FORT WORTH, Texas — The Texas Rangers wasted no time Wednesday, the first day the statewide mask mandate ended, in revealing their plans for allowing fans into Globe Life Field for the 2021 season.
Every seat will be available — enough to accommodate 40,518 fans — for two preseason exhibition games against the Milwaukee Brewers on March 29-30 and the April 5 home opener.
Fans will be required to wear masks and follow other protocols that remain in place, such as maintaining social distancing while entering and exiting the ballpark and while in line at concession stands.
The Rangers are the first MLB team to announce plans to open at full occupancy. They are encouraged by the downward trends with COVID-19 in Tarrant County and the increasing number of vaccinated people, and believe that they can responsibly open their ballpark.
“We’re very confident we won’t be a super-spreader event,” said Neil Leibman, a member of the ownership group and the team’s president of business operations. “With all the protocols that we’re following, we’ll be extremely responsible and provide a very comfortable environment for somebody to enjoy the game without worrying we’re going to be a spreader event.”
Globe Life Field opened last season but without fans for Rangers games because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fans were allowed on a limited capacity for two of the three rounds of the MLB postseason held there in October.
The largest crowd was 11,472 for Game 2 of the World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays. The crowds for all six games of the Fall Classic, won by the Dodgers, were at least 11,300 or 27% of capacity.
GLOBE LIFE FIELD PROTOCOLS
The same protocols that were in place in October, almost all of them recommended by the CDC, will be enforced this season.
— All fans are required to where masks inside the ballpark except when actively eating or drinking at their seats.
— All tickets will be digital, and there will be no cash transactions.
— Social distancing is mandatory in concession lines, at retail stores and when entering and exiting the ballpark.
— Hand sanitizing is strongly encouraged, with stations available throughout the ballpark.
— No bags are allowed except for medical reasons or diaper bags that accompany infants and toddlers.
Globe Life Field also hosted the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in December and two baseball tournaments last month. They started hosting high school graduations in May.
Those experiences taught them that fans are more than willing to follow the protocols.
“This is not the first time we’ve welcomed fans into the building,” executive vice president Rob Matwick said. “We have experience with these events, up to and including Major League Baseball’s presence here for the postseason. We will need fan cooperation, there’s no doubt. The good news is the numbers are trending down. Can we drop our vigilance? No. We need their cooperation.”
Single-game tickets for March and April, except for the home opener, go on sale at 10 a.m. March 22 at texasrangers.com or by calling 972-726-4377 (RANGERS). Season-ticket holders will have access to their ticketed seats.
RANGERS TAKE OTHER MEASURES
Some measures are being taken to add protection for players. The Rangers will install plexiglass behind dugouts and around the bullpens, which will allow fans to sit in those rows, which were empty during the postseason per MLB’s recommendation.
Following the home opener, the Rangers will offer socially-distanced seating in some sections of the ballpark with seats available in pods of two or four. The Rangers will accommodate season-ticket holders who aren’t comfortable coming to games by loosening their standard exchange policy.
There are plans to open the retractable roof whenever weather allows as an additional safety measure. Globe Life Field has the ability to circulate outside are throughout the ballpark when the roof is closed.
The Rangers are also banning tailgating, which is always popular for the home opener.
The Rangers believe they are operating safely and aren’t second-guessing their decision to fully open their ballpark to fans during a pandemic.
“I think the vaccination rate will be extremely high and the incidents of COVID will be extremely low in April,” Leibman said. “I think our plan is a good one. It will keep the fans comfortable. They have to cooperate for us wearing masks, so I think we provide a very, very good environment for them to enjoy baseball.”
