azdad1978
Championship!!!!
By Scott Bordow, Tribune Columnist
December 11, 2005
Here’s the weather forecast for today’s Cardinals-Washington Redskins game:
Party cloudy, high of 68 degrees.
As of Thursday, the Cardinals had distributed 44,272 tickets.
When Arizona played Jacksonville two weeks ago, the game-time temperature was 58 degrees.
The announced crowd: 39,198.
The Cardinals have maintained for years that fans don’t watch their games because of the hot and sticky conditions at Sun Devil Stadium.
This is what team vice president Michael Bidwill said last August: "I do think that the stadium environment has held back our attendance. No air conditioning has hurt us. Attendance has been suppressed over the years because of the lack of air conditioning and amenities at Sun Devil Stadium."
There’s no doubt September and early October games at Sun Devil Stadium can be miserable. Football wasn’t meant to be watched from metal bleachers on a 100-degree day.
But in arguing their point, the Cardinals always fail to acknowledge the obvious: Summer comes to an end.
According to the National Weather Service, the average high temperature in the Valley for the month of November over the past 30 years is 75 degrees. The average high in December is 67.1 degrees.
It doesn’t get much nicer than that.
Funny thing, though. Attendance at Cardinals games drops when the temperature falls.
The average crowd for September-October home games is 45,564 (this year’s game against San Francisco in Mexico City was excluded). The average for November-December games is 43,526.
Maybe people have trouble finding their sweaters.
Arizona has played 76 home games in November, December and January (Tampa Bay was here on Jan. 2, 2004). Thirty-four of the 76 drew fewer than 40,000 fans.
Two of the smallest three crowds in franchise history were played late in the season: A Dec. 8, 2002, game against Detroit had a record-low 21,292 fans, and a Dec. 14, 2003, game against Carolina was watched by 23,217.
Conversely, fans can take the heat if something smells good in the kitchen. The four home games in September and October of 1988, the Cardinals’ first year at Sun Devil Stadium, all had crowds in excess of 50,000.
In 1994, when Buddy Ryan was still the self-proclaimed winner in town, season-ticket sales doubled to just more than 48,000, and Arizona’s September and October home dates drew 60,066, 67,950, 71,023 and 65,690.
(While we were crunching figures, we also discovered that Arizona hasn’t had a home crowd of more than 60,000 since 1999, and Dallas has been the opponent five of the 11 times attendance has topped 60,000.)
What do the numbers tell us, other than the fact Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has made Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill a lot of money?
If the Cardinals aren’t any better the next few years than they’ve been the last 18 years, they will have the nicest half-empty retractable domed stadium in the NFL.
Or, to put it another way: It’s not the heat, it’s the futility.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=54998
December 11, 2005
Here’s the weather forecast for today’s Cardinals-Washington Redskins game:
Party cloudy, high of 68 degrees.
As of Thursday, the Cardinals had distributed 44,272 tickets.
When Arizona played Jacksonville two weeks ago, the game-time temperature was 58 degrees.
The announced crowd: 39,198.
The Cardinals have maintained for years that fans don’t watch their games because of the hot and sticky conditions at Sun Devil Stadium.
This is what team vice president Michael Bidwill said last August: "I do think that the stadium environment has held back our attendance. No air conditioning has hurt us. Attendance has been suppressed over the years because of the lack of air conditioning and amenities at Sun Devil Stadium."
There’s no doubt September and early October games at Sun Devil Stadium can be miserable. Football wasn’t meant to be watched from metal bleachers on a 100-degree day.
But in arguing their point, the Cardinals always fail to acknowledge the obvious: Summer comes to an end.
According to the National Weather Service, the average high temperature in the Valley for the month of November over the past 30 years is 75 degrees. The average high in December is 67.1 degrees.
It doesn’t get much nicer than that.
Funny thing, though. Attendance at Cardinals games drops when the temperature falls.
The average crowd for September-October home games is 45,564 (this year’s game against San Francisco in Mexico City was excluded). The average for November-December games is 43,526.
Maybe people have trouble finding their sweaters.
Arizona has played 76 home games in November, December and January (Tampa Bay was here on Jan. 2, 2004). Thirty-four of the 76 drew fewer than 40,000 fans.
Two of the smallest three crowds in franchise history were played late in the season: A Dec. 8, 2002, game against Detroit had a record-low 21,292 fans, and a Dec. 14, 2003, game against Carolina was watched by 23,217.
Conversely, fans can take the heat if something smells good in the kitchen. The four home games in September and October of 1988, the Cardinals’ first year at Sun Devil Stadium, all had crowds in excess of 50,000.
In 1994, when Buddy Ryan was still the self-proclaimed winner in town, season-ticket sales doubled to just more than 48,000, and Arizona’s September and October home dates drew 60,066, 67,950, 71,023 and 65,690.
(While we were crunching figures, we also discovered that Arizona hasn’t had a home crowd of more than 60,000 since 1999, and Dallas has been the opponent five of the 11 times attendance has topped 60,000.)
What do the numbers tell us, other than the fact Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has made Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill a lot of money?
If the Cardinals aren’t any better the next few years than they’ve been the last 18 years, they will have the nicest half-empty retractable domed stadium in the NFL.
Or, to put it another way: It’s not the heat, it’s the futility.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=54998
