PA Season Ticket Holder
04-13-2003, 07:39 PM
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- After six years of controversy, rejections and snags, there finally is physical evidence that the Arizona Cardinals will have their own stadium.
Team officials, business partners, members of the state Tourism and Sports Authority and politicians used silver-plated shovels to turn spadefuls of earth in a 30-foot sandbox Saturday, symbolically breaking ground on the site west of Phoenix.
The $355 million building is viewed as the future site of Super Bowls, NCAA Final Fours, World Cup soccer, concerts, festivals and conventions. It will rise out of a former alfalfa field 500 yards south of the new Phoenix Coyotes arena, which will be finished in December.
Since moving to Arizona in 1988, the Cardinals have leased Sun Devil Stadium from Arizona State University. A trace of emotion crept into owner Bill Bidwill's voice when he spoke of his family's 73-year involvement with the last NFL team to share a college stadium.
"In all those years we've never had our own home,'' Bidwill said. "That is about to change. This beautiful stadium, complete with retractable roof, America's first roll-out, natural-grass field and redesigned exterior will set the standard by which future stadiums will be judged.''
http://espn.go.com/nfl/news/2003/0412/1538143.html
Team officials, business partners, members of the state Tourism and Sports Authority and politicians used silver-plated shovels to turn spadefuls of earth in a 30-foot sandbox Saturday, symbolically breaking ground on the site west of Phoenix.
The $355 million building is viewed as the future site of Super Bowls, NCAA Final Fours, World Cup soccer, concerts, festivals and conventions. It will rise out of a former alfalfa field 500 yards south of the new Phoenix Coyotes arena, which will be finished in December.
Since moving to Arizona in 1988, the Cardinals have leased Sun Devil Stadium from Arizona State University. A trace of emotion crept into owner Bill Bidwill's voice when he spoke of his family's 73-year involvement with the last NFL team to share a college stadium.
"In all those years we've never had our own home,'' Bidwill said. "That is about to change. This beautiful stadium, complete with retractable roof, America's first roll-out, natural-grass field and redesigned exterior will set the standard by which future stadiums will be judged.''
http://espn.go.com/nfl/news/2003/0412/1538143.html