Arlington Has an Unmatched Collection of Sports and Entertainment Venues - Arlington, Texas
What is It- Attending sporting events at stadiums in major cities has always been a popular activity for local fans and visitors from other parts of the country. Area hotels, restaurants, and attractions all benefit from increased business when professional sports are played nearby. Although other cities have placed baseball and football stadiums next to each other, the mid-sized city of Arlington Texas has assembled a unique and impressive collection of sports facilities, other attractions, and two dozen hotels in an entertainment district on Interstate 30. With more than 7.6 million residents in the Dallas, Fort Worth and Arlington metropolitan area and plans to expand the destination to include additional amenities, the future looks bright for this region as a premier sports destination.
The entertainment and sports focus of the city of Arlington started in 1961 when Texas developer Angus Wynne Jr. finished the construction of a large amusement park on barren land along the interstate corridor connecting the two cities of Dallas and Fort Worth. He called it Six Flags over Texas based on the six different nations which have governed Texas during its modern history and then organized the park around six themed areas of rides and attractions. Sixty-one years later, the 212-acre theme park has dozens of rides, food, entertainment, and special events which attract over three million people annually to the Arlington site. Its monster roller coasters tower over the adjacent highway year-round. The company has also expanded to operate twenty-seven different theme parks across the country and internationally.
With this major attraction in place and a considerable amount of underutilized land nearby, it did not take too long for other attractions and particularly professional sports franchises to recognize the strategic location of Arlington and to build stadiums nearby. Today, the leading venues in Arlington also include the following:
Choctaw Stadium- In 1994, the Texas Rangers opened an attractive 50,000 seat baseball stadium with a brick façade in Arlington close to the interstate. The stadium was originally known as The Ballpark in Arlington and later called Globe Life Field. Playing in this location for 25 years, the Rangers attracted more than two million fans annually from 2009 on and qualified for the playoffs during eight seasons including making two World Series appearances. Leading Texas figures such as future President George W. Bush and Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan played major roles in running the franchise. When team owners and the city of Arlington built a new stadium right across the street that opened in 2019, the future of The Ballpark was unclear. However, the stadium was preserved, reconfigured into a multi-purpose facility, and renamed Choctaw Stadium in partnership with the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. It now serves as the location for XFL games, USL League professional soccer games, the major league Dallas Jackals rugby team, and fifty high school football games.
AT&T Stadium- In 2009, Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys joined the parade to Arlington by constructing the largest domed stadium in the country there to serve as the home field for the Dallas Cowboys. This stadium is huge and elaborate by any standard. It contains 3 million square feet and holds 80,000 to 100,000 people depending on the event. Since it is three hundred feet tall, the stadium is high enough to be seen from the interstate, the Dallas- Fort Worth International airport, and most other places in the region. High profile NFL games are just one of the major events that occur at AT&T field. The stadium is used roughly three hundred times each year for everything from the Super Bowl and WrestleMania to NCAA football and basketball championships to large concerts and international soccer matches. It is rare for a building to become its own attraction but popular guided VIP tours of AT&T Field which include opportunities to see the private suites, locker rooms, the press box, the art collection, and even walk on the field are available for about $30 per adult.
Globe Life Park- Facing hot Texas summers, fan expectations for greater amenities, and competition from AT&T Field, the Texas Rangers decided to upgrade their facility by building Globe Life Park across the street from Choctaw Stadium. This state-of-the-art facility, designed by HKS like AT&T Field, holds 40,000 fans in a climate-controlled environment that includes a retractable roof and a synthetic grass field using improved carpeting. While the opening was delayed by the pandemic, the stadium was used by MLB for the 2020 playoffs and all seven World Series games that year. It features spectacular views and wide-open corridors for concessions and fan relaxation.
Texas Live- Adjacent to Globe Life Park and Choctaw Stadium and only eight football fields away from AT&T Stadium is the Texas Live! project. This $250 million venue is designed to provide an integrated game day experience for fans attending games or other events in the entertainment district. It includes a luxury Loews Hotel connected to the Globe Life Park with rooms and an infinity pool overlooking the stadiums along with and a special shopping complex that combines entertainment, restaurants, and accommodations into one exciting destination. The Texas Live! Complex includes two flexible performance pavilions and eight restaurants along with shops and a sixty-five by 20-foot HD video screen. The next phase of the project will add nine hundred more hotel rooms, a new convention center, corporate offices, mixed use residential space, and small business locations.
Esports Stadium Arlington- For several decades, there was a 100,000 square foot convention center located on Ballpark Way in between the Six Flags and Choctaw Stadium. In 2018, the city converted the building for the purpose of creating “a pioneering venue for large scale esports productions, events and community activities.” It now offers advanced technology and the largest turnkey space available in North America for esports providing seating for 2500 spectators as well as exhibition space for conventions. Tournaments in professional leagues for popular gaming leagues have been held there also. Behind the Esports facility is a pleasant linear park with two lakes that runs from the complex about a mile to the south and passes behind the Loews Hotel.
How to Get There - The Arlington Stadiums are located off Interstate 30 about fifteen miles from Fort Worth and eighteen miles from Dallas. More important, they are only a fifteen-minute drive south of the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Dozens of carriers including locally based American Airlines offer direct service from the airport to 193 separate locations in the United States and sixty-seven international destinations. It was the world’s second busiest airport with sixty-two million passengers in 2021.
When to Go- Arlington has temperate weather with few rainy days from October to April each year. However, daily temperatures from May to September are in the 80s or 90s which make it important to limit outdoor activity in those months particularly if visiting the Choctaw Stadium and Six Flags locations. The other facilities are climate controlled.