Last Thursday evening (9/19/19) we heard from Nick Richardson and Justin Henry from the Texas Rangers organization. Nick is the director of business development focused on marketing the new stadium’s unique offerings for fans and sponsors. Justin leads the efforts of the Texas Rangers Foundation in growing support for and development of the many good works in the community done by the Rangers.
While Nick waited on deck, Justin led off with many interesting details about the Rangers significant efforts to build community in communities around DFW. The jewel of the many programs by the Foundation is the Texas Rangers MLB Academy in west Dallas. This facility is of the highest quality and gets better reviews than many minor league and college baseball facilities around the country.
The Rangers are also active in a partnership with Matthew McConaughey called “Just Keep Livin” which is focused on youth health in the areas of fitness, nutrition and self-awareness. The program reaches kids at a high schools in Dallas, Fort Worth and Arlington.
Finally, the Rangers Foundation also provides college scholarships across three different criteria that insure there is need and there is commitment. The scholarship recipients typically do internships in various departments within the Ranger organization during their education years.
After such a good at bat by Justin, the pressure was on Nick as he stepped into the batters box (aka the lectern). Justin shared a lot of interesting details about the new Globe Life Field that is under construction and will open in March 2020.
The new facility will be 300,000 square feet larger than the 25 year-old Globe Life Park. The footprint is 13 acres and the overall cost is $1.1 billion. The ongoing construction crew totals 1500 workers working 22 hours of each day. When finished the Globe Life Field will seat 40,000 which is about 9,000 less than the one being replaced.
The motive behind the new park is to build an air-conditioned environment so the dog days of summer are less of a barrier for fans to attend. The roof will be retractable but typically the roof will be closed all day and often, even on really hot days, the roof may be opened before game time. This will allow for the game to be played “outdoors” but without the heat since the interior concrete, seats and field would not have not been “cooking” all day.
After outlining the facility details, Nick went deep in the count regarding all the fan focused seating options – individual seats for $9 that Jeri Johnston claimed during the Q&A (if she gets a reserved parking space), club seats with food and beverage and suites of all types. It was fun watching our members fight over who was going to be the first to buy the $500,000 suite. There are game by game suites for rent and there are corporate suites finished out to specs determined by the suite holder.
As we reached the 9th inning it was clear to all that the new facility will be good for baseball and good for fans. With that, President Lewis hit a walk off dinger by popping the bell with his gavel. (Get it?)