Globe Life Field

Left field entrance to Globe Life Field, off Randol Mill Road, Oct-2020.

The seating bowl, with a closed roof.

From behind the plate, this time with the roof open.

Chronological Tour: Stop 413

• Location: Randol Mill Road at Stadium Drive, Arlington, Texas (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 2020
• Home team: Texas Rangers, Major League Baseball (2020-present)
• Capacity: 40,300

Rating: 4 baseballs

While the year’s events meant that no spectators were allowed into the facility for the 30 home games the Rangers played that year, Major League Baseball was working on a plan to host the final three rounds of the playoffs at neutral sites. Globe Life Field hosted games in all three rounds, including the World Series, which was contested between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Tampa Bay Rays. More significantly, while the Division Series was played without spectators, a limited number of fans were allowed in for the last two rounds. About 11,000 tickets were made available for each game in “pods” of four seats apiece, each group at least six feet from the next (and enforced with over 30,000 cable ties across seats that were not to be used). This enabled a limited number of fans, both of the participating clubs and of baseball in general, to finally enjoy the park.

Getting to the Game

For the locals who drive in, stadium lots are plentiful. There are also remote lots operated by private entities, some of which offer frequent visitor deals such as a voucher for free parking after three paid visits. Be careful not to park in private lots belonging to the office parks in the area, as these are reserved for employees and game attendees run the risk of having their vehicles towed.

Watching the Game

While the old ballpark had most of the amenities one would expect of a new major league sports facility, the one thing it lacked was a roof. That often made summertime games unbearable even at night. The new park has a slightly different look, of course, but it retains a fair amount of the charm of the old place while adding the retractable roof. As with many modern enclosed baseball stadiums, the infield dirt areas are actually dirt, while the “grass” areas and the warning track are a modern artificial turf.

Spectator seating is in four levels, with field-level seating using section numbers with one or two digits up to the upper deck in the 300s. Notably, the 300 level is broken up by the press box, which uniquely is partially outdoors. The back of the press box is the back of the building, and with the roof closing during hot or inclement weather, the folks covering the game should have no issues.

Some of the highest seats on the third-base side are blocked from a view of the main scoreboard/video board by the roof supports. TV monitors displaying the scoreboard have been put in place to aid fans in those high seats.

Enjoying the Game

The lower crowd also meant no serious issues with stadium egress. There are escalators and elevators, of course, but I suspect that when the park is crowded, most fans will exit using the many stairwells that have been built into the facility. This is also common to the newer ballparks.

A friend I attended with, who had taken a stadium tour a few months earlier, said that he didn’t notice that there were any “bad” seats in the house. We sat in section 309, on the third base side in the upper deck, and aside from simply being in the upper deck, we had no trouble following the game from our location.