TX voters clear the way for new $1B Rangers ballpark

Dive Brief:

Arlington, TX voters approved a $500 million city bond deal that will deliver to the Texas Rangers a new $1 billion ballpark and keep the team in the city through 2053, The Dallas News reported. The Rangers will pay the other $500 million plus any cost overruns.
The bonds – backed by the combination of a 0.05-cent sales tax increase, a 2% hotel tax, a 5% car rental tax, a 10% ticket tax and a maximum $3 parking tax – should be paid off within 30 years.
Now that funding is in place, the Rangers can move forward with construction. The team expects the Rangers to begin playing in the new facility as soon as 2020 but no later than 2021.

Dive Insight:

The Rangers said they would soon introduce a website for the public to contribute stadium design ideas. So far, features include air conditioning and a retractable roof. The new venue will be built in a far parking lot of the team's current ball field, Globe Life Park. The Rangers have said they don't know whether they will demolish the current stadium.

Currently under construction near the site of the new ballpark is Texas Live!, a $250 million mixed-use entertainment complex. Crews began work last month, sooner than scheduled after the Rangers were eliminated from the playoffs.

The team and developer The Cordish Cos. announced the venue at the same time as the team released its plans for a new stadium. Since then, costs for Texas Live! have increased $50 million. When complete, visitors will be able to see the Rangers play in the new ballpark from a courtyard surrounded by retail and dining. The city's contribution could reach $100 million, and the Rangers will fund the balance. When complete, the complex will offer up 100,000 square feet of entertainment and retail space, 35,000 square feet of convention space and a 300-room hotel.

Work has started on the dining and entertainment portions of the development, which should be open in time for the start of the 2018 Major League Baseball season. Cordish said the hotel, convention and meeting spaces will be ready in the fall of 2018.