Rangers release first unintentionally hilarious renderings of new $1B stadium design

The Texas Rangers have selected HKS, designers of the Dallas Cowboys‘ stadium, to design their new stadium set to open in 2020, which means we now have initial images of what a replacement ballpark for a 23-year-old stadium marked for death because it doesn’t have air-conditioning looks like. Take it away, HKS renderings department:

newrangers1-hks newrangers3-hks newrangers2-hks

Initial gripes from Rangers fans are that it looks a hell of a lot like the Houston Astros‘ stadium that opened just six years after the one that the Rangers are tearing down. Which it does, but hey, there are only so many ways you can design a stadium with a sliding retractable roof (the right-field seats are reminiscent of the Miami Marlins‘ new stadium, too), and they didn’t have much time to work up these preliminary drawings. More fun is to play “What’s wrong with this picture?” with them, because there sure is a lot:

  • Those three levels of seats suspended in the left-field archways are remarkable not just for seemingly having no structural support at all, but no way for fans to actually get to their seats. Maybe state-of-the-art stadiums will now include transporter technology?
  • There appear to be enormous bullpen areas in both left and right fields, which would seem to be overkill unless the Rangers want the ability to have four teams warming up at the same time.
  • That’s an awfully weird defensive shift that the road team is playing, what with the center fielder playing super-shallow and the left fielder extremely deep. Though maybe they’re just making up for the fact that the first baseman has apparently left to use the restroom.
  • The woman with the sleeveless shirt and purse in the outdoor promenade is awfully blasé for having just walked right through the guy checking his phone.
  • Judging from the number 10 and the five-letter name, that kid on the promenade (who photobombed two separate renderings, what the heck?) appears to be wearing a Michael Young jersey. If that’s the case in 2020, the Rangers are going to be in big trouble, such that they’re not going to be selling out the stands with people mysteriously raising their fists skyward when everyone around them is sitting still.
  • The couple in the final image are wearing their “Texas” and “Rangers” shirts backwards, no doubt in protest of the team not having any players worth celebrating since Michael Young.
  • All of these people are shown enjoying a baseball game outside in the open air in the daytime, when it’s been firmly established that nobody will go to baseball games in Texas without air-conditioning, how could you even think of such a thing?

I am 100% sure that the final stadium design will end up looking very little like this, so there’s time for HKS to fix their errors. In the meantime, though, if their renderings department wants to hire a fact-checker, I can recommend some people.

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38 comments on “Rangers release first unintentionally hilarious renderings of new $1B stadium design

    1. First thing I noticed. And no advertising boards either. Maybe the taxpayers will be on the hook for player salaries and operational expenses too.

    2. Why keep score? We are too judgmental as a species… Isn’t it enough that we just… play?

  1. Well, at least the renderings show that the new stadium will fix their attendance problem.

  2. The first baseman is there, standing on the bag next to the runner. Also, Michael Young kid isn’t the only guy in multiple images. Red shirt guy, backwards hat guy and sad-looking foreground red cap guy, probably among others, also appear twice. The artist was clearly trying to make the crowd bigger by multiplying people!

    1. That’s two people? I didn’t think “holding the runner” was meant to be taken literally.

    2. Phone checking dude is also there twice.

      Apparently not much happens at Rangers’ games or maybe his friends just want to join him there.

  3. I love that Ranger’s Captain is running loose outside the stadium with a flag. I would hope he was inside pumping up the crowd.

    I really hope they don’t do the wall in left. We will never hear the end of it from our fellow Texans down south.

  4. I know this may not be the final design, but compared to the beautiful retro design of their current stadium, this fails miserably! It looks more like a Futuristic Cavernous waste of space. It doesn’t say Baseball at all

    1. Good news! The final design and implementation won’t look anything remotely like this at all.

  5. Are there really that many fans who want to sit in right center field? That’s where they always stuffed us when we used our free Boy Scout seats. Scouts honor, my butt.

  6. this is an ugly design.

    Also seems like the trend in the outfield is to not go with multiple levels and dedicate more space for “party decks”. Unless those levitating stands in LF are supposed to be party decks.

  7. Clearly, the left field seats are a cantilever design with the added feature of sunctioning like louvered shutters. At the end of each game (or early, in the case of a blowout) the louvers close and the fans go tumbling down into the bullpen. The same effect will hold true when temperatures exceed 90 degrees as a means of “locking in’ the air conditioning.

    Ranger officials believe this amenity will be marketed in conjunction with some sort of 3rd inning giveaway for the lucky fan that actually lands upon the bullpen mound.

  8. Obviously the Rangers are pursuing an exception to MLB rules where the baseball diamond will have 75 degree angles at each base. Makes an MLS co-tenancy even easier!

    1. And in 2020, MLB will apparently allow catchers to sit right on home plate.

      While this will make the calling of balls and strikes more difficult, it should eliminate those annoying steals of home late in games.

  9. Am I the only one bothered by the fact that by 2020, people are just phasing in and out of existence and are therefore semi transparent.

    Maybe Rangers attendance is actually good. I mean if their fans are transparent. How could we tell?

    1. I gotta admit, I wasn’t that concerned about the woman in the short-sleeved shirt walking through the guy. If you look, you can see the shadows of the people in front of her through her shirt.

      And, yes, you can also see through the guy in the red shirt and the kid with the blue #10 shirt.

  10. Dont trip on those Young jerseys. There at at least 50 people wearing Russ Martin shirts at any given Dodger game still.

  11. Are there professional, juvenile pickpockets in Texas? (third pic, striped shirt thief) ;-)

  12. I also like that several of the people in the middle drawing are quite transparent. I mean you can see right through them.

  13. I just assumed that the people in the left field bleachers had already entered the carousel and begun their final flight to be…. um…. reborn….

  14. $100 that rangers designers don’t abide by MLB rules that dictate orientation of playing field (Btw…they didn’t last time either…or Houston…or Miami).

    1. There is no rule. Section 1.04 indicates that it is desirable for the field to run East-Northeast. But is completely silent on what happens if it doesn’t meet that desire. As such there are fields running in every possible direction in the MLB.

      1. Yep. Here’s a nice little visualization: http://www.hardballtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/BallParkOrientation2.jpg

        The new Braves stadium might be even more south-facing than Detroit.

        1. Probably not a big deal since the Braves play mostly night games to beat the Georgia summer heat. It also gives them a good reason to build a new, air conditioned stadium in 20 years.

  15. Serious question: Is this just an NFL stadium rendering, sloppily re-done as an MLB stadium?

    – The playing field looks rectangular (left foul line looks twice as long as the right foul line),

    – The left & right field seats come together in a 90-degree corner

    – The left field seats look like end zone seats

    – The right field seats look like sideline seats, identical to the third baseline seats

    – The center field seats look like temporary seats plopped onto the field

    What gives?

  16. You seem to have missed the most obvious flaw: Namely that there’s no way for a roof to fully enclose that space. Look at the main stands at the right of the picture–the back is totally open between the top of the stands and the roof structure. You see blue sky and clouds through that gap. The roof would slide across the top of the stadium and that area would remain totally open. Given the whole idea was to get good air conditioning that seems like a really self-defeating idea to leave a big chunk wide open to the elements.

    1. Those areas could be glassed-in. Or a misapplication of the Photoshop paint bucket tool.

      1. Except that entire section between the grandstands and the archway wall section is also wide open. That’s a large expanse in there without anything structural to hold up a huge glass wall.

      2. I think by the time this stadium opens holographic displays will be included, as will holographic structural elements.

        Most modern sports facilities are held up by nothing but taxpayer money. Efficiency is unnecessary – even counter productive – when other people are paying your bills.

        And if by some chance whatever is finally built is structurally unsound, you can guess who will be paying to address the deficiencies, right?

  17. In the second picture the Horse mascot is in two places at once! In the Middle and in the top left corner! The things public money can do…

  18. Well the Rangers better spend every penny of profit they make with the increased attendance on better players, because I sure won’t be going to a game in order to see that hunk of crap. It makes me hate the future even more…. HKS I knew you’d let us down!

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