When fans come to watch the Texas Rangers play at Globe Life Park for the 2016 season, they’ll be seeing some new additions to the stadium — a video board at left field and new, stronger foul poles.
The LED video board will be 34 feet high by 94 feet wide. It will have the same 15HD pixel layout as the existing video boards at right field and center field, but because more sun tends to hit left field, the left field video board will be brighter.
South Dakota-based Daktronics, which installed the Rangers’ other video boards at right field and center field, is building and installing the left field video board as well. The Rangers and Daktronics have been working together since 2003.
Along with adding a new video board, the Rangers will be replacing the original foul poles of the stadium, which had not been changed since 1972. The foul poles currently at Globe Life Park were the same foul poles used when the Rangers played at Arlington Stadium between the 1970s and 1990s. When the team moved to the then-called Ballpark in Arlington in 1994, the foul poles were relocated to the new stadium.
The old foul poles will be replaced by new ones that are the same height, 92 feet, but the new poles will be almost double in width to make the pole stronger. The diameter of the new poles is about 20 inches at the base, decreasing to 12 inches at the top. Dallas-based Bratton Steel built the new poles from structural pipe. Farmers Branch-based Taurus Commericial, Inc. is handling installation of the poles.
Pieces of the old left field foul pole will be on sale to the public at the Texas Rangers Fan Fest on Jan. 23. Each one-foot section of the pole will be sold for $100 each, and proceeds will go to the Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation. Information on the event can be found on the Rangers’ website.