Graduations may give Texas Rangers a scouting report for how to open stadium to fans
This might look like an opportunity to brag, but it isn’t. Really.
Media was allowed onto the field at Globe Life Field on Wednesday for the first time since construction was completed. Everyone in attendance wore a face mask and had to submit to a temperature check before entering the ballpark. That will be standard protocol when, and if, there is a 2020 MLB season, given the unknowns about the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
If games resume in the coming months, the shame of it will be that fans likely won’t get to experience the Texas Rangers’ new $1.2 billion home firsthand.
Because — and let’s just get right to the point — it’s darn near spectacular inside.
Yes, even with the synthetic playing surface.
Does it have the same view as PNC Park in Pittsburgh or Oracle Park in San Francisco or Camden Yards in Baltimore? Of course not.
It’s a dome, essentially.
But it’s going to be an awfully fancy home for 81 Rangers regular-season games a year. That won’t happen this season and, who knows, maybe not next, but it’s going to leave fans in awe the first few times they see it.
And once the air conditioning kicks in for those July and August games — ahhhh! — that’s going to be such a game-changer.
Workers are still putting the finishing touches on the ballpark, though a punch list that started with 17,000 items is down to 500 and a workforce that had 1,600 at its peak is down to around 100 or so.
When the ballpark opens, whether in July as MLB attempts to salvage its 2020 season or on Opening Day in 2021, it will be finished in its entirety.
Until then, those who’ll get the first sneak peek are tens of thousands of local high school students and their families. The graduation ceremonies for about 13,000 members of the Class of 2020 from 49 schools across the Metroplex had their ceremonies moved there, making these commencement exercises the first public events at Globe Life Field. when they’re held from May 29 through the end of June.
The roof will be open, which might make things unpleasant for graduates and the five guests each senior will be allowed to invite. The retractable roof could be closed by order of the Arlington fire marshal, though the questions Wednesday pertained to the possibility of a rain storm rather than a heat wave.
Rangers executive vice president Rob Matwick said families of five will be allowed to sit together, but many attendees will be seated as trios and with three seats between them to observe social distancing. The school districts are in charge of making the seating arrangements for their own ceremonies.
But the graduation ceremonies will serve a purpose to the Rangers beyond a small revenue stream in a river of financial losses. They could serve as a blueprint on how the Rangers will stage games once a fans are permitted.
The largest maximum crowd for one ceremony could be around 4,500, and only the stadium’s lower seating bowl is expected to be used. If a gathering of 4,500 can safely be arranged on one level, it would seem that additional socially-distanced fans on other levels and in the outfield could eventually be accommodated for a baseball game.
More fans, though, would mean more areas to be thoroughly cleaned, more employees needed and more amenities needed for fans. Concession stands won’t be open for the graduation ceremonies, but you can bet the Rangers would try to open them for fans and their money.
Matwick said he hasn’t seen a seating plan for home games, but the 49 high schools holding graduations at Globe Life Field might wind up providing the blueprint for one.
