Arlington’s boil advisory won’t halt college baseball tourney at Globe Life Field
Arlington’s boil water advisory is not expected to prevent fans or teams from attending or playing in the State Farm College Baseball Showdown at Globe Life Field this weekend.
The event, featuring six of the top-10 college baseball programs in the country, is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. Saturday with Texas taking on Mississippi State. Additional games will feature TCU vs. Ole Miss at 3 p.m. and Texas Tech vs. Arkansas at 7 p.m. Three games will be held Sunday and Monday as well in the round-robin tournament between the Big 12 and SEC.
Texas Rangers and Arlington city officials said the tournament has been given the green light to go on as planned, including limited capacity crowds of roughly 15,000, even if the city remains under a boil water advisory.
“Even if the boil water alert isn’t lifted by 11 a.m. tomorrow, the event can proceed as Globe Life Field has water service for its bathrooms and other facilities,” said Jay Warren, a spokesman for the City of Arlington. “If the boil water alert is still in effect when the event starts, the ballpark will simply need to sell pre-packaged food or food items that don’t require water to prepare.”
Rangers spokesman John Blake said the team has already prepared for that scenario with its concession partner Delaware North Sportservice. Concession items will include pre-packaged food as well as bottled water, soda and beer. Concessions may offer grilled food, too, as that would not require water to be used.
Restrooms will also be OK to use. There will be a number of hand-sanitizing stations as well as portable handwashing stations throughout the ballpark. Fans and others in attendance just can’t ingest the city’s tap water if it remains under a boil advisory.
“Obviously, we’re hopeful the boiled water precautions are lifted and we can maybe normalize,” Blake said. “But we’re planning to take all these steps.”
Water pressure in Arlington returned to normal levels Friday morning, but residents were still told to boil their water until city test results are known. Those results are expected back Saturday and the city will immediately lift the advisory in parts of Arlington if the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality standards are met. Areas where the water does not pass will be tested again.
Ticket update
The College Baseball Showdown had been scheduled to run Friday-Sunday, but was pushed back a day earlier this week due to the winter storm within the region.
Fans who purchased tickets for Friday’s session will be able to use their ticket to attend one of the sessions Saturday, Sunday or Monday. All tickets are general admission and capacity is expected to be roughly 15,000 due to COVID-19 protocols.
All out-of-town teams were en route on Friday.
