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AMERIQUEST FIELD
Arlington, Texas
Opened: 1994
Capacity: 49,115
Average Ticket Price: $16.91
Average Cost of Concessions & Souvenirs: $68.50

Pluses:
Nine parking lots surround the Rangers' home, with spaces priced at a reasonable $10 a car, and shuttle bus service is offered from the more distant lots to the park.

Minuses:
If you don't have a car, a friend with a car or a fat wallet for a long cab ride, forget it. Public transportation is virtually nonexistent.
Ameriquest Field is a nice play to watch a ballgame -- provided you don't mind the heat.
Photo by John W. McDonough/SI
Suitable number of restrooms (26 women's, 21 men's); good access for disabled fans (500 seats); plenty of concession stands (75) at which to find some refreshment and relief from the stifling Texas heat; interactive learning center allows fans to "catch a pitch from Nolan Ryan" and examine the inside of a four-foot tall baseball; Bullpen Grill offers views of the game and more than 100 TVs.
Ameriquest Field (formerly the Ballpark) in Arlington doesn't overwhelm the senses; instead, it offers a nice, pleasant, generally low-pressure experience. The stadium has plenty of concourse room to take leisurely walks when you get tired of sitting. In fact, you can kill a few innings checking out the Legends of the Game Baseball Museum behind the home run porch in right field. Food selection is also expansive. Parking, however, can often require a cross-country hike - which, in the furnace of a Texas summer, can leave you dripping with sweat. -- Mike McAllister  
Uh, did someone forget to build something outside the stadium? A riverwalk with restaurants and shops was originally supposed to accompany the ballpark, but 11 years later, we're still waiting. Instead, it's mainly just wall-to-wall parking, albeit with a miniature field nearby for youth games. Chain restaurants and a Six Flags theme park are a short drive away, but Ameriquest lacks the charm of an urban setting (see Camden Yards). And because the stadium is stuck between Dallas and Fort Worth, many fans from outlying areas face a lengthy drive, just about killing any incentive to attend a game on a worknight. Hey, maybe that's why the Rangers have a minor-league team in the hot suburb of Frisco. -- Mike McAllister  
2005 Record: 62-68 (all statistics through Aug. 29)
Players worth price of admission: Alfonso Soriano (.281 BA, 31 HR, 88 RBI, 21 SB), Mark Teixeira (.286 BA, 32 HR, 57 RBI).  
Hats off to the legions who endure the Texas heat to cheer on their Rangers. It's a shame owner Tom Hicks didn't use the money he threw away on Alex Rodriguez to give the fans something more than a comfortable park in a sea of asphalt.  

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