The Rangers Remain Adamant Globe Life Field Will Be Done in Time

Construction of the Rangers new home is coming along. The only debate any of us have is just how fast.

Globe Life Field, the Rangers' new state-of-the-art retractable roof stadium, is approximately 93% complete. The first event at the new shiny jewel in Arlington is a Chris Stapleton concert scheduled for March 14th, only 38 days away. The first baseball game is an exhibition game against the Cardinals on March 23rd, which is 46 days away. When people get a peek at the progress, the same question is continually getting asked: Is this going to be done in time?!

It’s coming along, y’all pic.twitter.com/g968DFDDqk
— Chris Halicke (@ChrisHalicke) February 5, 2020

Rob Matwick, the Texas Rangers Vice President of Business Operations, didn't even hesitate with an answer.

"I'm fully confident we'll be done by Opening Day," Matwick said. "When you see the activity now, remember it's February 5th and the first baseball game is March 23rd....We're pressing forward and we'll get it done."

The activity Matwick is referring to is a lot of the work being done in the focal point of the stadium. Not all the seats have been installed and the field still resembles a construction site. On the surface, it looks like there is a lot of work to go in a very short amount of time.

Beneath the surface, a lot of the work that isn't displayed is either fully complete or very close to it. The concourse and concession areas are near completion along with the ETFE panels on the roof that allow natural light into the stadium.

"The interesting thing about this project is I'll come in in the morning and we'll see one condition, I might go out two hours later and something has changed," Matwick said. "We're making progress that quickly."

Back up on the playing surface, the concrete work for the field and clay installation for the infield is complete. The retractable pitching mound is also installed and fully functional.

The installation of the synthetic grass will begin on February 17th and is to be completed by February 27th. The artificial surface is provided by Shaw Sports Turf, which is the same playing surface installed at Chase Field, the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The stadium lights are installed and half of them are fully functional with the other half still going through testing. The scoreboards in the ballpark will be tested by next week.

Over 30,000 of the 40,300 seats have been installed at Globe Life Field.

Manhattan Construction workers are turning in long, 16- to 24-hour shifts as needed with as many as 1,800 workers on site in some cases. Over five and a half million man hours have been completed on the construction of Globe Life Field to date. The Rangers expect six million hours to be exceeded upon completion.

"There's a lot of activity," Matwick said. "But there's significant progress every day."

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