hot in the summer for an open-air stadium.
I'm in my 50s now but still vividly remember going to a game in old Arlington Stadium as a kid in the early 80s. The game started around 7pm and the scoreboard temp was 110°. The game ended after 10pm and the scoreboard temp was still 100°. The homeruns were flying, but it was clear what was needed more was a roof. That it took til 2020 to get one is mind boggling.
i grew up in garland, suburb of dallas. i went to the ballpark many times and i loved it. but i did suffer heat exhaustion at one game. and we lost. btw, midland is not "nearby" (5 hour drive)
The new park is just as beautiful as the old one, imo, just in a different way! Those brick pillars in the concourse beyond outfield are my favorite feature!
I voted against the new ballpark on the basis that there are things that could help someone citizens more. That said, the old stadium's food companies commissaries were not on good shape. Vents dripping, doors falling off hinges, grime in the floor that can't be scrubbed out... The new stadium has kitchens with room to work and floors that actually clean. Your food is better partly because the kitchens are better. I'm glad to see that side of it.
Live here and paid for it all these years, only to have the name taken away. Biggest issue is local taxes went up for it and never went back down when it was paid for.
The BPIA was a beautiful field that was designed to celebrate the history of architecture in baseball. Unfortunately, this also meant that it sacrificed identity for nostalgia. I miss them playing in this stadium, but I'll admit that the scale and comfort of the new park really feels like it elevates the club.
The new covered stadium is terribly designed. There are only two routes to get to any of the upper levels above ground floor. You literally have to walk halfway around the ballpark to get to any next level escalator. Up one level on one of two escalators then walk halfway around the park for another escalator if you need to go up another level. Insane!
@@sonofPoseidon136_ What evidence do you have for this? As someone who grew up in Texas at this time, this did not happen. It peaked in 96 and went down over the next 6-7 years.
I used to go to quite a lot of games at TBiA when it opened. However by the time it closed, I couldn't bear to see a game. I'd be curious to know the average temperatures of games between opening and closing. I wonder if the games did get hotter, or whether my ability to take the heat declined.
2:56 no Braves? I know it was built for the Olympics, but it was originally designed to become Turner Field after the 96 Olympics. Not sure why it wasn't included.
I’ve seen ballgames at a lot of different places. Never before have I felt like I was sitting under a magnifying glass like at old Arlington Stadium. It was ridiculously hot and you only survived if you showed up late or left early. It was torture to watch a game there. It 100% needed to go.
I remember back in the 1980'd in the old Arlington Stadium in July and August Sunday 1:05 starts the temperature being 100 degrees and by 3:00 being 106 degrees. I was a young adult back then and could take the heat back then. I am 63 years old now and can't imagine how I did it back then. Go Rangers !!
ASTRODOME. Anyone else notice that this guy failed to mention that texas had an air conditioned sports venue 30 years before the muffins built the ballpark in Arlington.
I think he was only referencing dedicated baseball parks. The expense was so great back then that baseball and football teams shared the only domes that existed. So the Astrodome was not relevant to the topic of the video.
@@CAW78 Houston understood the need for air conditioning in the early 1960s and made it a priority. That’s important context for the Rangers’ decision to *not* prioritize it in the early 1990s and would have been worth including in the video. Other important context is that T-Mobile Park (1999), Minute Maid Park (2000), and American Family Field (2001) all opened with retractable roofs and natural grass soon thereafter. A retractable roof would’ve driven up The Ballpark’s price tag by 50-70%, but maybe Arlington and the Rangers wouldn’t have needed to spend $1B on a new stadium just 25 years later. Meanwhile the Mariners, Astros, and Brewers will all be in their stadiums until at least 2049-2050.
@@davidwaldo3141 I think you hit the nail on the head with the 50-70% cost increase statement. The Rangers desperately needed to upgrade their triple A ballpark but the team did not have enough success or support to cover the cost of what would have been at the time a state-of-the art enclosed stadium. They were able to build one of the most classy and beautiful parks in MLB at the time which was a 1,000,000% upgrade over what they had at the time not knowing that the next 3-5 years would usher in technology and construction improvements that would have made a covered stadium more affordable. Hindsight is always 20/20.
@@CAW78 Hindsight and timing is really what it comes down to. Had they waited just a few years to get a whiff of other teams’ plans they could have made it happen regardless of price. Supposedly The Ballpark was engineered to add a roof at some point in the future. I would’ve preferred to see that instead of a new build, especially considering the new build they ended up with. I understand that retrofit costs may not have been feasible, but it just seems awfully wasteful in the new stadium era when teams and cities are reinvesting in their stadiums.
The former park, now called Choctaw Stadium is still being used a lot. It’s the current home of the Arlington Renegades, the Dallas Jackyls, and the Arlington High School football team. It also has a lot of new retail being built into it as well. I live across the street and this complex in Arlington is fantastic.
First game I went to at the new stadium, it was like 100 outside. The announcer said it was a "Cool, crisp 72 degrees inside" and there was an eruption of applause.
The Ballpark in Arlington was beautiful...and completely impractical. The day it was announced many of us fans where questioning why they weren't putting a roof on it. Pick up the stadium and place it anywhere up north, and it would have been great. But who wants to watch a ballgame in 100+ degree heat.
When I was in high school we had our football games at the old rangers stadium. Because the games were in the afternoon it usually wasnt that hot for us, but it was always really fun to be in that big stadium every friday
Got free tickets from my boss to a 2:00 July getaway game at the Ballpark. The seats were on the third base line, 3 rows behind the third base dugout. It was probably 102 degrees at game time and I couldn't see the right fielder due to the fumes coming off the GRASS.....I was at home by the fifth inning. I called off the next day to get back at my boss.
They didn’t mention like 20 stadiums because this video has nothing to do with PNC park, it’s talking about stadiums with heat as an issue and how the rangers most recent stadium failed because of it. If you’re complaining about the channel in general not talking about it then whatever but if you’re complaining about this video that’s like going to a Mexican restaurant and complaining about them having no French fries. Has nothing to do with this video.
7:38 the swirling winds were the stuff of local lore in the DFW.... Tom Hicks added a premium club behind home plate (The Cuervo Club) in the early 2000s. The glass added to enclose the area created caused the wind, which almost always blew in from the south or southwest, from dead center around to the RF foul pole, to bounce back out from behind the plate creating artificial jet streams that turned the place into a launching pad.
It hurt my heart a little bit when he was talking about moving away from multi-purpose stadiums and then at 2:48 showed a picture of old Tiger Stadium.
Just found your channel and subbed. Well done video on the subject. I would add the White Sox stadium in as one which was built a little too early before the trend was set.
I still remember the announcement that the ballpark in Arlington was being built. Everyone thought it was so stupid to build a new ballpark without a roof. Our expectations were that we would have something like that Astrodome in Arlington. What was the point and even building a new ballpark if it was not going to be covered and air-conditioned?
One of my favorite ballparks to have attended. Thankful I got to attend games in the late 90's as a kid. Got to see Rangers greats, such as Juan Gonzalez and Pudge Rodriguez. Caught a game when the Mariners were in town, when Junior Griffey and A-Rod and Edgar Martinez were on the team.
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I really loved The Ballpark in Arlington but yeah... you could literally fry your backside trying to sit in the upper deck, even for early evening games. And day games? Forget about it. I remember going to a game one August where we couldn't even sit in our seats until the fifth inning.
Yeah when I was at a game when I was like 3, my mom told me I was so hot I was starting to act weird
God forbid the seats in the stands were warm. Yeesh bunch of pansies, what do ppl like that even do during the summer lol. Imagine the people that build the stadium.
What is staying is why would they play games in the daytime to begin with? You know they could have played only night games. Hell, most hockey and basketball games are played at night.
It was beautiful and awful.
My first game at the new stadium It was weird seeing people wearing jeans and button ups to a baseball game... It just seemed wrong.
Midland, Texas is not nearby Arlington, Texas
It’s only 300 miles away…..lol
I was about to comment the same thing! Lol.
@@Damianoutlaw Yeah, totally "nearby". Lol.
Maybe if you don’t get out of the city often…
it's "Texas" close..lol
My dad had season tickets and I hated going to the games at the old field in it's last season. My dad was a Rangers fan all his life and all he wanted was to see the Ranger win a world series. He past away in 2022 a year before they won. I am sure he had a front row seat all season long in heaven.
Another factor that I believe was considered in making The Ballpark in Arlington an open-air park: In the early 90s, artificial turf was still pretty crappy for simulating natural turf. Balls would bounce like flubber on artificial turf, and it also caused considerable wear and tear on the players' bodies. So making the stadium open-air also made it easier to go with natural turf.
Great point!
Plus, it was at least a full decade before anyone figured out how to pull off natural grass in a dome/retractable roof stadium.
That and we wanted to be better than the Orioles and Camden Yards. The technology was there for a retractable roof, the Blue Jays had SkyDome. But with a roof at that time, you compromise the aesthetics of a true retro-era ballpark. The Mariners and Brewers aced their ballparks. American Family Field is a good example of how to properly build a true ballpark with a retractable roof.
My family and I are Life long Rangers fan from the area. The new stadium was a welcome change but also a bitter pill. EVERYONE loved the old ballpark. How could you not ? It was just so beautiful, iconic, classic. But it was too damn hot. We all knew we would have to say goodbye to it but no one wanted to.
I have been to about 3 games at the new stadium (in the terrible times of 2021 and 2022, brutally bad teams) and I absolutely adore it and defend it to anyone who says its not a good venue. It is not perfect, in no way. Nothing can be.
But the fact the my 60+ year old parents got to see the Rangers play in person for the first time since i was a kid without fearing the heat was a true blessing that i hold very dear, and i know there are many other people with similar stories. On the other end of the spectrum, i saw a bunch of kids play and run around in the padded play area in the upper concourse where they and there parents now dont have to worry about getting sunburnt, dehydrated, or straight up sick from the heat,. It was a heartwarming thing to see.
The food prices aren't to terrible either, especially when Jerry World's $7 water is in eyeshot. The views are great too. You have a great look at the field and both jumbotrons from any seat.
Us Rangers fans all loved the old ballpark. But we all knew a long time ago it wasn't gunna be around forever. It was unsustainable. While some heart and character was lost in transition inside, the benefits of getting people out of the oppressive sun is and will be worth the loss.
A shiny new trophy sure does make help a lot to make you feel at home too ;)
Let's go Rangers! 2023 World Series Champions!
Were your parents happy when they won? Lol, it's been a longgggggg time😂
i will stop you at the seats part! I live in dallas & was at almost 20+ games last year so it was crazy to see the WS win. but my only complaint is there are so many blind spots if you dont sit in their luxury sections…. with is pretty much the whole bottom row. in the outfield there are so many blind spots… i had to wait for the crowd reaction bc i didn’t see if it was an out/ or over the fence. Multiple HRs couldn’t see either bc of the blind spots.
@@ReelGrande The Blind spots are at ALL MLB parks. I have attended games at all three parks the Rangers have used. Loved "The Ball Park in Arlington" but it could be super hot. Really like the new stadium and control temps.
As happy as I am that we can go to games in comfort, I just can’t help but feel like the Rangers lost a massive part of their soul in the transition.
I loved the beauty of The Ballpark at Arlington, but sans a nuclear winter, there is no way that players can suffer in that sweltering heat and go all the way. It’s too much for too long. I always believed if you had put some of Cocaine Ron’s teams in a dome, they would’ve won the WS. It was fun to watch them last year and hopefully they can repeat for the Arlington faithful.
Any Rangers fan would be lying if they told you they rather be watching a 3 hour baseball game in 100 degree weather at the old ballpark rather than watch a game inside globe life field.
I totally agree, but I really did like that old ballpark. It was just a beautiful ballpark and the vibe was perfect. It was awesome in the spring.
Haven’t made it to the new field yet, but I wish they’d of just upgraded the ballpark to have a dome. Aesthetically it’s so much better.
@@brasshouse-fireball I loved the old ballpark too, 7 years ago took my godmother to a rangers game at the old ballpark in mid April about the start of the season she loved the park as she is a big baseball fan and wants to visit every stadium in mlb in her lifetime according to her everything was great about the stadium but the weather even though that game was played in mid 70s degree weather she said she would not attend if the temperature was above 85 degrees and even then we went we sat in the shade and were constantly hydrating. Last season I took her to globe life field she wasn't impressed by the stadium but said she even though the ballpark was beautiful she would rather watch the game at globe life.
I love that ballpark and miss the outside look but yeah the inside is amazing
The argument isn't about A/C or no A/C.
Here is my thing. They said it would cost about the same to build a new ball park of add a roof to the old ball park. SO they went with new one...wrong decision.
That being said, if they would have built a better looking new park, there wouldn't be AS many haters.
My biggest problem is the new park is ugly as hell.
Great job on the video! I'm a Red Sox fan, having grown up 8 miles from Fenway Park. But I moved to the DFW area in 1996 for work, and decided to "root for the Rangers" unless they were playing my hometown Red Sox. I've attended over 200 games at the Ballpark in Arlington and was a partial season ticket holder in 2011. What a great place to see a game and the Rangers weren't bad either. But....in 2018? I went to the "Red Sox" series when they were in town. There was a Sunday afternoon game in the series and we had tickets in the Club level, just above Home Plate. But the seats could NOT be sat in. I even brought a white t-shirt to sit on, and I couldn't do it, neither could my sister, who had flown down from Boston. So I had smartly also purchased 2 "All you can eat" seats in the right field home run porch. Meaning we had air conditioned seats as well, and we did that, plus all the crappy ballpark food we wanted. haha.
I have yet to attend a game at Globe Life Park, but that's due to medical issues I'm still working on. Maybe this year or next I'll be able to see a game? I know I won't have to worry about seats over 175 F....which they used to be at the old park. When the Rangers won in 2023? Of course I was rooting for them....since the Red Sox now seem to suck annually since 2019.
Hopefully you’re doing better with your health man
@@mcontreras7595 Yes I am, and thank you!
2011 was one of, if not the hottest summer on record in DFW, so of all the years to have any kind of season ticket plan you just so happened to have that year! I also love Boston, if I had my way, I'd spend summers there and winters in DFW.
@@dmdeester Yeah that is a great plan if you can make it happen!
As an Arlington native I remember the ballpark at Arlington so vividly and I loved it. I remember when they built AT&T stadium and how crazy that was to see. When they built the new rangers stadium I wasn’t as big of a fan of it, the outside like you said reminded me of a BBQ grill. However, I graduated high school in 2020 and the rangers graciously allowed us to use the stadium for our ceremony due to Covid. We were the first event held there, we were there before the players even played on the field. The inside was so nice that I was genuinely taken aback and it felt amazing all through the entire stadium. It really is an amazing thing for us to have.
Footnote, the Rangers are still legally called "The Washington Senators DBA Texas Rangers." The Rangers never gave up the rights to the name Senators which is why the team in DC is called the Nationals.
Source reference?
@@Caderic From Wikipedia: "Even after the move, the Rangers retained the rights to the Senators name." They own it, just like the Titans still own "Houston Oilers." It is done to sell expensive throwback jerseys.
@@Caderic Texas Rangers Official Website
Got my St Louis Browns t shirt on sale at Cooperstown for $1, I guess this prevents that.
Sick redskins could of used this
I got to do a fiber optic and ethernet + CCTV overhaul at Globe Life in 2016. Got to go all over the stadium and even into locker rooms, press rooms, all kinds of support offices, and even the dugout. I even got permission to get to walk out from the main service tunnel onto the warning track, with a warning I'd be fired if my foot touched a single blade of grass lol. As someone who hung their helmet up for the last time in High School it was a really cool experience and awesome to get to stand inside a MLB dugout and out onto the warning track.
Most of the grounds crew guys were dudes that played college/minor league ball and never got called up to the show but they'd work on the field, then hit and catch on it with each other before putting the finial finishes on the field a couple hours before the first batting practice started. It was cool to see those dudes who may not have achieved their dreams to still be able to play on a MLB field.
I went to Arlington stadium for a game as a kid and got sick from the heat and almost ended up at the hospital. It was miserable.
Was in Dallas on business in August of 2001. A group of us went to the Yankees-Rangers game at The Ballpark. It was still about 95 degrees at game time (7:00). The Rangers were clobbering the Yankees early in the game. It was so hot that we were consuming beer as if prohibition were about to come back. By the time the game ended the Yankees were finished, and so were most of us!! Not sure how we ever drove back to the hotel in Dallas.
Never understood why they didn't build a dome years ago. The Texas' summers wore down pitchers in the summer.
He literally explains why in the video.
@@JonesteinTX "Never", as in past tense. As in, before they watched the video.
It’s obvious now, but it was simply too much of a risk at the time. Rangers Stadium would have been the first purpose-built baseball stadium with a retractable roof (the Skydome was built as a multi-use facility) and would have 2-3x’d the cost.
@@JonesteinTX I think the statement is more nuanced. They could have build a dome which was known tech when the ball park was built. The retractable roof was a major point of the video. The Rangers open the roof so infrequently that they could have saved all that money and just domed it and no one would know the difference from a simpler dome.
@terrybell3495 Yes, people knew how to design domes. They designed the Kingdome, the Astrodome, Olympic Stadium in Montreal (which was supposed to be a cable-stayed retractable roof but the mechanism didn't work outside of five years), and the Metrodome.
They weren't popular by the early 90s. And anything besides circular donut stadiums in the 90s would've cost way more than $130 million.
6:15 "Atlanta is not nearly as hot as the others" worth noting its also far more humid than the others though so its not any less miserable
Behind home plate to the netting behind the catcher it is 42 feet, 42 feet for Jackie Robison. I do miss the the old park made so many memories, but the new stadium is so nice. It feels like a mall, but I don’t care. I am not dying of heat and my grandma can actually stay for awhile. Also they have great handicap and special needs accommodations at the new ball park which is great since my cousin is in a wheelchair. My only gripe about the staduim is how you walk on the second floor when you enter the staduim and you’re not on the first floor.
Enter behind home plate or by Texas Live and you'll be on the first floor. Or what I call the first floor. Unless you consider the exclusive club section right on field level "the first floor.:
Feels like a mall... that's exactly how I described AT&T Stadium when it opened in 2009. Like going to a mall and a football game broke out. Same feel with the antiseptic Globe Life.
Feels like a bar when you walk in, Booze stations everywhere!
You missed a key component why the Rangers got new a stadium that had absolutely nothing to do with air conditioning.
The Ballpark in Arlington had a 30 year lease with the city of Arlington starting in 1994 and was set to expire in 2024. Had the city not either negotiated a new lease or built a new stadium, the Rangers would have been free to leave. Given its location away from where most of the wealthy companies and residents are (as well as lack of transit), it would have surprised nobody if they opted for downtown Dallas or one of the many prosperous suburbs like Plano or Frisco. Anyone familiar with Arlington knows it doesn’t top any desireable destination lists. The Rangers, Jerry World and Six Flags are literally the only reasons anyone visits Arlington. So knowing that losing the Rangers would assuredly mean disaster for the local economy, Arlington cut a deal with the Rangers to foot half of the construction costs (from the continued Jerry World tax) to keep them in Arlington. Ultimately, the Rangers took the deal and got their new stadium for basically half price.
As for the old stadium, it would have cost approximately $80M to have constructed it with a roof. The stadium cost was already in the neighborhood of $190M, so nearly paying an additional 50% wasn’t thought to be in the best of the stakeholders- a gamble they ultimately lost.
There were many studies done around 2015 to determine if the Ballpark could support a retractable roof, but it was not structurally capable. It also would have taken a year to build at a cost near or exceeding a brand new stadium.
You are correct… no new stadium and it was off to Frisco!!
"It also would have taken a year to build at a cost near or exceeding a brand new stadium." Wrong decision in my opinion.
@@creaturafauna Really, Frisco. I hadn't heard that. Interesting.
Where would the Rough Ridders go?
@@Caderic Structural feasibility aside, where then would the Rangers have played an entire season? Unlike the Oakland dumpster fire, Texas at least has a fan base who shows up to games.
@@Wells306 "...where then would the Rangers have played an entire season?" Um, good point. I don't know. But apparently, that was thought of to some degree, seeing how they crunched the numbers.
LOL I still think it was the wrong choice. But that's just my nostalgia talking.
I owe the Ballpark at Arlington my life, literally. My parents met there on chance and the rest is history.
To me their history is just heartfelt. The struggles, the hope, the heartbreaks. All of it.
The way they honor tradition is 2nd to none in my opinion. One thing the Rangers have always had is great team dynamics. No matter if they’re a losing team, a 500 team, or a World Series winning team, they’ve always had chemistry.
I always get teary-eyed when I see replays of our 2010-11 losses. But our recent win just makes it so much sweeter. Beltre, Andrus, Nolan,Napoli, Arod, Seiger, Garcia, Pudge, Saltalamacchia Molina,Hamilton (for better or worse 😂) I can go on… they’re what make this team. So many memories.
I LOVE the rangers. ❤
Ps, Arlington IS a baseball town. Suck on that Hamilton!
Even as a former food/water hawker at the Ballpark in Arlington, I will forever prefer the old home to the new one. That's the stadium I grew up with. It was everything baseball was to me as a little kid. And nothing, I mean nothing, beat the view you got when you walked through the tunnels from the concourses to the seats, and you got to see the field open up in front of your eyes like the field of dreams. It was absolutely majestic. The only thing that it lacked was proper air conditioning, and I hate that I'm stuck here saying that.
Now, yeah, the new stadium has a roof and A/C, and yeah that likely won us a ring, but I can't get over just how corporate and soulless it looks both inside and out. Not just as a Rangers fan, but as a fan of baseball, it just feels empty, and I hate saying that, because I want to like it. I want this new stadium to feel like home. But heat or no heat, there's nothing that will ever replace a day out at the Ballpark.
The Ballpark at Arlington is still one of the most beautiful stadium’s in the country.
This is the exact same view that I have. Thanks for wording it so well. I also think the heat led to cheap tickets during the summer when I was growing up, helping spread the love of baseball to kids all over the dfw area.
spot-on comment... "corporate and soulless". When I first saw the design and later the finished product, my thought was "industrial warehouse". The word "fugly" also came to mind.
You hit the nail on the head, there was nothing like the feeling you got in the old ballpark as you entered the park from the concourse. Having said that, we rarely went to afternoon games and even many night games were close to unbearable the first few innings. I will still take that feeling over the new "ballpark".
You don't like it because you refuse to allow yourself to like it. You're hanging on to nostalgia and refuses to evolve as a person.
@@preston8258 The Ballpark was already "corporate and soulless" if you had ever been to Arlington Stadium before it.
Day games were absolutely miserable at the Ballpark, I never sat through an entire day game there especially when I had seats in left field.
But man what a gem and a beautiful park. I loved the feel of the game when I visited.
The new stadium is just as awesome in its own way and is perfect as a symbol of a new era in Rangers baseball.
The Ballpark in Arlington looks far better than the new stadium. It is a beautiful stadium. The heat in Texas with DFW now having 110 degree days as the norm, it makes sense to have an indoor stadium.
Thankfully 110 degree days aren't the norm yet. 100+, yeah.
While I do acknowledge that the move to Globe Life Field probably led to the free agents that helped the Rangers to the World Series, I do miss going to games at the Ballpark. I loved that place, even when I was at the game where it was 107 degrees at first pitch.
Same man, there was nothing better than the smells and walking up the tunnel to your seats and the stadium slowly starts to show itself
Late April, 30 minute rain delay, wide open night sky, beer in one hand, hot dog in the other, and a date sitting next to you. Find me a better setting in America I dare ya!
Hear! Hear!
If only they would have added a roof to THE Ball Park!
Last August I invited my parents to a Rangers game and my father immediately said no.
When I asked him why he didn’t want to go he replied that it was too hot.
I then told him that the Rangers now played inside and
he goes: "That’s right! I forgot…..sure were in"
The heat at rangers games used to be unbearable.
I'm a lifelong Ranger fan and was a resident of Arlington when the proposition for a new ballpark was on the voting ballot. I voted against it. I felt like it was a waste of taxpayer money, and I adored the Ballpark despite its many imperfections. Ironically I think the new ballpark may be the biggest contributor to the team's first championship which I savor to this moment. Simply put the team needed better players, and without GLF Corey Seager and Marcus Semien probably don't sign here. Both were absolutely crucial to the title run. So I'm conflicted. The new ballpark is boring but it's air conditioned. It was expensive to go out there before a championship, and now it's even more so. One of the beauties of the old park was being able to sit in the upper deck for $30, parking for $10, and buying a few $5 concessions. $60 on a random Sunday in May was a pretty fun thing to do on a whim. It's just different now. Last year was the first time in about 30 years that I didn't see a Ranger game in person. This year I'll probably go to a couple of games, but that has more to do with personal reasons than it does fandom. The process of getting this stadium bordered on extortion from team ownership and mayor Jeff Williams, but I say that as a flag flies.
Don't forget, Jon Daniels was gone by that point too. If they would have got rid of him instead of letting him run-off Nolan Ryan, the team probably would have done more in the 2010's.
As for your second part, " The new ballpark is boring but it's air conditioned.", etc.
I agree. The A/C is so nice. But the new park has no real character. It is ugly. It is difficult to get around. It cost an arm and a leg to go, and now it's going to be even more expensive since winning the WS.
@@Caderic Oh stop it. Nolan had very little to do with the Rangers 2010s success, that was mostly JD. Grow up.
I remember George Brett saying years ago that the Rangers would never win a world series because no matter how good their teams were, the heat of playing outside in Texas would always wear them down until they collapsed by season's end. He said that when they still played in the old Arlington Stadium, which was more open to breezes and therefore much cooler than the Ballpark. I think Brett was probably right.
I never went to the old Arlington stadium but I remember on the televised games they'd get these clouds of moths in the summer. 😝🤢
For a long time, Texas couldn't attract good free agent pitching because of that.
Made the 2010 and 2011 World Series runs even more remarkable. 2011 was a brutally hot summer, too.
The title says that the ballpark was wasteful, yet it is still used after outliving its original purpose, how is that wasteful?
the Ballpark in Arlington was so hot you had to take a shower and come into the stadium still wet in order to survive just 6 innings
In 1999, the Astros played at Enron Field in Houston. So Toronto was not the only ballpark with a retractable roof between 1989 and 2004.
I knew they made a mistake with the outdoor ballpark before it was finished. Someone argued with me about how hard it would be to air condition a huge facility like that in Texas. My reply: ever heard of the Astrodome in Houston? It was built in 1966.
The issue would probably have been the playing surface. If you had a dome or a retractable roof, you'd probably also have artificial turf. Only the SkyDome was a retractable roof stadium then.
@@AEMoreira81 fun fact ASTRO turf is called that because of..............
I’m someone who can handle heat but I went to a day game for my first and only time to the ballpark in Arlington for a game in June. I have never felt that type of heat in my life. There was no wind and it was just sun the entire time in left field. I saw that it felt like 115 degrees after adding the humidity. Insane heat.
Only thing I wish had been different about the new stadium is how it appears outside, it just looks like an ugly aircraft hanger. The old park was really something to look at and you could put it on a coin it was so iconic. At least the inside is really nice and the addition of the facilities next door for watching and eating is a great addition.
To me it looks like a coffin
It's not like Arlington is full of beautiful architecture. The old ballpark was beautiful by itself but kinda ruined by being surrounded by parking lots. They finally built Texas Live and that hotel which makes it seem like more of a place, but for years none of that was there. I remember Bush talking about how the area around the Ballpark in Arlington was supposed to fill in with businesses and stuff, but that was an empty promise. Asphalt in every direction.
I've lived through all three Rangers home fields - old Arlington Stadium was my childhood, I attended the first regular season game at the Ballpark shortly before graduating high school, and now Globe Life Field will be my home park for my middle age and sunset years.
I recall that when GLF was put to a vote, there was very strong sentiment against tearing down the Ballpark because it was still relatively new, so Arlington had to promise to preserve the Ballpark to get the new stadium vote passed. Personally, I don't think it makes sense for the Ballpark to continue to exist as a stadium since there are two other state-of-the-art stadiums within walking distance - I'd be in favor of an adaptive reuse, where the exterior, the main concourses and the field are preserved, but the stadium seating is replaced for multi-use like apartments, condos, offices, etc., similar to what was done with old Arsenal Stadium in England.
One possibility I wish they had considered was to build AT&T Stadium with the ability to convert for baseball (i.e., no big screen over the field and one side of the stands retractable) - that way, the Rangers could have split their schedule between the two venues, playing home games in the air conditioning at AT&T in July and August, and then the Ballpark could have continued to host the Rangers the rest of the season for many years to come. I also think that instead of completely tearing down old Arlington Stadium, they could have reduced it to its initial minor-league configuration and used that as the basis for a concert amphitheater.
I will disagree about one point here: that Atlanta isn't as hot as Tampa. It's considerably hotter, actually. The issue in Tampa is it rains most of the summer. It rarely exceeds 96F there.
Every time I go to Atlanta it's hotter than hell. Comparable to Dallas/Fort Worth. I think I just have bad luck, though.
As a young kid, I remember going to a dozen or so games in the old Arlington Stadium. Family nights (and a horrible record) made tickets cheap, promotion nights were just as plentiful, and there has never been a crowd in those steel bleachers in the outfield as loud as it got on the annual Bat Night. Several thousand kids slamming their new bats in rhythm on the steel floors will do that. I still have two Ranger bats I used in little league - a blue one and a red one. I got my glove autographed by AL Rookie of theYear and Ranger's first baseman '74, Mike Hargrove. When the Rangers won the World Series, I got my 90 year old Mom a championship t-shirt - she earned it.
I live in Dallas, TX, and I'm not that far away from Arlington. I went to my first Rangers game since the last game played at Chochaw Stadium last year on a field trip in my senior year of high school, and as me, my girl, our friends, and other that was towards their new stadium, Global Life Field, I saw the old stadium and I just had alot of great memories at that stadium. That stadium will forever have a special place in my heart. Man I miss being at that stadium
Great video. Lifetime Ranger fan myself, I miss the Ballpark in Arlington. But summer games were very difficult to get through. Upper deck in left field would have the sun on you and in your eyes until 8:30 (6:05 games that's practically the whole game, for 7:05 it is still nearly half).
Oh and it was a little funny that for the "hot Texas summers" you picked a news telecast with a temperature on the screen at 72°. July and August highs average around 96°. Seriously though, really great video.
it was almost comical the difference in price of the seats in the sun and seats in the shade. love the old stadium but it was a needed change
My wife and I sat behind home base in Sept. 2019 just to where a shadow from the upper deck cast across our legs. She had a tan line that lasted 2 years on her legs from that 1 game! Glad we have a roof now.
Lifelong Rangers fan, too. I loved the Ballpark in Arlington but good god it was freaking miserable for an evening game in the months of July - mid September. If you're sitting in left field the sun is baking you until about the 6th inning and on day games the attendance was just plain horrendous. My biggest gripe about the new park is that I really think they had the opportunity to design something that embodied the Southwest part of the country but they went with something architecturally sterile. The Texas Live! entertainment venue just next door is unmatched by anywhere else in MLB.
3rd base/ outfield side was brutal. Made that mistake once. Only once.
I scored 26 times in my high school career and I never once dropped the ball before crossing the goal line. No one taught me to hold the ball. I just used my brain. It’s inexcusable for anyone to drop a ball before crossing the goal line. Such recklessness can cost your teammates a win.
I'm at least glad they found a good way to reuse Arlington Ballpark. None of the teams playing there expect to draw like the Rangers, but at least it provides a high level experience to two legit teams (and NTXSC, who lost any shred of legitimacy of being a real team once MLSNP arrived). Too bad the stadium dimensions are so wonky cause of baseball. It makes me wonder what sort of utopia we'd have if we as a society could fit football and baseball fields in better so multipurpose stadia didn't have to be concrete donuts.
Oh, and to be clear, this was a great video! It does make me want a video from you about the migration of stadia from cities to suburbs in the late 20th century and the mild comeback downtown stadia have made since then. I always found it interesting how soccer stadia in the UK have been so resistant to that trend to where parks like the Amex outside of Brighton are downright notorious for being on the outskirts of the places for which their teams are named.
That is interesting re: location of stadiums. Will look into that
@@Maapify For the record I don't want you to have to take a super thorough look at all of the factors that caused it, since it's not reasonable to expect you to learn and regurgitate all about the interstate highway system, white flight, the mortgage interest tax deduction, school integration, and all of those infinitely complex public policy issues. But if you can find an easier way to sum up the factors that started and ended the boom of suburban stadia migrations I do think that topic would be perfect for your channel. I'm not an expert on them either but I'm sure I could rustle up some of what I read for my degree if you'd want any entry level materials
The Arlington Renegades UFL team drew really really good crowds to their games.
It also became the corporate headquarters of Six Flags. However, with the Cedar Fair acquisition, Six Flags will leave the Metroplex for Charlotte, NC.
I went to the last Rangers game played at Globe Life Park. I loved that stadium. I grew up going to the stadium and watching the team play. Seeing them go to the world series in 2010 and 2011. The stadium is just iconic to me. It reminds me of Camden Yards.
I understand why they had to leave glp. I just wish there was a way that the Rangers could still use both stadiums. On special days/ good weather days/ all post-season games could be played at glp. Then, if it's hot or rainy or any number of things, it can be played at the indoor glf.
I just miss watching them play in glp. Glf doesn't have the charecter or feel of glp. I do like when glf has the roof open it's nice. Otherwise, i would rather take a parasol and sit in the heat.
I can't deny the accessibility of the new stadium. Having it so people that can't stand heat for long periods can now go to the games in very good for the sport. So it gets points on that.
Overall glf is a good stadium, just not my personal taste.
Please show wome respect, and call it by it's proper name, The Ball Park in Arlington. LOL Just kidding, but no seriously.
I know we used to fry in those seats BUT i LOVEDDDD that damn stadium. I’ll never forget the feeling of seeing the field as i walked out the tunnel. I miss seeing fans going for home runs in centerfield
“A native of nearby Midland, Texas”
Boy, tell me you ain’t ever been to my side of Texas.
The Texas Rangers have been playing Sunday night ball for decades since the early 1970s. Maybe a few Sunday afternoon games in April, but by May those ceased. The former Arlington Stadium and the Ballpark in Arlington never had much of a problem playing during the evenings even on the hottest days of the year as the temperature drops significantly after the sun sets. However when the players association demanded Sunday afternoon games so they can get to sleep before midnight on that travel day, many fans suffered heat stroke... The players could care less about the fans, hitting that bed before midnight is more important to them with their million dollar salaries...
You missed stating that one of the other reasons Arlington Stadium was so hot was because of the Aluminum stands. However on bat nights it was also deafening!
Great video! I went to Rangers game outdoors years ago. It was over 100 degrees at night! Why did you not mention the Houston Astros? They were 1st indoor team and located in same state. It seems odd Houston figured out the need to play indoors very early on in the early 1960s but it took nearly 50 years for the Rangers to go inside. The heat was often the blame for players being worn down by season's end and affecting the performance of the team.
One thing I wish they would’ve incorporated into the new ballpark was Greene’s hill. Such a cool, beautiful, and unique feature replaced by a green wall with a window for what?!
Went to many games at both "old" stadiums and the new stadium definitely played a roll in endurance through a long hot season.
Good explanation. I was Dallas native but moved out of state to start career at start of '90s. I had forgotten what little if any info I had on design process b/c without your video specifics, it sounds crazy to most they didn't add retractable roof.
I was Dallas kid of mid '70s/early '80s when Rangers almost always played on Sunday night in summer due to heat, depriving visiting teams (and themselves if playing Mon on road) of a "getaway day" game to give max travel flexibility to fly out of DFW Sunday at reasonable hours.
Also, mid-70s in futile attempt to fight heat, Rangers started summer games at 8:05 PM CT or on rare occasions 8:35 PM. They could get away with it then with TV games not yet on a daily basis and games being far quicker (before pitch clock). It was still "futile" attempt b/c in summer it's common in DFW for it to still be 94 to 98 degrees at 11 PM.
During the later years of the BPIA, MLB agreements with ESPN meant the Rangers had to play during the day on Sundays (unless they were on ESPN).
Gotta love those "Guzzle Dens" right behind home plate in the new stadium!
Grew up going to the old stadium. Went to a game the other day and just kept staring at the old stadium. Still looks incredible. So many memories
I loved the old ballpark. I had friends who worked there and the views were immaculate. If you stayed up top, you caught a slight breeze. If you sat in the 200s or below in the open air, you were victim to the brutal Texas sun. I literally got heat stroke twice a the old ballpark. It was charming, but the lies of a roof for years was my only wish and they never came to fruition. I love Globe Life Field, it just took some getting used to.
The new stadium is fugly. If they’re going to spend money like that, they should make it at least pretty like ATT stadium. The new one already looks like an ancient stadium in SF.
3:08 what about turner field? That was built in 96 and opened in 97. Also why is there a stadium in Lexington Kentucky?
Great video, outside of the Midland reference 😂😂😂, seriously A+!
The Twins are going to regret not having a dome if they ever get to the World Series again.
Midland is pretty far from Arlington.
I'm extremely familiar with The Ballpark (Globe Life Field), as well as their new facility.
Their new facility is a MAJOR REASON why they were a competitive post-season team (and ultimately champions).
The new field increased their chances of winning it all by a hundred-fold.
First the equipment...then the talent. That's the bottom line.
A Bruce Bochy team will likely finish below .500 after winning the World Series.
I live in Ft. Worth, and I remember back when it was being built, I thought it was a bad idea. It's a pretty ballpark, but it's just too damn hot in the summer for an open-air stadium.
I'm in my 50s now but still vividly remember going to a game in old Arlington Stadium as a kid in the early 80s. The game started around 7pm and the scoreboard temp was 110°. The game ended after 10pm and the scoreboard temp was still 100°. The homeruns were flying, but it was clear what was needed more was a roof. That it took til 2020 to get one is mind boggling.
i grew up in garland, suburb of dallas. i went to the ballpark many times and i loved it. but i did suffer heat exhaustion at one game. and we lost. btw, midland is not "nearby" (5 hour drive)
"midland is not 'near by'", Yeah, I laughed at that!
It looks so much like their BIG BROTHER'S ballpark Minute Maid 😂
The new park is just as beautiful as the old one, imo, just in a different way! Those brick pillars in the concourse beyond outfield are my favorite feature!
I voted against the new ballpark on the basis that there are things that could help someone citizens more. That said, the old stadium's food companies commissaries were not on good shape. Vents dripping, doors falling off hinges, grime in the floor that can't be scrubbed out...
The new stadium has kitchens with room to work and floors that actually clean. Your food is better partly because the kitchens are better. I'm glad to see that side of it.
Live here and paid for it all these years, only to have the name taken away. Biggest issue is local taxes went up for it and never went back down when it was paid for.
The BPIA was a beautiful field that was designed to celebrate the history of architecture in baseball. Unfortunately, this also meant that it sacrificed identity for nostalgia. I miss them playing in this stadium, but I'll admit that the scale and comfort of the new park really feels like it elevates the club.
The new covered stadium is terribly designed. There are only two routes to get to any of the upper levels above ground floor. You literally have to walk halfway around the ballpark to get to any next level escalator. Up one level on one of two escalators then walk halfway around the park for another escalator if you need to go up another level. Insane!
I agree. The thing is ugly, and hard to get around. I think other than the A/C, the new park sucks!
How could you possibly not know? How do you build a park and then suddenly realize it’s hot in Texas?
Simple average temperature at game time spiked around 15° in the 20 so years that the stadium was open
@sonofPoseidon136_ So, it average from 90° to 105° which is still damn hot
@@sonofPoseidon136_ What evidence do you have for this? As someone who grew up in Texas at this time, this did not happen. It peaked in 96 and went down over the next 6-7 years.
Well… the team was owned by the son of a Bush. 🤠
@@jalander8817I'm a Republican, but cannot dispute this. Bush Sr and Jr were both morons who were both born on 3rd base and thought they hit triples.
I used to go to quite a lot of games at TBiA when it opened. However by the time it closed, I couldn't bear to see a game. I'd be curious to know the average temperatures of games between opening and closing. I wonder if the games did get hotter, or whether my ability to take the heat declined.
Globe Life Field is where baseball happens.
Globe Life Park was a ballpark.
2:56 no Braves? I know it was built for the Olympics, but it was originally designed to become Turner Field after the 96 Olympics. Not sure why it wasn't included.
bruh i remember getting ice cream and going to my seat and its almost fully melted in my hands
I always bought the ice cream with the helmet... Although I did have to eat it up quickly before it melted in the helmet...
I’ve seen ballgames at a lot of different places. Never before have I felt like I was sitting under a magnifying glass like at old Arlington Stadium. It was ridiculously hot and you only survived if you showed up late or left early. It was torture to watch a game there. It 100% needed to go.
I remember back in the 1980'd in the old Arlington Stadium in July and August Sunday 1:05 starts the temperature being 100 degrees and by 3:00 being 106 degrees. I was a young adult back then and could take the heat back then. I am 63 years old now and can't imagine how I did it back then. Go Rangers !!
ASTRODOME. Anyone else notice that this guy failed to mention that texas had an air conditioned sports venue 30 years before the muffins built the ballpark in Arlington.
I think he was only referencing dedicated baseball parks. The expense was so great back then that baseball and football teams shared the only domes that existed. So the Astrodome was not relevant to the topic of the video.
@@CAW78 Houston understood the need for air conditioning in the early 1960s and made it a priority. That’s important context for the Rangers’ decision to *not* prioritize it in the early 1990s and would have been worth including in the video.
Other important context is that T-Mobile Park (1999), Minute Maid Park (2000), and American Family Field (2001) all opened with retractable roofs and natural grass soon thereafter. A retractable roof would’ve driven up The Ballpark’s price tag by 50-70%, but maybe Arlington and the Rangers wouldn’t have needed to spend $1B on a new stadium just 25 years later. Meanwhile the Mariners, Astros, and Brewers will all be in their stadiums until at least 2049-2050.
Absolutely true!
@@davidwaldo3141 I think you hit the nail on the head with the 50-70% cost increase statement. The Rangers desperately needed to upgrade their triple A ballpark but the team did not have enough success or support to cover the cost of what would have been at the time a state-of-the art enclosed stadium. They were able to build one of the most classy and beautiful parks in MLB at the time which was a 1,000,000% upgrade over what they had at the time not knowing that the next 3-5 years would usher in technology and construction improvements that would have made a covered stadium more affordable. Hindsight is always 20/20.
@@CAW78 Hindsight and timing is really what it comes down to. Had they waited just a few years to get a whiff of other teams’ plans they could have made it happen regardless of price.
Supposedly The Ballpark was engineered to add a roof at some point in the future. I would’ve preferred to see that instead of a new build, especially considering the new build they ended up with. I understand that retrofit costs may not have been feasible, but it just seems awfully wasteful in the new stadium era when teams and cities are reinvesting in their stadiums.
Loved the old ballpark...in the spring. Once summer hits, it was unbearable. Go rangers!
The former park, now called Choctaw Stadium is still being used a lot. It’s the current home of the Arlington Renegades, the Dallas Jackyls, and the Arlington High School football team. It also has a lot of new retail being built into it as well. I live across the street and this complex in Arlington is fantastic.
First game I went to at the new stadium, it was like 100 outside. The announcer said it was a "Cool, crisp 72 degrees inside" and there was an eruption of applause.
I worked on the pipes in the ballpark in Arlington and that alone was a good enough reason to make a new stadium.
The Ballpark in Arlington was beautiful...and completely impractical. The day it was announced many of us fans where questioning why they weren't putting a roof on it. Pick up the stadium and place it anywhere up north, and it would have been great. But who wants to watch a ballgame in 100+ degree heat.
When I was in high school we had our football games at the old rangers stadium. Because the games were in the afternoon it usually wasnt that hot for us, but it was always really fun to be in that big stadium every friday
Got free tickets from my boss to a 2:00 July getaway game at the Ballpark. The seats were on the third base line, 3 rows behind the third base dugout. It was probably 102 degrees at game time and I couldn't see the right fielder due to the fumes coming off the GRASS.....I was at home by the fifth inning. I called off the next day to get back at my boss.
My wife and I drove by the new field often while it was under construction. We called it the big barn. We loved the old stadium.
Seems like the channel went out of its way to not mention PNC Park which is most often mentioned as the best ballpark in baseball
They didn’t mention like 20 stadiums because this video has nothing to do with PNC park, it’s talking about stadiums with heat as an issue and how the rangers most recent stadium failed because of it. If you’re complaining about the channel in general not talking about it then whatever but if you’re complaining about this video that’s like going to a Mexican restaurant and complaining about them having no French fries. Has nothing to do with this video.
Lived in East Texas all 43 years of my life. You never get used to the heat.
I am from north of Longview. I live all 43 years of my life (minus 2 1/2 in Atlanta GA) in East Texas, and I am still not used to the heat, either.
7:38 the swirling winds were the stuff of local lore in the DFW.... Tom Hicks added a premium club behind home plate (The Cuervo Club) in the early 2000s. The glass added to enclose the area created caused the wind, which almost always blew in from the south or southwest, from dead center around to the RF foul pole, to bounce back out from behind the plate creating artificial jet streams that turned the place into a launching pad.
It hurt my heart a little bit when he was talking about moving away from multi-purpose stadiums and then at 2:48 showed a picture of old Tiger Stadium.
Great job with your video of the TX Rangers. Love your video shorts.
This was amazing! Please make a video on the SkyDome and the Toronto Blue Jays even just briefly touching on the history of baseball in Canada.
Midland is not nearby Arlington. Totally different climate.
yes the texas rangers has 3 stadiums in arlington tx in the dallas fort worth area.
And still no public transportation to the park.
New stadium is awesome but it’s hard to get the nostalgia from it like the old ballpark.
Just found your channel and subbed. Well done video on the subject.
I would add the White Sox stadium in as one which was built a little too early before the trend was set.
I still remember the announcement that the ballpark in Arlington was being built. Everyone thought it was so stupid to build a new ballpark without a roof. Our expectations were that we would have something like that Astrodome in Arlington. What was the point and even building a new ballpark if it was not going to be covered and air-conditioned?
Ironically, the 2023 Rangers won the title by going 11-0 on the road in the playoffs, while only 2-4 at home.
Rangers fans can still enjoy a beautiful ballpark outside as Jesus and Nolan Ryan intended with the Rangers AA team in Frisco Texas
Yes, the new stadium looks like an aluminum barbecue grill.
But it doesn't FEEL like it.
After one 72F ballgame in August, ALL IS FORGIVEN.
One of my favorite ballparks to have attended. Thankful I got to attend games in the late 90's as a kid. Got to see Rangers greats, such as Juan Gonzalez and Pudge Rodriguez. Caught a game when the Mariners were in town, when Junior Griffey and A-Rod and Edgar Martinez were on the team.