UPDATE 2:21 p.m. May 20, 2016  The announcement has been made.  Rangers owner Ray Davis and Arlington Mayor Jeff Williams held a joint press conference today at Arlington City Hall to announce a new retractable-roof ballpark will be built for the Rangers. Voters will be asked in November to approve the use of a half-cent sales tax, as well as taxes on hotels and rental cars, to build the stadium. The City’s outlay will be capped at $500 million, with the team paying the rest.  If voters approve the measure, construction could start as soon as next year, meaning the team could be playing in air-conditioned comfort as soon as 2021.

Davis and Williams also announced the location of the new stadium.  It will be built adjacent to Globe Life Park, in what is now parking lots A and B.  The site of the current park will be redeveloped as part of the already-approved entertainment district.  Here are details in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

(Image shows three Arlington landmarks:  a roller coaster from Six Flags theme park, Globe Life Park and in the distance, the retractable roof of AT&T Stadium)

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ORIGINAL REPORT  There have been rumors for years that the Texas Rangers have been looking into the feasibility of a domed or retractable-roof stadium.  One architecture firm told me that they’d done preliminary work on constructing a roof over the team’s current facility, Globe Life Park.

Now appears that years of discussion, combined with good economic results for the City of Arlington, are leading to an announcement that the team will get its wish.  And sooner than expected.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram is reporting that the City of Arlington and the Rangers are about to announce that a new stadium will be built for the team.  It will have a retractable roof, much like the home of the Dallas Cowboys, AT&T Stadium, and cost about $900 million to build.  The Star-Telegram‘s sources say the City and team will jointly fund the project.

This is made possible because the City is retiring the debt on AT&T Stadium sooner than expected.  In 2005, Arlington issued $298 million in bonds to build the football stadium, and has been paying those bonds off with a half-cent sales tax.  When the bonds were issued, the City calculated that it would be 2035 before the bonds were retired.  Now, because of better tax revenue than expected, the City could conceivably retire them by 2021. Apparently, Arlington would like to utilize that half-cent sales tax for the baseball facility.  Just like it did for the Cowboys’ stadium, voters would have to approve the use of that sales tax for the Rangers.

The Rangers’ lease on Globe Life Park expires in 2024, but if voters give the project a green light, they could be playing baseball in a brand-new facility a couple of years before that.

And if you’ve attended a Rangers game when it’s 100 degrees, you know how nice air conditioning will feel.