.jpg) Choctaw Stadium in 2020 (as Globe Life Park in Arlington) | |
 | |
  Choctaw Stadium Location within Texas Show map of Texas Choctaw Stadium Choctaw Stadium (the United States) Show map of the United States | |
| Former names |
|
|---|---|
| Address | 1000 Ballpark Way |
| Location | Arlington, Texas, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 32°45′5″N97°4′58″W / 32.75139°N 97.08278°W /32.75139; -97.08278 |
| Public transit | Collins Street at Andrews Street |
| Owner | City of Arlington |
| Operator | Rangers Baseball Express |
| Executive suites | 120 |
| Capacity | 48,114 (baseball)[1] 25,000 (football) |
| Record attendance | 52,419 |
| Surface | Latitude36 Bermuda Grass |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | April 2, 1992 |
| Opened | April 1,1994 |
| Construction cost | $191 million ($405 million in 2024[2]) |
| Architect |
|
| Structural engineer |
|
| Services engineer |
|
| General contractor | Manhattan Construction Company |
| Tenants | |
| |
Choctaw Stadium, formerlyGlobe Life Park, is an Americanmulti-purpose stadium inArlington, Texas, United States. The venue opened in April 1994 as abaseball stadium with the nameThe Ballpark in Arlington, serving as the home for theTexas Rangers ofMajor League Baseball from1994 through2019. It replaced the nearbyArlington Stadium, and was succeeded byGlobe Life Field.
In 2020, the stadium was retrofitted forfootball andsoccer. It is the current home of theNorth Texas SC ofMLS Next Pro (FC Dallas's reserve team), and theArlington Renegades of theUFL.[5]
On August 25, 2021,Choctaw Casinos & Resorts bought the naming rights to the stadium.[6][7]
In April 1989, Rangers ownerEddie Chiles sold the team to an investment group headed byGeorge W. Bush.[8] The agingArlington Stadium was outdated and did not have amenities that helped make other baseball franchises more profitable. As a result, the team could not compete with other big-city teams for good players. In an effort to fund the project through public money instead of private financing, the Rangers threatened to leave Arlington. The city of Arlington spent $150,000 on an advertising campaign to persuade voters to approve the funding through areferendum by printing brochures, placingtelemarketing calls, and planning a "Hands Around Arlington Day."[9] On January 19, 1991, over 65% of voters approved the deal, allowing the city government to cover 71% of the costs ($135 million out of $191 million) of building the new ballpark. The deal called for the city to raise the sales tax by half a cent to go toward construction. Both houses of theTexas Legislature unanimously approved the public purpose of the ballpark, andTexas GovernorAnn Richards signed it all into law.[10]
As part of the deal, the city created a separate corporation, the Arlington Sports Facilities Development Authority (ASFDA), to manage construction. Using authority granted to it by the city, the ASFDA seized several tracts of land around the stadium site usingeminent domain for parking and future development.[11]
Construction on the stadium, which was dubbed The Ballpark in Arlington, began on April 2, 1992, a short distance away from Arlington Stadium, the stadium it would replace, and the new Ballpark in Arlington opened on April 1, 1994, in an exhibition contest between the Rangers and theNew York Mets. The first official game was on April 11 against theMilwaukee Brewers.
Ameriquest bought thenaming rights to the ballpark on May 7, 2004, and renamed itAmeriquest Field in Arlington. The Rangers severed their relationship with Ameriquest on March 19, 2007, and announced the park would be renamedRangers Ballpark in Arlington.
The largest crowd to watch a Rangers baseball game was on October 30, 2010, when 52,419 fans watched Game 3 of the2010 World Series against theSan Francisco Giants.[12]
Globe Life and Accident Insurance Company, a subsidiary ofMcKinney-basedGlobe Life,[13] bought the naming rights for the facility on February 5, 2014, naming itGlobe Life Park in Arlington.[14]
On May 20, 2016, the Rangers announced that they intended to move from Globe Life Park to the newGlobe Life Field, beginning with the 2020 season.[15] The new air conditioned stadium was slated to feature a retractable roof,[16] which many argued could increase stadium revenue from those who would otherwise not want to sit in the heat during games as the season progresses throughout the hot Texas summer, in particular those that occur in the afternoon. Voting for the new ballpark began on November 8 (the same day as the2016 presidential election) for residents in the city limits of Arlington.[17] The ballpark was passed with a 60% favorable vote.[18] The stadium opened in the 2020 season.[18]
The new stadium was built south of Globe Life Park, on the site of a surface parking lot between Randol Mill Road and Cowboys Way. Space between the new stadium and Globe Life Park was constructed into an entertainment complex called Texas Live!, developed byThe Cordish Companies, which, when finished, is slated to include sports bars, restaurants, and a 300-room hotel to be developed in three phases.[19] The first phase, dubbed "Rangers Republic", is a two-level venue with multiple restaurants and providing interactive games and authentic memorabilia; the second phase is the Live! Arena, a multi-level venue providing restaurants, a performance stage for concerts, and an outdoorbeer garden; Arlington Backyard, the third venue to anchor the entertainment district calls for a large, covered venue that could host concerts, charitable functions, and community events.[20]
Unlike Arlington Stadium, Choctaw Stadium was not demolished. Originally, city officials announced that they would redevelop the structure as part of the Texas Live! complex. The redevelopment would have retained the ballpark's outfield office complex and facade, and most of the concourse would have been re-purposed. Potential uses included redeveloping the concourse for condos and retail, as well as turning the current field into anamphitheater.[21] On December 5, 2018, city officials announced that the stadium would become the home of theDallas Renegades of the newXFL,[22] beginning with the league's debut in 2020.North Texas SC, aUSL League 1 team also announced they would play at the renovated stadium. Many of the park's lower sections, mostly on the third base side, were removed to make room for the rectangular field which sits horizontally when viewed from behind the home plate. New seats were then added to where the ballpark's outfield once lay.[23]
On September 29, 2019, after the Rangers' last home game against theNew York Yankees, home plate was removed and transferred to the new park. The renovation project of the stadium from a baseball facility into a football and soccer facility began in October. In December 2019,Six Flags Entertainment Corp. announced the company would move its corporate headquarters the following year to the Centerfield Office Building formerly occupied by the Rangers.[24]
The stadium was designed by theDriehaus Prize winner andNew Classical architectDavid M. Schwarz of Washington, D.C. The Rangers chose to build a retro-style ballpark (Retro-classic, orRetro-modern), incorporating many features of baseball'sJewel Box parks. A roofed home run porch in right field is reminiscent ofTiger Stadium, while the white steel frieze that surrounds the upper deck was copied from the pre-1973Yankee Stadium. The out-of-town scoreboard (removed in 2009 and replaced with a state-of-the-art video board) was built into the left-field wall—a nod toFenway Park. The numerous nooks and crannies in the outfield fence are a reminder ofEbbets Field.[25] The arched windows are a reminder ofComiskey Park.
However, it has a few distinct features of its own. Several traditional Texas-style stone carvings are visible throughout. A four-story office building encloses center field with a white steel multilevel facade similar to the facade on the roof.
As the stadium was built on one of the former Arlington Stadium parking lots, the irregular dimensions of the outfield were planned independently, rather than being forced by neighboring structures. The home plate, foul poles (replaced prior to the 2016 season), and bleachers were originally atArlington Stadium. The Home Plate was inserted into place by Richard Greene (then Mayor of Arlington), Elzie Odom (Head of Arlington Home Run Committee and later Mayor of Arlington), andGeorge W. Bush (former part Rangers owner, laterTexas Governor andPresident of the United States).
The stadium's 810-foot (250 m)-long facades are made of brick and Texas Sunset Red granite. Bas-relief friezes depict significant scenes from the history of both Texas and baseball. The calculus of seating arrangements represented a new economic model for the sport: a critical mass of high-dollar seats close to the infield boost ticket revenue. The stadium has three basic seating tiers: lower,club and upper deck. Two levels ofluxury suites occupy spaces behind sliding glass doors above and below the club tier.[26]
The stadium has a large number of obstructed-view seats. In some cases, the view is cut off by an overhang or underhang, and others are directly in front of support poles. Also, the design of the upper deck left it one of the highest in baseball. The view from the grandstand reserved sections in left is particularly obstructed.
Prior to the 2012 season, the visitor bullpen was reconfigured to be parallel to the field after the previous visitor bullpen configuration had an excessive amount of heat during hot weather games. To allow construction, a few rows of bleacher sections were removed.
Greene's Hill is a sloped section of turf located beyond the formercenter field fence. The Hill served as abatter's eye, providing a contrasting background behind the pitchers which enabled hitters to more easily see the baseball after the pitcher's release. It was originally designed as a picnic area for fans but the Rangers never initiated that policy. It was named after former Arlington mayor Richard Greene in November 1997. For a couple of years in the 2000s, the Rangers had the "T" from the Texas Rangers logo mowed into the grass. In 2010, the Rangers started a tradition where they had four girls run around on it with giantTexas state flags when the Rangers scored, similar to what many football teams do when their teams score. Unlike most batter's eyes, fans were allowed to run onto the hill to catch a home run.
| Years | Capacity |
|---|---|
| 1994–1995 | 49,292 |
| 1996 | 49,178 |
| 1997–1999 | 49,166 |
| 2000–2005 | 49,115 |
| 2006–2008 | 48,911 |
| 2009–2011 | 49,170 |
| 2012 | 48,194[27] |
| 2013–present | 48,114[1] |
The stadium contains 5,704club seats and 126luxury suites.
During the stadium's existence as a baseball park, it was one of baseball's most notoriously hitter-friendly parks, due to the high temperatures, relatively short fences, and the design of the stadium which allowed the area's high winds to swirl and lift balls that would not normally make it out. In truth, the park would have given up even more home runs if not for the office building in center and the field being 22 feet (6.7 m) below street level.[28]
With a combination of the park's design and the many good hitters who played for the Rangers during the team's tenure in the park, the Rangers recorded fairly high home run totals. In1996, theRangers hit 221 home runs. They eclipsed 200 again in 1998 (201), 1999 (230), 2001 (241), 2002 (230), 2003 (239), 2004 (227), and 2005 (260, four short of the all-time record of 264 by the1997 Seattle Mariners). Many of the Rangers' already-skilled hitters took advantage of this, some even racking up multiple 30+ home run seasons, such asIan Kinsler,Adrián Beltré, andJosh Hamilton.[29] The longest home run recorded was 505 feet to right field by Rangers RFNomar Mazara on June 21, 2019.[30]
Dimensions[31]
| Dimension | Distance |
|---|---|
| Left Field | 332 ft (101 m) |
| Left Center Field | 390 ft (120 m) |
| Center Field | 400 ft (120 m) |
| Right Center Field | 377 ft (115 m) |
| Right Field | 325 ft (99 m) |
Despite being hailed as a wonderful venue in its infant years, articles inThe Dallas Morning News began to suggest that the ballpark would have been better served by having a dome or retractable roof – much likeDaikin Park, the home of theHouston Astros – due to the often oppressive heat that settles over Texas in summer during baseball season, with temperatures on the field being in excess of 110 °F (43 °C). Many argue that the intense heat was a liability in attracting players, particularly starting pitchers.[32]
When the Arlington ballpark was built in the early 1990s, the only Major League Baseball stadium with a retractable roof wasToronto'sSkyDome (now Rogers Centre), which opened in 1989. (Also,Montreal'sOlympic Stadium was still in use as a ballpark at the time; in 1987, a retractable roof was installed which never worked correctly and was rarely if ever retracted.) The other modern retractable-roof ballparks likeChase Field,T-Mobile Park,Daikin Park,LoanDepot Park, andAmerican Family Field were built in ensuing years.
On December 3, 2010, the Rangers announced that extensive renovations to the stadium would be made and ready for the 2011 season.[33] These renovations included:
It was announced on December 5, 2018, that the stadium's lower stands would undergo extensive renovations once the Renegades moved into the stadium in 2020.[22] The conversion to Choctaw Stadium from Globe Life Park was designed by SBL Architecture, Inc.[34] When renovations for the football layout began, the Texas Rangers sold 6,000 souvenir seats in pairs. A broadcast booth and two booths for football coaches were built in the renovated lower suites and two new auxiliary locker rooms were built on the service level. The Rangers' clubhouse became the Renegades' locker room and coaches offices. Lockers were added to the visiting locker room to accommodate Renegades opponents.[35]
On April 11, 1994, the first game at the ballpark, Hollye Minter, who was posing for a picture while intoxicated, fell 35 feet (11 m) over a railing in right field, fracturing several bones and causing theteam to raise the height of the railings.[36]
On July 6,2010,firefighter Tyler Morris, leaning over the rail to catch aNelson Cruz foul ball, fell 30 feet (9.1 m) onto the section below him, causing a head injury and a severely sprained ankle to himself and minor injuries to fans he landed on.[37] The game was stopped for 15 minutes while paramedics treated him.[38]
On July 7, 2011, firefighter Shannon Stone, fromBrownwood, Texas, was attending theRangers game against theOakland Athletics with his six-year-old son, Cooper, when outfielderJosh Hamilton threw him a ball, as he had asked.[36] Reaching for it, Shannon flipped over the railing and fell 20 feet (6.1 m), head-first, onto the concrete behind the out-of-town scoreboard in left field.[36] He was conscious and talking as paramedics tended to him, but he died en route to the hospital.[39] The cause of death was identified as blunt force trauma.[40] This was the fourth fall in the stadium's 17 years of history.[41] Amoment of silence was held for him prior to the next day's game, both the Rangers and Athletics wore black ribbons on their uniforms, and the flags at the stadium were flown athalf-staff in memory of him.[40] The Rangers Foundation set up a memorial fund for Stone's family.[42]
A tarp was placed over the opening through which Stone fell.[40] Rangers team presidentNolan Ryan said the height of the railings exceeds the requirement of the building codes but said the team would do "whatever it takes" to ensure the safety of the fans;[43] on July 20, 2011, the Rangers announced they would raise all railings in the front of seating sections to 42 inches (110 cm).[44] On August 10, 2011, the team announced it would erect a statue memorializing Stone.[45] Cooper helped unveil the statue on April 5, 2012. It depicts him and his father wearing baseball caps. They are holding hands and looking at each other as if they were talking. The inscription on the statue reads "In memory of Shannon Stone and dedicated to all fans who love the game".
On September 30, 2011, Cooper threw out theceremonial first pitch to honor his father before Game 1 of the2011 ALDS against theTampa Bay Rays.[46][47]
The Ballpark In Arlington was the site of oneperfect game.Kenny Rogers retired all 27 batters onJuly 28, 1994, against theCalifornia Angels.
The ballpark hosted the1995 MLB All-Star Game. The first MLB regular-seasoninterleague game was played there on June 12, 1997, when the Rangers played theSan Francisco Giants. There were four interleague games on the schedule that night, but the other three were played on the West Coast, so the Giants–Rangers matchup started earlier than the others.
On September 18, 1999,Jim Morris made his major league debut there at age 35, ten years after he had retired from baseball following four arm surgeries. Morris became the oldest player to debut in the big leagues sinceMinnie Mendoza in 1970.[48][49]
The first postseason game won by the Rangers there would come in game 2 of the 2010 ALCS, by a score of 7–2 over the Yankees on October 16, 2010. Six days later, the Rangers clinched their first everAmerican League pennant there after a 6–1 victory over theNew York Yankees in game 6 of theALCS, getting the third out in the ninth from former RangerAlex Rodriguez.
Two world series have been played in The Ballpark In Arlington. The Rangers hosted games 3, 4 and 5 of the2010 World Series; theSan Francisco Giants won the final two games to win the series in five. Games 3, 4 and 5 of the2011 World Series were also played there, with the Rangers winning 2 of 3 home games, but losing games 6 and 7 to theCardinals inSt. Louis. This was one of three sporting championships to take place in theDallas/Fort Worth Metroplex in the same year, along withSuper Bowl XLV and the2011 NBA Finals.
It hosted the2002 and the2004 Big 12 Conference baseball tournament. Since 2013, theUT Arlington baseball team annually hosts one game in the stadium every March.[50]
Scenes fromWalt Disney Pictures'The Rookie were shot there. Filming included actorDennis Quaid (asJim Morris) running onto the playing field from the visitors'bullpen during theseventh-inning stretch of an actual game in progress.[51]
The ballpark and Legends of the Game Museum were featured in an episode ofNorth Texas Explorer.
| Date | Artist | Opening act(s) | Tour / Concert name | Attendance | Revenue | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 9, 2013 | Eli Young Band | Josh Abbott Band Easton Corbin Thompson Square | House Party | — | — | [52] |
| November 8, 2014 | Eli Young Band | Gary Allan Pat Green Cody Johnson Maddie & Tae | House Party II | — | — | [53] |
| June 14, 2019 | Paul McCartney | — | Freshen Up | 45,024 / 45,024 | $6,313,791 | [54] |
| October 11, 2019 | Jason Aldean | — | Ride All Night Tour | — | — | [55] |
| October 12, 2019 | Billy Joel | — | Billy Joel in Concert | 43,626 / 43,626 | $5,405,903 | [56] |
| November 28, 2020 | For King & Country | — | A Drummer Boy Christmas Tour | — | — | [57] |
Prior to theXFL's shutdown after five weeks in 2020, theDallas Renegades had played three games in the stadium. They lost all three beginning with a 15–9 defeat in the season opener against theSt. Louis BattleHawks.[58] After theHouston Roughnecks defeated the Renegades 27–20 in Week 4, their last game at Globe Life Park was a 30–12 loss to theNew York Guardians.[59][60] The Dallas Renegades will continue play in the stadium starting with the 2023 season, with the stadium serving as a hub for all eight teams during the regular season and the seven other teams flying to their home stadiums each week.[61] In 2024, the XFL—ahead of an upcoming merger with theUnited States Football League—indicated that the stadium would again serve as the hub for the merged league.[62]
In 2021 and 2022, the stadium was home of the annualArlington Showdown featuring theTexas Southern Tigers versus theSouthern University Jaguars.[63]
The stadium hosts thehigh school football games for theArlington Independent School District as part of theUniversity Interscholastic League.[64]
The stadium has been the home of theDallas Jackals ofMajor League Rugby since their inaugural season in 2022 until the club ceased operations in September 2024.[65]
TheInternational Champions Cup soccer match featuringAtlético Madrid of Spain vs.Chivas Guadalajara of Mexico was played on July 23, 2019. It was the first time that a soccer match involving professional clubs was played at Choctaw Stadium.
North Texas SC ofUSL League One moved from its previous home in Frisco to Choctaw Stadium beginning in 2020.[66] The club is scheduled to leave the stadium in 2026 and move toMansfield, Texas.[67]
It was the venue for the Dallas/Fort WorthMDA Muscle Walk event that took place on September 20, 2014.[68] This was previously held atAT&T Stadium (formerly Cowboys Stadium) from 2010 to 2013.
On June 17, 2019, a tornado with estimated strength of EF-1 touched down in Arlington near Choctaw Stadium. Officials said the storm damaged windscreens in left field and caused damage to a small portion of the left field roof. Further, the Chick-fil-A signage on the foul pole in left field was damaged.[69]
A three-run homer by rookie Mitch Moreland and Josh Hamilton's long drive with no one on, provided enough offense for the Rangers to win their first home World Series game in their 39-season history, 4–2, before a record home crowd of 52,419 paying fans
| Events and tenants | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Home of theTexas Rangers 1994 – 2019 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by first stadium | Home of theDallas/Arlington Renegades 2020 – present | Succeeded by current |
| Preceded by | Host of theAll-Star Game 1995 | Succeeded by |
| Education |
| ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Landmarks |
| ||||||
| Transportation | |||||||
| Government | |||||||
