Photo Credit: Arizona Cardinals
Billboards announcing the Arizona Cardinals’ new practice facility have appeared around north Phoenix, and if local social media is any indication, residents have feelings. Strong feelings. About a practice facility. For a team that just limped to a 3-14 record in what can only be described as a season of existential suffering.
The Cardinals purchased a massive 217-acre parcel at Paradise Ridge (west of Scottsdale Road and north of Loop 101) for $136 million back in the summer. The new state-of-the-art facility, scheduled to open in 2028, will be double the size of their current Tempe location, featuring three natural grass fields, a full indoor turf field, and all the modern amenities that earned their existing facility a D- in dining and an F in locker rooms from the NFL Players Association. One can only hope the upgrade brings at least a solid C+, though at this point, even getting to 4-13 next season would feel like progress.
But the billboards have reignited neighborhood concerns, and residents are sounding the alarm about what’s coming: traffic chaos, game-day pandemonium, hordes of tailgaters descending on their peaceful streets. There’s just one small problem with this doomsday scenario: it’s a practice facility, not a stadium.
Photo Credit: AZBEX
The Cardinals play their actual games in Glendale, some 20 miles southwest. The new facility in Paradise Ridge will host closed practices, team meetings, and the occasional media scrum. No ticket sales. No 60,000 screaming fans. No flyovers. Just players running drills and coaches yelling about zone coverage while a few dozen reporters take notes and wonder what went so catastrophically wrong this season.
Will there be some additional traffic? Sure. Team employees commuting to work. Delivery trucks. The occasional fan hoping to glimpse Kyler Murray from the parking lot, though after this season, that fan population may have dwindled considerably. But apocalyptic gridlock? That seems unlikely for a team whose 3-14 record tied for the second-worst in franchise history and whose most notable 2024 achievement was securing the third overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.
The whimsy of the situation isn’t lost on anyone paying attention. Residents are bracing for disruption from a franchise that just endured one of the most painful seasons in recent memory, hasn’t won a playoff game since 2015, and boasts the longest active championship drought in North American professional sports at 78 years. If the Cardinals were generating the kind of excitement that warranted genuine traffic concerns, they’d probably be, well, winning more than three games.
Photo Credit: Arizona Republic
Still, there’s something endearing about the passionate concern. These are people who care deeply about their neighborhood, and change, even change that comes with economic development and increased property values, can feel threatening. And yes, most of it is overblown, but at least they care, right?
When 2028 rolls around and the Cardinals are running drills on their pristine new grass fields, north Phoenix residents will likely discover that life continues much as before, just with slightly nicer restaurants nearby and the occasional sighting of professional athletes grabbing coffee. And who knows? Maybe by then the Cardinals will have strung together a winning season or two, making all the fuss feel slightly more justified. After a 3-14 campaign, literally anything seems possible…even a .500 record. One can dream.