VenuesNow (11/04/21) Brown, Eric Renner

Ballparks are drawing fans back for concerts as well as ballgames, hosting post-pandemic shows like the "Hella Mega Tour," the summer run of U.S. stadium gigs by Green Day, Weezer and Fall Out Boy. The tour kicked off July 24 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, where it was the first concert ever performed at the new Texas Rangers home venue. "We spent a ton of time from 2017 on designing [Globe Life Field] to be a world-class venue for concerts," said Rangers executive Sean Decker. Ballparks across the U.S. are taking steps to be more accommodating of non-baseball programming, as such events are demonstrable sources of revenue beyond the regular season home games for Major League Baseball teams. The Globe Life Hella Mega show, for example, grossed $3.2 million, while other high-grossing venues on the same tour include Chicago's Wrigley Field with $4.5 million, Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium with $4.3 million and Boston's Fenway Park with $4.2 million. Globe Life Field and Petco Park, home stadium of the San Diego Padres, both partner with Live Nation for concert booking. Live Nation's Ryan McElrath said ballparks now "put more focus on being able to host concerts, so there's always an open dialogue about what their availability is like." The Padres' Jaclyn Lash has observed significant sports-music crossover during the pandemic, and said, "We've been chatting with different tours, with different promoters to just let them know best practices from a sports perspective, and vice versa."

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