In a new interview, Texas Rangers GM Jon Daniels rationalizes the team’s demand for a brand new, tax-funded stadium only 22 years after getting a tax-funded stadium.
After taking from Arlington taxpayers what amounts to $305 million in today’s dollars back in 1994 when the Rangers’ Globe Life Park opened, and after putting in $135 million more in renovations in 2010, the Rangers now push for a brand new stadium because they claim it gets too hot to play baseball in the summer in their open-air park.
Rangers GM Daniels jumped into the discussion on a Dallas radio sports show, The Ben and Skin Show, where he justified the push for a new stadium by insisting he wouldn’t want to take his kids to a hot stadium to see baseball.
During the interview Daniels reported all the possible solutions to the heat problem that had been proposed but insisted that only a new stadium with a retractable roof would work for the team in order to alleviate “those 105-degree, smoking-hot days.”
“It’s rough out there. The day games in the middle of the summer are rough,” Daniels insisted.
Daniels continued making the case for a new stadium saying he wouldn’t even bring his own kids out to see a Rangers game because of the heat.
“I wouldn’t want to take my kids and sit out in the sun for a day game here in the middle of July or August in Texas,” the Texas GM said. “I respect the people that do it and I thank them for doing it, but just being honest, it’s a tough deal to sit out in that sun. So that’s what it’s more about than anything else, just the comfort of our fans.”
Daniels’ comments come only a few weeks after a recent meeting at Arlington city hall where members of the city council voted to allow the proposal of a new stadium to advance to the next step in the process despite the overwhelming opposition they faced over the decision from members of the public attending the meeting where the decision was made.
One city council woman, District 7 city council member Victoria Farrar-Myers, commented that she understands no one in the meeting wanted the project and the subsequent use of tax dollars it would demand. But she essentially went on to say she didn’t really care what the voters wanted because she felt the new stadium was an important part of “the future” for the city.
One thing Daniels did not address is the multitude of studies showing that sports stadiums are rarely a good investment for taxpayers, almost never realizing a good return on the investment of tax dollars.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.