Texas Rangers’ expensive new baseball stadium mocked

The Texas Rangers splashed billions of dollars to build their state-of-the-art new home, but it looks nothing like what was promised.

The Texas Rangers bought themselves a brand spanking new stadium for $AUD1.7 billion. The ridicule came free of charge.

American baseball fans were quick to pile on after photos and videos emerged of Globe Life Stadium opening for business ahead of a condensed 60-game season slated to start in late July.

Inside, the Rangers’ new digs look pretty lush. The 50,000-seater boasts a retractable roof and even air-conditioning.

But the outside isn’t so glamorous.

All the way up ⬆️⬆️ pic.twitter.com/WNDtFP79QF

— Globe Life Field (@GlobeLifeField) June 23, 2020

When the video above was released by the Rangers’ social media team, it sparked a flurry of memes and online jokes about how the team’s new home looks more like a sheet metal factory than it does a ballpark.

Barstool Sports said the stadium looked “like a silo out in the middle of Iowa” while CBS Sports wrote: “The inside look is more impressive than the bland outside, but that isn’t saying much.”

Jason Owens of Yahoo Sports in the US added: “It looks like a roasting pan. One of those disposable aluminium pans you buy for a Thanksgiving turkey. Except it’s flipped upside down.”

Unsurprisingly, the Twitterverse quickly sprung into action.

The Texas Rangers' new building looks like the newer Chernobyl sarcophagus.

Minus the charm, of course. https://t.co/xfXvnCsBhv

— Seth Rorabaugh (@SethRorabaugh) June 25, 2020

The Texas Rangers new stadium looks like a giant Ren's Pets Depot. pic.twitter.com/XXj5Yad1AK

— Alex Seixeiro (@alexfan590) June 25, 2020

The new Texas Rangers stadium... built by the same people who made the Stanley Milner Library in #yeg ? #yegdt pic.twitter.com/JoWlYqXvgd

— Kevin Jesus (@GlobalJesus) June 24, 2020

Now that baseball season is going to start, we finally will get a chance to see the Texas Rangers new airplane hangar...er...ballpark. pic.twitter.com/JFE4DeRLPV

— ESPN Milwaukee (@ESPNMilwaukee) June 24, 2020

Personally I think it’s pretty rad that the new Texas Rangers stadium is designed to be dismantled in the off season and reassembled as a German auto parts maker’s factory in Slovakia https://t.co/pda6aSRixA

— Tom Gara (@tomgara) June 24, 2020

New look of the Rangers new stadium pic.twitter.com/zg5Eulwp4z

— Albert Rios (@A_Rios08) June 24, 2020

As many were keen to point out, the finished product didn’t exactly look like what the Rangers promised in their initial rendering of the concept.

instagram vs. real life pic.twitter.com/juIVh34hAO

— nick pants (@stnap_kcin) June 24, 2020

Meanwhile, Major League Baseball will try to push ahead with a 60-game schedule that will start on July 23 or 24 in empty stadiums amid the coronavirus pandemic,

A dramatically altered season with games full of new rules was the final result of failed financial negotiations. But for fans eager to see any baseball this year, at least now they can look forward to opening day.

The announcement by MLB came while more players continue to test positive for the virus — at least seven on the Philadelphia Phillies alone.

With AP