‘Destined for a wrecking ball.’ How the former home of the Texas Rangers defied forecasts
Arlington, Texas, will soon welcome the world for the 2026 World Cup, and in the meet ‘n’ greet a sentence or two may be required to explain a detail that makes the city unlike any other spot on the seven continents.
Can you find another city in the world with three sports venues that can hold more than 40,000 each within one-half mile walk? Two is not uncommon. Three is exceptional.
The closest would be the South Philadelphia Sports Complex, the area where the Phillies play in Citizens Bank Park, the Eagles in Lincoln Financial Field, and the 76ers and Flyers share the Wells Fargo Center. The maximum capacity for all three is approximately a combined 131,495.
Arlington features Choctaw Stadium, Globe Life Field and AT&T Stadium; the maximum seating capacities for the three combined is in the area of 180,000. Ish. Depending on standing room only’s, and the mood of the local fire marshal.
As the Texas Rangers prepare to play Opening Day on Thursday against the Boston Red Sox at Globe Life Mall, their old home across Randol Mill Road remains open for business, and its current state is a bit of an upset.
Against long odds, the building that opened as the Ballpark in Arlington in 1994 keeps breathing in 2025, even though it is no longer a home to a major league sports franchise. With some modifications, the place looks not that much different since the Rangers left, after the 2019 season.
“It’s doing OK. The Rangers have made investments in it, and it’s been fine,” Arlington mayor Jim Ross said in a recent interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “It’s not losing money, which is the big thing. The office space is being used, they built a Starbucks inside of it.
“We’ve had football games and other events inside of it. I know a lot of people thought that this wasn’t going to work after the Rangers left but it’s being used and it’s useful.”
On Saturday, March 29, UFL’s Arlington Renegades open their season at 3 p.m. inside Choctaw Stadium, and four hours later the Rangers will host the Red Sox at Globe Life Field.
The fear for the Ballpark in Arlington’s future
In May of 2016, when the Rangers and the city of Arlington agreed to a plan to build the new $1 billion building, it was done with the provision that the Rangers would manage the “old” venue; the idea was that if they could find a use for it, and it wasn’t a loss, it would remain standing.
If its existence was nothing more than a money drain, then it would come down. Its ultimate future was thought to be a pad space, and eventually a parking garage.
The fear was a building it would become a version of Houston’s Astrodome: A nostalgic eyesore, and a source of deep disagreement among citizens, and city planners. Houstonians can’t let go of a building that opened as “The Eighth Wonder of the World” in 1965.
Houston lost the NFL’s Oilers over the Astrodome when the team moved to Tennessee in 1996; the Astros left the Dome in 2000 for downtown Houston, and in 2006 the last tenant left the landmark. The city closed the building over code violations in 2008.
It’s still closed but standing, and in June of 2013 the National Trust put the Astrodome on its list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.
The only major sports venue on this list is Detroit’s Tiger Stadium. The charming dump of a home to MLB’s Detroit Tigers was closed in 1999, and despite the efforts of those who wanted to preserve history, it was demolished in 2009.
The Ballpark in Arlington, which has always held an appeal for its architecture and design, was the home to the Rangers for 25 years, not long enough to register like an Astrodome or a Tiger Stadium. But no one involved wanted to mimic the path of either.
The Ballpark’s surprising future
Playing a baseball game at the Ballpark today would require a shovel, and serious work along the third base side. The third base dugout was removed as part of the renovation to turn the venue into a football/soccer/rugby field.
Former WWE CEO Vince McMahon bringing back the XFL gave an immediate purpose to the Ballpark as a football venue, and while that league’s relaunch quickly flopped because of COVID in 2020, the re-purposing of the field worked.
The merger of the XFL and the USFL to form the UFL has created a home field for the second-year league’s efforts to make spring football a success. The UFL’s Arlington Renegades continue to play their home games at Choctaw Stadium, and the field is a practice location for some of the league’s other teams.
The field is also used for high school football games, and MLS Next uses it for its North Texas SC; they will be moving to the new Mansfield Stadium in 2026. That venue will open as part of a partnership between the Rangers’ REV Entertainment, FC Dallas and the city of Mansfield.
The Dallas Jackals professional rugby club played its one season at Choctaw before the team shut down.
All of these sports ventures may have major league aspirations, but they all draw minor league crowds. The biggest crowd this venue would expect to realistically handle now is at most 20,000.
Walking around the stadium, the only part that looks like it hasn’t been touched since 2019 is the top concourse and seating area. Most of the suites on the Lexus Club level are dusty, and would require a deep clean and maybe a paint job. Some of the concession kiosks from its time at Rangers home games are still there.
Nearly all of the office spaces located in what was center field are occupied by the likes of SBL Architecture, Spark Arlington, Texas Southern University, All State, JaniKing, Six Flags and other businesses.
The Starbucks near the home plate entrance does brisk business; there are plans for a dry goods store as well as a Lucchese Boot Co. in the repurposed concourse. Down the way along the first base side of the building is an El Tiempo Cantina Mexican restaurant.
Arlington and AT&T Stadium will host nine 2026 World Cup matches, but FIFA has not announced if it will use Choctaw Stadium for any ancillary purposes. The “home bases” for teams remain in the negotiating stage.
It would be a surprise if Choctaw Stadium is not a part of the World Cup plans; Major League Baseball used Choctaw Stadium as part of its 2024 All-Star Game festivities for its All-Star village.
In 2021, the Rangers re-branded its entertainment subsidiary into REV Entertainment, which handles projects and events other than the baseball. It uses Choctaw Stadium for events other than sports, which include a Christmas lights celebration in December, and the club spaces at the stadium are available for parties.
Then there is the name itself; around the same time REV launched, the venue that was last named Globe Life Park was re-named Choctaw Stadium. There is thought that the ultimate future of Choctaw Stadium will be as a casino, whenever gaming ultimately passes by Texas legislators.
How Choctaw Stadium looks and is used in 10 years is speculation, but what feels safe is that the building will still be open for business, and not a new addition to America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.
This story was originally published March 26, 2025 at 2:20 PM.
