azdad1978
Championship!!!!
By Scott Bordow, Tribune
September 4, 2005
It’s a sweltering July morning, and Cardinals vice president Michael Bidwill is giving a guided tour of the team’s new stadium in Glendale.
As he describes the luxury "lofts," marvels at the trusses that support the roof and points to the tray that will roll the grass field into the stadium on game days, he beams like a newborn’s proud papa.
"This place is going to be spectacular," he says.
The $450 million stadium is a wonder to behold — it’s so big that workers refer to the Glendale Arena next door as the "garage" — and it will include all the creature comforts missing from Sun Devil Stadium. Wider concourses with a view of the field. More restrooms. Seat backs. Air conditioning. The stadium is an architectural exclamation point. Just one question, though: If you build it — and the team goes 6-10 — will they still come?
This is one of the most significant seasons in Arizona Cardinals history.
OK, that’s not saying much. When a franchise has had 16 losing seasons in 17 years, significance takes on a different meaning.
But ever since voters approved funding of the stadium in 2000, the Cardinals have pointed to this season as the launching pad for the stadium’s opening next August.
The dream: Second-year coach Dennis Green leads the Cardinals into the playoffs, and approving fans rush to buy season tickets for 2006 — even when an expected price increase goes into effect.
The fear: The Cardinals fall flat on their faces — again — and the new stadium is embarrassingly half-empty on game days next year.
"It’s a big year for us," backup quarterback Josh McCown said. "You can get new uniforms, you can get a new place to play, but if you don’t win, people aren’t going to show up."
Bidwill disputes that notion. He believes attendance will increase next year — no matter the Cardinals’ record this year — because the stadium will offer fans what they’ve craved all along — air conditioning.
"I do think the environment at Sun Devil Stadium has held back our attendance," Bidwill said. "Even if we were a perennial 11-5 team and going to the playoffs or the Super Bowl, our attendance would be suppressed by environmental concerns."
McCown, however, knows firsthand that a new stadium isn’t reason enough for fans to check their apathy at the door.
He was the starting quarterback for Southern Methodist University when the Mustangs opened 32,000-seat Gerald Ford Stadium in 2000.
The home opener against Kansas was a sellout. A month later, SMU was 1-5. When it returned home to play San Jose State, only 16,218 fans were on hand.
"You can’t control what other people are doing," defensive end Chike Okeafor said. "If people don’t want to come out and see us, we’ll be busting people without them."
Rod Graves, Arizona’s vice president of football operations, isn’t quite so cavalier. He admits there’s a "sense of urgency" this season.
The Cardinals drew up a three-year plan when they hired Dennis Green: Overhaul the roster in Year 1, compete for a playoff spot in Year 2 and use that momentum to boost season ticket sales for the new stadium in Year 3.
"We’d like to move in (to the stadium) with positive feelings, having people feeling confident about our team and how we run our organization," Graves said.
The only way to do that is to win. Fans have heard promises since 1988; now, only results will change hearts — and open wallets.
"No question," Graves said. "Our fans have heard all the rhetoric. The comfort of the new stadium will keep some fans there, but the majority of them only will come if we win football games."
And if the Cardinals go 5-11 this year?
"If we move into a new stadium and we can’t fill that stadium, we’ve got problems," Graves said. "We understand that."
Believe it or not, there have been big moments in Arizona Cardinals history.
Unfortunately, the franchise usually has slipped on a banana peel when the spotlight was the brightest.
There was the home debut in Arizona, a 1988 Monday night game against the Dallas Cowboys.
Dallas won, 17-14, and the lasting memory from the game is coach Gene Stallings’ decision to try to run a fake field goal at the end of the first half from the Cowboys’ 42-yard line.
Kicker Al Del Greco, a scratch golfer with the foot speed of Craig Stadler, lumbered all of 8 yards before being tackled.
Eleven games into that season, the Cardinals were 7-4 and tied for first place in the NFC East.
They lost their final five games and missed the playoffs.
Then there was the organization’s reaction to its playoff appearance in 1998.
Instead of keeping the team’s core together and building on its 9-7 record and postseason victory over Dallas, the Cardinals dumped tackle Lomas Brown, running back Larry Centers and linebacker Jamir Miller.
The result: A 6-10 record in 1999.
Now the organization has another opportunity to pan for gold.
Win, and fans will flock to the new stadium, whatever the ticket prices.
Lose, and it won’t matter if the Cardinals promise free drinks with every ticket purchased.
"Anybody who comes just because we put a few wins on the board, you have to question if their heart is truly in it," Okeafor said. "There should be honesty in a fan. If you’re going to root for (a team) when things are going good, that’s easy to do. It’s hard to root for a team when things are not going well."
This is Okeafor’s first season in Arizona. He doesn’t appreciate how Cardinals fans have suffered.
But McCown and Graves do.
They know what’s at stake.
What can be won.
And what can be lost.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=47400
September 4, 2005
It’s a sweltering July morning, and Cardinals vice president Michael Bidwill is giving a guided tour of the team’s new stadium in Glendale.
As he describes the luxury "lofts," marvels at the trusses that support the roof and points to the tray that will roll the grass field into the stadium on game days, he beams like a newborn’s proud papa.
"This place is going to be spectacular," he says.
The $450 million stadium is a wonder to behold — it’s so big that workers refer to the Glendale Arena next door as the "garage" — and it will include all the creature comforts missing from Sun Devil Stadium. Wider concourses with a view of the field. More restrooms. Seat backs. Air conditioning. The stadium is an architectural exclamation point. Just one question, though: If you build it — and the team goes 6-10 — will they still come?
This is one of the most significant seasons in Arizona Cardinals history.
OK, that’s not saying much. When a franchise has had 16 losing seasons in 17 years, significance takes on a different meaning.
But ever since voters approved funding of the stadium in 2000, the Cardinals have pointed to this season as the launching pad for the stadium’s opening next August.
The dream: Second-year coach Dennis Green leads the Cardinals into the playoffs, and approving fans rush to buy season tickets for 2006 — even when an expected price increase goes into effect.
The fear: The Cardinals fall flat on their faces — again — and the new stadium is embarrassingly half-empty on game days next year.
"It’s a big year for us," backup quarterback Josh McCown said. "You can get new uniforms, you can get a new place to play, but if you don’t win, people aren’t going to show up."
Bidwill disputes that notion. He believes attendance will increase next year — no matter the Cardinals’ record this year — because the stadium will offer fans what they’ve craved all along — air conditioning.
"I do think the environment at Sun Devil Stadium has held back our attendance," Bidwill said. "Even if we were a perennial 11-5 team and going to the playoffs or the Super Bowl, our attendance would be suppressed by environmental concerns."
McCown, however, knows firsthand that a new stadium isn’t reason enough for fans to check their apathy at the door.
He was the starting quarterback for Southern Methodist University when the Mustangs opened 32,000-seat Gerald Ford Stadium in 2000.
The home opener against Kansas was a sellout. A month later, SMU was 1-5. When it returned home to play San Jose State, only 16,218 fans were on hand.
"You can’t control what other people are doing," defensive end Chike Okeafor said. "If people don’t want to come out and see us, we’ll be busting people without them."
Rod Graves, Arizona’s vice president of football operations, isn’t quite so cavalier. He admits there’s a "sense of urgency" this season.
The Cardinals drew up a three-year plan when they hired Dennis Green: Overhaul the roster in Year 1, compete for a playoff spot in Year 2 and use that momentum to boost season ticket sales for the new stadium in Year 3.
"We’d like to move in (to the stadium) with positive feelings, having people feeling confident about our team and how we run our organization," Graves said.
The only way to do that is to win. Fans have heard promises since 1988; now, only results will change hearts — and open wallets.
"No question," Graves said. "Our fans have heard all the rhetoric. The comfort of the new stadium will keep some fans there, but the majority of them only will come if we win football games."
And if the Cardinals go 5-11 this year?
"If we move into a new stadium and we can’t fill that stadium, we’ve got problems," Graves said. "We understand that."
Believe it or not, there have been big moments in Arizona Cardinals history.
Unfortunately, the franchise usually has slipped on a banana peel when the spotlight was the brightest.
There was the home debut in Arizona, a 1988 Monday night game against the Dallas Cowboys.
Dallas won, 17-14, and the lasting memory from the game is coach Gene Stallings’ decision to try to run a fake field goal at the end of the first half from the Cowboys’ 42-yard line.
Kicker Al Del Greco, a scratch golfer with the foot speed of Craig Stadler, lumbered all of 8 yards before being tackled.
Eleven games into that season, the Cardinals were 7-4 and tied for first place in the NFC East.
They lost their final five games and missed the playoffs.
Then there was the organization’s reaction to its playoff appearance in 1998.
Instead of keeping the team’s core together and building on its 9-7 record and postseason victory over Dallas, the Cardinals dumped tackle Lomas Brown, running back Larry Centers and linebacker Jamir Miller.
The result: A 6-10 record in 1999.
Now the organization has another opportunity to pan for gold.
Win, and fans will flock to the new stadium, whatever the ticket prices.
Lose, and it won’t matter if the Cardinals promise free drinks with every ticket purchased.
"Anybody who comes just because we put a few wins on the board, you have to question if their heart is truly in it," Okeafor said. "There should be honesty in a fan. If you’re going to root for (a team) when things are going good, that’s easy to do. It’s hard to root for a team when things are not going well."
This is Okeafor’s first season in Arizona. He doesn’t appreciate how Cardinals fans have suffered.
But McCown and Graves do.
They know what’s at stake.
What can be won.
And what can be lost.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=47400
