Texas Rangers: Globe Life Field to Host Future Big 12 Tournaments

The Texas Rangers announced, alongside the Big 12 conference, a move that would see the Big 12 baseball tournament move to Globe Life Field.

The Big 12 conference announced on Wednesday that the annual postseason conference tournament would be moving to Globe Life Field, home of the Texas Rangers, beginning in 2022. The tournament will continue to be held at the Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma for the 2020 and 2021 tournaments. The Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark has been the primary venue for the conference tournament for the past two decades with Globe Life Park hosting a pair of tournaments in the early 2000’s.

For the Rangers, this represents another outside entity making their way to Globe Life Field in the near future as the club’s new home nears completion. The new ballpark is set to open in March and will host the Rangers home opener on March 31st when AL West rival, the Los Angeles Angels, visit Arlington.

Globe Life Field is set to feature a retractable roof, giving the club the ability to play games in an indoor environment if they choose. While this will help prevent any future inclement weather situations that would cause delays or postponements, it also allows the club to close the roof and create an air-conditioned playing environment during the summer, where temperatures in Arlington regularly reach triple digits.

The Big 12 baseball tournament follows the end of the NCAA Regular Season and is generally played in mid-to-late May. This will create some scheduling work as the conference likely will have to work around the Texas Rangers who will be in the midst of their regular season come May of 2022.

Globe Life Field is set to seat around 40,000 spectators making it smaller than the Rangers previous home, Globe Life Park. The thought process among those involved in planning and development was to create a more intimate fan experience while surrounding attendees with a start of the art facility.