The MLB Rangers on Friday will announce the team and the city of Arlington "have agreed on plans to build a stadium with a roof that would be funded in part by a half-cent sales tax once AT&T Stadium ... is paid off," according to sources cited in a front-page piece by Gordon Dickson of the FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM. The ballpark would cost around $900M and "be split equally between the city and the Rangers." Voter approval "would be required to use tax dollars for the ballpark." Voters also would "have to approve using money now designated for paying off the AT&T Stadium debt for another project." Arlington officials "have made no bones about their desire to keep the Rangers in town after the team’s lease at Globe Life Park expires" in '24. Globe Life Park, which opened in '94, is "now the 11th oldest facility" in MLB. The lack of a roof and accompanying air conditioning "is considered one factor that can keep fans away from Globe Life Park, especially during the dog days of summer, when the temperature can stay in the mid-90s even during night games" (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 5/20). In Dallas, Evan Grant in a front-page piece cited sources as saying that the new ballpark "is expected to come on line earlier that the current lease expires," though it is "uncertain how far ahead" of the '24 season it could be opened. Building a new retractable-roof ballpark "is likely to significantly increase the value of the club and add multiple years of new revenue streams." The Rangers in December "announced plans for Texas Live!," a $200M "public-private development adjacent to Globe Life Park." The Rangers "have also purchased the adjoining parking lots" from former team Owner Tom Hicks. The club "now has control of the surrounding property for additional development or just the revenue generated by the parking lots" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 5/20).
HOW DO YOU SPELL RELIEF? In Ft. Worth, Gil Lebreton writes under the header, "Air-Conditioned Baseball Was Inevitable For Rangers." It is "hard to say how much the summer heat has cost the Rangers in attendance" since the current ballpark opened in '94 (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 5/20). NBCSPORTS.com's Craig Calcaterra writes the 23-year-old ballpark is "in fine shape" structurally, and Arlington "has been and remains the sports stadium capital of the Metroplex." However, the main issue the Rangers have been facing is the "heat and the depression of attendance and revenues the current open-air stadium experiences in the hot, hot summers of north Texas." When Globe Life Park was built, the "cost of a retractable roof was seen as prohibitive and the technology of such beasts was nowhere near as advanced as it is today" (NBCSPORTS.com, 5/20).
