Choctaw Stadium: The Ballpark the Rangers Left Behind

When the Texas Rangers left for their new air-conditioned ballpark across the parking lot in two thousand twenty, they left behind a building that had served them for twenty-six seasons and witnessed some of the most dramatic moments in franchise history. The structure they vacated is now called Choctaw Stadium.

The Ballpark in Arlington, as it was originally known, opened on April first, nineteen ninety-four. Construction began two years earlier, on April second, nineteen ninety-two, funded in part by a sales tax that Arlington voters had approved, a model that became influential in sports finance negotiations across the country. The design, by architect David M. Schwarz, was intentionally nostalgic, with exposed steel, red brick, and an exterior more evocative of the great old ballparks of the nineteen twenties and thirties than the cookie-cutter concrete stadiums of the nineteen sixties and seventies.

In its first decade the ballpark hosted a Major League Baseball All-Star Game in nineteen ninety-five. It saw the Rangers reach two consecutive World Series, in two thousand ten and two thousand eleven, though they lost both. Nolan Ryan served as team president during those runs, and his presence brought an era of credibility and competitive baseball that the franchise had rarely enjoyed.

The stadium went through a series of name changes as corporate sponsorships shifted. The Ballpark in Arlington became Ameriquest Field in two thousand four, Rangers Ballpark in Arlington in two thousand seven, Globe Life Park in Arlington in two thousand fourteen, and finally Choctaw Stadium in two thousand twenty-one after the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma purchased naming rights.

Today the stadium hosts the Arlington Renegades of the XFL and the North Texas soccer club. The Rangers play their baseball a few hundred feet away in their climate-controlled home. Choctaw Stadium stands as a handsome relic of the retro-ballpark era, the building that made Arlington a baseball town.