Arizona Cardinals Planning New Premium Seating on Field, in End Zone This SEason

Source, azcentral.com

When football fans return to State Farm Stadium this season for Arizona Cardinals games, they'll see some new seating at field level.

In an effort to give fans who have the means to spend more a new kind of more upscale experience, the Cardinals are adding new club areas and field level seats on the sidelines and end zones at the stadium. The most noticeable areas will include custom-built removable "casitas" in the south end zone, where there had been 1,200 temporary seats, and along the sidelines where suites, boxes and seats will be in place on the field all the way to the north end zone.

"As we look to get better and innovate and provide the best fan experience, we wanted to create some new experiences that haven't been seen in the NFL," Cardinals Chief Operating Officer Jeremy Walls told The Arizona Republic. "To our knowledge... we are the first stadium in the world to have luxury casitas inside a stadium, you know, so literally your home in the end zone, and everyone will have their own private front porch, everybody will have their own private roof deck as well as kind of their great room inside their casita where they can host everybody."

Other new seating areas include tunnel suites in the north end, and a large area under the permanent seating in the north end zone that will be called the Morgan Athletic Club, a nod to the original name of the Cardinals football team founded in 1898.

The MAC will feature access to views of the visiting players' tunnel to the field, and its primary space will resemble a "1920s supper club," according to a statement from the Cardinals announcing the seating additions, with low lighting, handcrafted menus, live music before and after the game, VIP parking and a private entrance to State Farm Stadium.

"What we've noticed as we studied other events and stadiums worldwide is people want things that allow them to socialize with their friends and family or customers. And they wanted something that's a little different than your typical experience," Walls said. "And so in both of these scenarios, sitting on the field is obviously the hero here, but, but having your own luxury casita in the end zone has never been done. And then having a 1920s supper club, ... music meets football experience, is also a newer concept."

Features of the field suites located near the 20-yard lines include three rows of Monaco DreamSeats, a new line of quality lounge chairs that will debut inside State Farm Stadium.

"That's a really big lounge chair that's extremely comfortable. And so we're going to be the first stadium in the world to introduce that seat. And those will be in the casitas, as well as in our field boxes and field suites," Walls said.

The casitas might stand out the most among all of the new seats at field level. They're designed specifically for State Farm Stadium and will hold 20 guests each on two levels, have rooftop decks and front yards, of sorts. From those vantage points fans will have some of the best views of red-zone plays coming at them from north to south.

Directly behind the casitas is to be the home of the Casita Garden Club, which is 13,400 square feet of an outdoor garden patio with a view of the Cardinals players making their way to the field from the locker room.

The field boxes on the east and west sidelines feature Monaco DreamSeats, private TVs and access to the Casita Garden Club. There are only 66 seats in the boxes.

While all of it is expensive and designed to provide a high-end level of experience at a Cardinals game for those willing to pay for all of the bells and whistles, the Cardinals didn't force 1,200 fans out of the south end zone seats without offering alternatives. Nine hundred season ticket members who previously had seats there were offered the first opportunity to relocate to other seats while 300 were single-game ticket buyers in that section.

"We wanted to handle those with care. So we reached out to each of those accounts and talked them through the changes and the adjustments, and made a point to give them several options to move to another great location," Walls said. "And so we handled those on a case-by-case basis, and for the most part people understood."

Arizona remains the NFL team with the lowest fan cost index in the league, $513.44 being the average cost for a group of four to attend a game. According to Team Marketing Report's Fan Cost Index for the 2023 season, the Cardinals had the lowest average ticket price in the league for games ($98.)

The fan cost index is comprised of the prices of four average-price tickets, parking for one car and the least expensive stadium-available pricing for two draft beers, four soft drinks, four hot dogs and two adult-size adjustable caps. Costs are determined through calls, emails and online research with teams, venues, concessionaires and season ticket holders.

Walls said all of the planned seating areas started with team president and principal owner Michael Bidwill's desire to modernize the business and continuing to innovate. After a renovation of club seats and the construction and opening of the BetMGM sportsbook adjacent to State Farm Stadium, adding field level premium seats was the next phase.

"We did a lot of research kind of talking to some of our members, as well as looking across the industry as well as in the NFL, as well as just in-market. And it was clear, with the size of our market ... we're a top-12 market now. There was a need and an opportunity for us to create some luxury kind of higher-end seating," Walls said. "And we're going to continue to have affordable options for all budgets, but what we kind of were missing was a field level experience. And so that's why we decided to, to introduce this. And we're just fortunate State Farm Stadium's a beautiful stadium that has some really great real estate around our field that a lot of stadiums don't have."

Walls added that more stadium improvements and fan experiences are coming this season, but he wasn't ready to share what those are at the present time.

"We're going to take a step back every year and see ways to make this better. But this is a big first step for us as we look to continue to make State Farm Stadium a destination that people want to come to," Walls said.

Walls was asked about the recent NFL Players Association survey that graded the Cardinals high in some areas and low in others. Bidwill himself graded low but the survey had more to do with the team facility in Tempe and not the stadium or specific business operations.

"He's committed to a winning team on and off the field. He's committed to this community and he's committed to our employees," Walls said of Bidwill. "That's what attracted me to this (position), and he's never going to let us settle. So of course, anytime we get feedback from whatever survey, wherever it comes from, we're going to take a look at it and ask ourselves how we can get better."