That’s the frustrating thing. They had a nice looking stadium, and it wasn’t even that old. The Ballpark in Arlington opened in the mid 1990s. And it had a great, classic baseball look.
17 Likes
7 Likes
In case anyone needs a reminder…
12 Likes
Built in the mode of Orioles Stadium in Camden Yards of using the façade of old/original buildings and incorporating them into the stadium. I was attending college in the area when it opened.
10 Likes
Albert Speer had issues with facts and basically weaseled his way out of a death sentence.
4 Likes
Yep, it opened shortly after Camden Yards. And I grew up in north Texas. We would go to a Rangers game every summer. I remember the old Arlington Stadium before they built the Ballpark. Now that was a crappy stadium. It looked like what it was, which was a slightly expanded and spruced up minor league ballpark from the 1960s. I don’t think it should have been built with public money, but the Rangers legitimately needed a new stadium by the 90s. But now? They did not need a new stadium. And yes, it’s ugly. I don’t know if it looks like a Costco, but it’s ugly.
6 Likes
Honestly, I think it looks better than that fake-castle 90’s monstrosity it’s replacing.
(@danimagoo: I believe we have orthogonal tastes in architecture. Yet I totally agree with you about Arlington stadium. I remember being at the top of the first hill on Judge Roy Scream, looking over at it and thinking “ew”. 
)
5 Likes
Oh, man…Judge Roy Scream…you are tripping my nostalgia triggers now.
5 Likes
that was my thought too. those tall windows, im sure look completely different at ground level. it might actually be an inviting or impressive look in person.
that movie makes me angry for two reasons.
one, for pushing that’s what is wrong in america is dumb people ( people like carlson aren’t dumb. they know exactly what they’re doing. )
two, for helping to hide the fact that poverty leads to higher birth rates, not some “inbred” stupidity. ensure that people - especially women - have educational, economic, and political power and birthrates fall.
( moreover, it’s completely rational to have a lot of kids if you don’t know how many will survive. 
that’s been true throughout history )
12 Likes
Once again, the guy who is (supposedly) pro-1st amendment, and pro-business, is threatening a private business over something trivial like artistic taste.
They hired an architectural firm, who then provided the design, it was approved, and now “heads must roll” because of Tucker’s personal taste-- not structural integrity, not drainage problems or poor restroom placement, not faulty workmanship.
8 Likes
I’d kind of disagree that they didn’t need a new park. They most certainly need an air conditioned park for player safety and fan safety, especially as we move into a world where in the middle of the playoff run Dallas is seeing weeks straight of 110+ days. I’d wager by the next decade everything is going to have to be indoors for Texas sports that play during the summer, and by 2070 it wouldn’t surprise me if all sports year round will need some kind of indoor air conditioning there.
5 Likes
This is what gets me, he’s complaining about this building not being ornate or pretty, yet where is his complaint about the thousands of ugly strip malls that the free market produces. That’s what you get if you think everything in life is centered not on just turning a profit but on getting the most profit possible.
I think it looks just fine. Reminds me of a rodeo stadium or something. And really who cares. I went to games in Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Now that was ugly. And you know what? I was still enjoying a baseball game. New and shiny is nice and all, but it ultimately doesn’t matter as much as the thing itself.
8 Likes
It’s Texas. It’s not like a rogue architect showed up under cover of darkness to build this thing in one night. Many people had to endorse this design, from the company that owns the stadium, all the way through the local government. There would have been public plans and probably a comment period. These people got the stadium they permitted to be built, directly or indirectly.
Remember these are the same people who think public school should be math and writing (not reading comprehension-basic literacy) and absolutely nothing else. The degradation of our culture is something they actively work toward. The nonsense about classical beauty (which I agree, has everything to do with nationalism and absolutist thinking) is just another cudgel they can wield to galvanize their base when they get exactly what they worked for.
11 Likes
Good ol’ classical architecture.
17 Likes
“need” here is maybe a strong word for an entirely optional pass time. especially considering nothing requires that games have to take place during the day, or even during the summer. ( nobody, i hope, is scheduling marathons in death valley mid august. )
obviously, no one is willing to make those kinds of sacrifices (yet?) but it feels a bit like doubling down when giant air conditioned spaces only help contribute to the problem. ( i hope at least there’s a train that goes to the stadium, because it does seem like a lot of car parking out there. )
4 Likes
This is Arlington. If they had trains, the poor people might be able to get to Arlington. If they had much of any mass transit, the poors… can you imagine.
That said, they do have SOME DART coverage, if you’re willing to walk 8.1 miles. Otherwise, the mass transit suggestion is to take the train to Centreport and ride share to the stadium.
2 Likes
It might be useful to get a more complete take from Judge and Musk about this idea. Musk clearly has a strong attachment to the idea of purer races and chosen strains, whereas I think Judge sort of fumbled the premise or didn’t examine it fully; I genuinely don’t think Mike Judge is a firm believer in white supremacy. He might not even make the same movie today. Yes, the flawed logic of “dumb people breed faster” is in play, but I think Judge just used it as a facile jumping-off point for some tragicomic entertainment.
that’s kind of all how i imagined it, unfortunately.
and, always a good idea in the texas summer 
( i await life under the dome… )
3 Likes
Carlson isn’t dumb, but without a vast audience of nit-wits, he wouldn’t have a career or a platform. So the dumb people in the US are definitely a problem, but it is heavily exacerbated by Carlsons and Bannons diligently manufacturing idiot outrage. And creating a class of the under-educated is a major part of the project; they can’t gain any power without that. Carlson’s through-line is ignorant, misguided outrage, so he’s modeling the behavior Fox wants to spread.
I don’t think Mike Judge is a white supremacist or a dedicated proponent of eugenics, but he did make a pro-eugenics movie whether he meant to or not.
6 Likes
