The Texas Rangers stadium. Screengrab / Texas Rangers
The Texas Rangers built themselves a new stadium for $NZ1.8 billion. The ridicule came free of charge.
American baseball fans were quick to pile on after photos and videos emerged of Globe Life Stadium opening for business ahead of a condensed 60-game season slated to start in late July.
Inside, the Rangers' new digs look pretty lush. The 50,000-seater boasts a retractable roof and even air-conditioning.
But the outside isn't so glamorous.
When the video above was released by the Rangers' social media team, it sparked a flurry of memes and online jokes about how the team's new home looks more like a sheet metal factory than it does a ballpark.
CBS Sports wrote: "The inside look is more impressive than the bland outside, but that isn't saying much."
Jason Owens of Yahoo Sports added: "It looks like a roasting pan. One of those disposable aluminium pans you buy for a Thanksgiving turkey. Except it's flipped upside down."
Unsurprisingly, the Twitterverse quickly sprung into action.
As many were keen to point out, the finished product didn't exactly look like what the Rangers promised in their initial rendering of the concept.
Meanwhile, Major League Baseball will try to push ahead with a 60-game schedule that will start on July 23 or 24 in empty stadiums amid the coronavirus pandemic,
A dramatically altered season with games full of new rules was the final result of failed financial negotiations. But for fans eager to see any baseball this year, at least now they can look forward to opening day.
The announcement by MLB came while more players continue to test positive for the virus — at least seven on the Philadelphia Phillies alone.
- With AP
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