State Farm Stadium

• 1. Introduction

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  State Farm Stadium sits in Glendale, Arizona, a suburb west of Phoenix, and it has hosted more defining American sports moments than almost any other building of its era. Three Super Bowls, two BCS National Championships, a College Football Playoff title game, the NCAA Men's Final Four twice, multiple Copa América matches, WrestleMania, and some of the highest-grossing concerts ever staged in Arizona have all unfolded under its translucent fabric roof. What draws so many marquee events to a stadium that opened in 2006 on the western edge of a desert suburb? The answer runs through a decades-long struggle by an NFL franchise to escape a borrowed stadium, an architectural gamble with a rolling grass field, and a financial puzzle that required three separate funders to solve. The story of how this building came to exist, and why it became the venue it did, starts not in Glendale but at a college stadium in Tempe where the Arizona Cardinals had been tenants for nearly two decades.

• 2. A Team Without a Home

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  The Arizona Cardinals had been sharing Sun Devil Stadium on the campus of Arizona State University in Tempe since moving from St. Louis in 1988. From the start, that arrangement was meant to be temporary. The Cardinals planned to stay only a few years while a permanent home was built. The savings and loan crisis of the 1990s erased those plans, leaving the franchise stuck as tenants in a facility built for college football. Being a tenant carried a real cost. The Cardinals lacked the revenue streams that came with owning or controlling a venue, streams that other NFL teams were already exploiting. Their frustration grew across those years, and they campaigned repeatedly for a modern facility of their own.

  By 2000 and 2001, the search for a site began in earnest. The Arizona Tourism and Sports Authority took charge of overseeing construction and finding the right location. Tempe was an early front-runner, partly because it sat close to the Cardinals' training facility, but the math worked against it: the Tempe site would have cost the authority $30,000 monthly in water expenses. Avondale entered the running when developer John F. Long offered to donate the land and absorb the $26 million infrastructure cost himself. Mesa submitted a bid as well, but its residents voted against building the stadium there. By 2002, Glendale had emerged as the winner. The city promised $36 million in infrastructure improvements and 11,000 parking spots near the stadium, tipping the decision in its favor.

• 3. Building the Stadium

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  The ceremonial groundbreaking took place on the 12th of April, 2003. Three years later, on the 1st of August, 2006, the finished building opened to the public. The design came from Eisenman Architects and HOK Sport, which later became known as Populous. Business Week named it one of the ten most impressive sports facilities in the world, pointing to two engineering features that set it apart.

  The first was the retractable roof, a Birdair translucent fabric structure that opens in 12 minutes. It holds the distinction of being the first retractable roof ever built on an incline. The second was a natural grass playing field mounted on a tray that rolls in and out of the building on rails, keeping the turf alive in natural sunlight between games. Similar roll-in field systems exist at the GelreDome and the Veltins-Arena. The roof engineering was handled by Walter P Moore.

  The final cost of the project came to $455 million. That figure broke down into $395.4 million for the stadium itself, $41.7 million for site improvements, and $17.8 million for the land. Three parties shared the bill: the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority contributed $302.3 million, the Arizona Cardinals added $143.2 million, and the City of Glendale put in $9.5 million. LED video and ribbon displays from Daktronics in Brookings, South Dakota were installed in 2006 before Arizona's first regular-season home game. The stadium opened with 88 luxury suites and room for 16 more, and the surrounding 25 acres were named Sportsman's Park, echoing the name of a venue in St. Louis where the Cardinals had played from 1960 to 1965.

• 4. Three Names, One Stadium

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  The building opened in 2006 simply as Cardinals Stadium. Two months later, on the 26th of September, 2006, the University of Phoenix paid $154.5 million for naming rights over 20 years, and the venue became University of Phoenix Stadium. That deal unraveled well before its scheduled end. On the 11th of April, 2017, the University of Phoenix terminated the agreement, citing financial difficulties, with the deal only a little more than halfway through its intended run. The university's name stayed on the building while a replacement sponsor was found.

  State Farm, the insurance company, announced a new naming rights agreement in September 2018. That deal runs through 2036, an 18-year arrangement. The name State Farm Stadium has been in place since then, though the stadium's history spans all three identities.

• 5. Football Milestones

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  The stadium's first preseason game, on the 12th of August, 2006, saw the Cardinals defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers 21-13. The first regular-season game followed on the 10th of September, when the Cardinals beat the San Francisco 49ers 34-27. The stadium's air conditioning meant the Cardinals could play at home on opening weekend of the NFL season for the first time since arriving in Arizona in 1988.

  Super Bowl XLII arrived on the 3rd of February, 2008, and produced one of the most dramatic upsets in the game's history. The New York Giants defeated the previously undefeated New England Patriots 17-14 before a paid attendance of 71,101. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers performed at halftime. The Phoenix area had previously hosted Super Bowl XXX at Sun Devil Stadium in 1996, when the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 27-17.

  On the 3rd of January, 2009, the stadium hosted the Cardinals' first home playoff game since 1947, with Arizona beating the Atlanta Falcons 30-24. Two weeks later, on the 18th of January, 2009, the Cardinals defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 32-25 in the NFC Championship Game in front of more than 70,000 fans. Super Bowl XLIX followed on the 1st of February, 2015, when the New England Patriots defeated the Seattle Seahawks 28-24 with Katy Perry, Lenny Kravitz, and Missy Elliott performing at halftime. In 2020, the San Francisco 49ers played their final three home games of the season at State Farm Stadium after Santa Clara County barred contact sports due to COVID-19 restrictions. The stadium's third Super Bowl, Super Bowl LVII on the 12th of February, 2023, saw the Kansas City Chiefs defeat the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35, with Rihanna headlining the halftime show before a crowd of 67,827.

• 6. College Football and Basketball

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  The Fiesta Bowl moved from Sun Devil Stadium to the new Glendale venue starting with the 1st of January, 2007 game, in which the Boise State Broncos defeated the University of Oklahoma Sooners 43-42 in overtime. A week later, on the 8th of January, 2007, the stadium hosted the BCS National Championship Game, where the University of Florida Gators defeated the Ohio State Buckeyes 41-14. The 2011 BCS National Championship Game, between the Auburn Tigers and the Oregon Ducks on the 10th of January, 2011, drew a record attendance of 78,603.

  The College Football Playoff National Championship came to the stadium on the 11th of January, 2016, with the No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide facing the No. 1 Clemson Tigers. The 2022 Fiesta Bowl on the 31st of December, 2022 served as a College Football Playoff semifinal, with TCU defeating Michigan 51-45 before 71,723 fans.

  For basketball, the building's capacity expands by 8,800 for major events through added risers and portable folding seats. The 2017 NCAA Men's Final Four saw North Carolina defeat Gonzaga 71-65 in the championship game to claim the Tar Heels' sixth national title. The 2024 Final Four ended with UConn defeating Purdue 75-60, making UConn the first back-to-back champion since the 2007 Florida Gators.

• 7. Concerts and Other Events

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  The Rolling Stones performed at the stadium on the 8th of November, 2006, with Alice Cooper opening, generating $3,286,121 in revenue from 41,772 attendees. Taylor Swift's Reputation Stadium Tour on the 8th of May, 2018 grossed $7,214,478 before 59,157 fans; before the tour began, Swift invited 2,000 foster and adopted children to a private dress rehearsal at the stadium. The Garth Brooks Stadium Tour date on the 23rd of March, 2019, drew 77,653 fans, becoming the highest-attended indoor concert in Arizona history and earning $6,499,556.

  Two Metallica nights on the 1st and the 9th of September, 2023 combined for 133,060 attendees and $14,013,497 in revenue, with two different sets and two different opening acts on each night. Taylor Swift's Eras Tour opened at the stadium on the 17th and the 18th of March, 2023, the first act ever to sell out two shows on a single tour at the venue. Glendale symbolically renamed itself "Swift City" to mark the occasion.

  WrestleMania XXVI filled the stadium on the 28th of March, 2010, with 72,219 fans and grossed $5.8 million in ticket sales, then the highest-grossing entertainment event ever staged at the venue. On the 11th of January, 2021, the stadium began operating as a COVID-19 vaccination site, running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, averaging 7,000 vaccinations per day with 500 volunteers assisting. On the 10th of February, 2019, Russell M. Nelson, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, addressed an audience of 68,000, with the majority of the field space filled with seats to accommodate the crowd.