Rangers Red Has Arlington Seeing Green
ARLINGTON (CBSDFW.COM) - The Texas Rangers have all kinds of good numbers; Two ALCS championships, a 23-14 record and a nine straight home game sellout setting a franchise record.
But there are other people cashing in on the team's success. The City of Arlington is setting a financial record. Its a trickle down effect. In the resurgent downtown Arlington, when the Rangers are in town, people are in the restaurants.
"We know when there's a game in town," David Alvarez, a server at Mellow Mushroom said. "They (the customers) don't show up if they're out of town.
At the Mellow Mushroom, baseball is a huge hit. Fans eat before going to games. Fans who can't get tickets stay to spend money during the games.
"When they come in here they'll spend the majority of the game in here," Alvarez said. "Even in the 7th inning when everyone there is going out they stay here because they don't want to get in the traffic."
At Babe's restaurant next door, the manager says the Rangers have boosted business even more than the Cowboys.
The money from sellouts at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington spills over into all sorts of areas. Hotels have doubled the number of rooms rented from last year during rangers games. Even the Arlington Visitors Center next to the ballpark has a record number of tourists looking for other places to visit in town.
And it all adds up to another record for Arlington.
"We are today -- not only because of them but other reasons -- are at the highest level of sales tax we've ever been," Mayor Robert Cluck said. "We're at $50 million dollars already and we still have much of the year left."
The surge in Rangers attendance, coupled with strong retail sales, have pushed the city to its sales tax record.
In fact, Arlington says the stretch of sellouts exceeds the number of home games in any playoff series or the world series That makes this stretch of sellouts more profitable than the post season.
So, does the mayor see any downside to the rangers success?
"I do!" Mayor Cluck laughed. "I wanted to get a ticket. I don't have tickets tonight. I couldn't get em. That's because of Yu Darvish!"
