Globe Life Field will push fans closer to the action than in any stadium built in the retro era. The 1st row is 42 ft behind the plate (closest in MLB). The 1st row of the upper deck is 30 ft closer than the Rangers' previous home, last row is 32 ft closer https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/mlbs-newest-ballpark-is-a-shift-away-from-retro-era-stadiums/

While there's debate on how much overhang is ideal in stadium design, there is simply hardly any in the retro-era parks pushing many seats further back (and seats also moved higher in elevation in retro era due to added suite levels). Globe Life cantilevered more aggressively.

Wrigley Field has a shade percentage of 55%, greatest in MLB, per Clem's Baseball. (That's the amount the higher deck shades the field-level grandstand) Retro-era shade average is 26%. Tiger Stadium was 85% shaded in lower deck.

Now, some will note seats in the lower level at Wrigley (and Tiger) were very obstructed. It's a fair point. But as a trade-off, the retro-era parks pushed thousands of seats hundreds feet further from the playing surface (higher and further away)

The designers of Globe Life Field tried to find a happy medium: no steel beams to obstruct views but to push more seeds significantly closer to the field. They also did by designing "trays" of seating ....

Another issue with retro park seating is the lower levels tend to "splay," as architect Fred Ortiz told us. They rise slowly and are deep (39.6 rows of average for field-level seating in retro parks). They push upper levels further from field ...

Globe Field has an MLB-low 22 rows in its first level, before a slight elevation change/break to its second lower-bowl seating tier. This stacked design had Rangers manager saying the park felt less like a "stadium" and more like "an arena"

Some have criticized the retractable roof as giving the Globe Life Field something of a "Costco" like appearance. But the roof is different and by design . ...

Rangers ownership did not want a heavy roof like at other retractable-doomed stadiums (Safeco, Chase, Miller). So they created MLB's first single-panel retractable roof, which will be less obtrusive when viewing it from inside the stadium

It's unfortunate that the Rangers' previous home was in use only 24 years. A lot of tax dollars have been spent on Arlington, Texas ballparks. Owners once built their own ballparks but that paradigm began to shift in 1931 when Cleveland Municipal Stadium was built with public $.

Not placing a roof on Globe Life Park in 1994 looks like a big error led by part-owner George W. Bush and then team president Tom Schieffer. “[They] felt very strongly that baseball is an outdoor sport ... meant to be played outside,” David M. Schwarz, who designed that park

Baseball is best played outside, I'm sure many can agree on that sentiment. But an exception is baseball played in the summer in Arlington, Texas in a stadium with little shade cover and no climate control