Opened: 1994
Capacity: 49,170
What the authors say: “[C]learly fan enjoyment was paramount in the minds of the Rangers brass when they conceived their new digs. Residing next to a two-hundred-acre amusement park, Rangers Ballpark offers as complete a game-day experience as you’ll find in the American Southwest.”
Learned from the book:
• The authors warn that this is one place you don’t want to cheap out, since seats in the top deck are about the most distant in all of baseball.
• An office building, of all things, is basically built into outfield wall.
• The stadium doesn’t sit in a lively urban neighborhood, but the team is given credit for making the area as enjoyable experience as possible with a man-made lake and a large landscaped picnic ground, plus Six Flags is basically a huge parking lot away.
• The Rangers have a sloped lawn above the centerfield wall that serves as a uniformly green hitter’s background. If a home run is hit there, during batting practice or a game, fans are permitted to scramble for a souvenir ball.
• Fans seem to have the same leave-early instincts exhibited in southern California.
• “The William Tell Overture” is cued up whenever the Rangers are bidding to start a late-game rally.
• This is an open-air stadium in one of the hottest parts of the country.
