Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise the Texas Rangers have claimed a first by announcing that their new Globe Life Field ballpark will host a drive-up concert experience.
QuikTrip Concert in Your Car presented by Energy Transfer will see recording artists performing live outside the new stadium in a socially distant environment. Located in Tundra Lot B, just north of Globe Life Field, the series of concerts will take place on consecutive nights from June 4-7.
Eli Young Band will open the Concert in Your Car series on June 4, followed by Whiskey Myers on June 5, Pat Green on June 6, and Josh Abbott Band & Kevin Fowler on June 7.
Fans will be able to watch the performances from their cars, without interacting with anyone to gain access to the show. The artists will perform directly in front of fans on a stage in the parking lot, complete with jumbo screens. Concert audio will be available through a specially designated FM radio channel.
“We are eager to once again start providing entertainment to our fans and to be able to offer the experience in a way that takes into account health and safety guidelines,” said Rangers executive vice-president of sports and entertainment, Sean Decker. “We have a full slate of bands, and each will present an exciting show every night.”
Every concert starts at 9pm local time, with parking lots opening one hour prior to each show. Tickets are being priced at $40 (£32/€37) per vehicle, with special VIP packages, offering guaranteed access in the first two rows of the parking lot, available in limited quantities at $80 per vehicle. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation to support its ongoing COVID-19 relief efforts.
“It’s definitely unique and interesting,” Abbott told the Rangers’ official website. “Over the past four months, we’ve all learned how to perform these concerts on social media. That eliminates any sort of audible feedback from fans so I think getting the opportunity to play in front of actual fans again and be able to hear them sing along from their cars or honk at the end of the song I think that will be really rewarding. We all miss the stage a lot.”
The venture comes after the Rangers were forced to postpone the opening of Globe Life Field due to the outbreak. The new state-of-the-art stadium, which has been built across the road from the team’s former Globe Life Park home, had been due to open on March 15 with a Chris Stapleton concert.
The Rangers had also been scheduled to play the St. Louis Cardinals in an exhibition game at the venue on March 23 before playing the Los Angeles Angels in its first home regular-season fixture on March 31. However, the new MLB season remains suspended with details yet to be confirmed over how it will be staged.
Telia Parken, the home of Danish Superliga football club FC Copenhagen and the national team, has this week opened up to school children as part of the country’s wider reopening measures amid COVID-19.
Primary schools reopened in Denmark last month and FC Copenhagen has taken the decision to open up facilities in the national stadium for schools and education establishments in the city that need extra space to facilitate the social distancing measures put in place since the outbreak.
Vacant areas in the stadium will become the daily classrooms of almost 200 pupils over the next seven weeks, divided into seven classes that will attend school at Telia Parken.
Some students will take classes in Telia Parken’s VIP lounge, with full panoramic views of the stadium. Lars Bo Jeppesen, director of stadium operator Parken Sport & Entertainment, said: “We are happy that we can help the Copenhagen schools and the municipality to solve a difficult challenge, and at the same time we look forward to seeing a lot of happy children in here.
“We all have a responsibility to find creative solutions in a difficult time, and we hope it can help give students some fun memories. Personally, I think at least it’s a bit of a child’s dream to be allowed to go to school here, so we are happy to help.”
Earlier this week, it was announced that the Superliga will resume behind closed doors on May 28 following a suspension of more than two months.
Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, has suggested the NBA basketball franchise may employ “Disneyland” conditions when fans return to American Airlines Center.
Speaking to ESPN Radio 103.3 Dallas, Cuban discussed how the NBA experience may look for fans stating it “may start with staggered fan arrival.” Cuban said the Mavericks may request that fans sign up for an arrival time at a specific parking spot, where they’ll then receive a predetermined path to walk to their gate.
Once passing through arena security, Cuban said a guide “could lead fans to their seats, separated from other guests.” He continued: “We may do that almost like Disneyland, do it like there’s a procession and you have people guiding you to your seat. It may take a little bit longer for everybody to get into their seats to start the game, but we’ll accommodate that and go from there.”
Cuban added that the team has “discussed new accessories, such as individual sneeze guards or things that surround your whole neck, or lightweight hoodies so if somebody two rows behind you sneezes, you’re not freaked out.”
Professional chefs at English Premier League football club Liverpool have upscaled their operation and are now producing 1,000 fresh meals every week to support the club’s local communities in Anfield and Kirkby, along with key workers across the Merseyside region.
The meals, which form part of the club’s ‘Unity is Strength’ COVID-19 community response work, are being issued to Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service firefighters and fire control officers, and North West Ambulance Service staff.
Local school hubs and community groups who are currently supporting some of the most vulnerable children and families in the club’s local communities in Anfield and Kirkby are also receiving hundreds of fresh meals every week. The meals are being freshly prepared in the kitchens at Anfield stadium.
Forbes Duff, senior manager of Liverpool’s community programme, Red Neighbours, said: “Since we started producing the meals, we have seen a big uptake and therefore we have been working hard to increase our volumes to support the growing demand.
“Helping more local families, vulnerable people and key workers who are sacrificing so much to help people is really important to us – we want to help our local communities as much as we can.
“If we can take the pressure off key workers by providing them with a fresh meal so they don’t have to cook after an exhaustingly long shift, or to school hubs who are doing a fantastic job looking after vulnerable children and key workers’ children – that’s really the least we can do to say thank you.”
In March, Liverpool chief executive Peter Moore announced that stewards who work at the stadium will be offering their services as the local community deals with the impact of the pandemic.
Mexican Liga MX football team Club León has called on its fans to fill the Estadio León virtually as part of a fundraising campaign.
Under the banner of ‘Let’s Go Back’, president Jesús Martínez Murguia has asked fans to buy virtual tickets at a cost of 15 pesos (£0.50/€0.57/$0.62) apiece, with all funds raised being matched by the club’s owners, Grupo Pachuca.
The money will be donated to COVID-19 response efforts. Estadio León currently has a capacity of around 31,300.
Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment’s (MLSE) ‘Bringing Toronto Back To Its Feet’ campaign has expanded to include the use of BMO Field, home of Major League Soccer (MLS) team Toronto FC and Canadian Football League (CFL) outfit Toronto Argonauts.
Scotiabank Arena, home of the Toronto Raptors NBA basketball franchise and Toronto Maple Leafs NHL ice hockey team, was last month converted into a large-scale kitchen to provide meals for frontline workers and their families.
This came as MLSE which owns the arena, the two teams and other sports properties in the Canadian city including Toronto FC, looked to prepare as many as 10,000 meals a day as part of COVID-19 response efforts.
The addition of BMO Field, and signing of financial services company BMO as a lead partner, means the program, designed to thank and support Toronto’s front-line health workers, their families, and local community agencies, will be able to expand beyond its original production goal of 10,000 meals per day to up to 13,000 meals per day.
Larry Tanenbaum, chairman of MLSE, said: “We are extremely proud of our organisation and our employees who had a hand in bringing this program to life and grateful to the many partners who were so quick to lend their support. We all look forward to the day when we can return to hosting and entertaining our fans, but until then, we are focused on doing everything we can to help our community recover from this difficult period.”
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