In all honesty, Sean Decker would’ve liked a little bit more time, but the Texas Rangers’ senior vice president of ballpark operations knows, from a business perspective, that things couldn’t have worked out better for the future of Globe Life Park.

On Oct. 12, Billy Joel played the final act at the old Rangers stadium. The next morning, construction began on a roughly $10 million renovation project to turn the baseball stadium into a multi-purpose venue. Next Sunday, nearly four months after construction began, the future of Globe Life Park will make its debut with the season-opener for the XFL’s Dallas Renegades, one of two new professional sports tenants the stadium will host.

“The timing was good and proposed some challenges in terms of how fast but we’re really excited that we’re not going to go one year without playing a professional sports season [at Globe Life Park],” Decker said.

How Globe Life Park became the home of one of eight XFL teams was also a fast-paced process.

When news broke in 2018 of the XFL’s return, nearly 20 years after its one and only season, Decker reached out to someone he knew with WWE who could get him connected with the XFL, both of which are owned by businessman Vince McMahon.

Initially, before the XFL’s schedule was released, both Globe Life Park and the new Globe Life Field were pitched as potential options. But the XFL honed in on the idea of making the old baseball park its home.

“So that was the catalyst for a lot of the renovations,” Decker said, “between the desire to keep the building operational and to run as many events through it annually as we could. ... From there it became an opportunity to make a world-class football facility.”

Another world-class football facility, AT&T Stadium, is just down the street. But Decker believes the new Globe Life Park renovations make the stadium more than that. The diamond is now replaced by synthetic turf, and though approximately 6,000 seats were removed down the former third-base line, a 4,000-seat grandstand was added opposite of it, which used to be left field.

“It looks awesome,” said Renegeades head coach Bob Stoops. “This is a great park, and it has been for a long time. Now we just have a football field on it instead of a baseball field, and it’s a great place.”

The stadium, which opened in 1994, may be the old Rangers home, but Decker was quick to point out that renovations — from new video boards to kids zones — have been common in the last decade. He said it has “good bones” and can now potentially host a lot more than the Renegades and the USL’s North Texas Soccer Club.

“Now, the fact that we have a venue that is repurposed, and for us it means the opportunity to find new events and sporting events that can fill that stadium,” said Ron Price, the president and CEO of the Arlington Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Decker added: “I’ve yet to look at something that we don’t have some interest in.”

Next Sunday will mark the new Globe Life Park’s debut. It’ll also mark a full-circle moment for Renegades president Grady Raskin, who started as an intern with the Texas Rangers in 1996. He’s excited for the debut — though, like Decker did before, he wishes he had a little more time — and he’s excited to see the ballpark, in which he started his career, have new life.

“Knowing so much great baseball has been played in the stadium yet now it’s going to be football, there are people that scratch their heads and may be a little disappointed,” said Raskin, who confirmed the Renegades have a multi-year deal with Globe Life Park. “But for me, I think the alternative is worse, right? When teams move out of stadiums they become parking lots, and now we’re able to continue the legacy of that beautiful building and create more memories.”