{"id":658453,"date":"2026-01-06T12:57:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T12:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/658453\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T12:57:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T12:57:12","slug":"cardinals-owner-michael-bidwill-defends-ticket-prices-fan-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/658453\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill defends ticket prices, fan experience"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;right:0;bottom:0;width:100%;height:100%;z-index:2\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/88023232007-2254663204.jpg\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"vidplayicon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/appservices\/universal-web\/universal\/icons\/icon-play-alt-white.svg\" alt=\"play\" style=\"height:40px;margin:auto 18px auto 27px;width:40px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Republic analyzes the Cardinals&#8217; firing of Jonathan Gannon<\/p>\n<p>The Republic&#8217;s Theo Mackie and Greg Moore discuss the firing of head coach Jonathan Gannon and where the Arizona Cardinals go from here.<\/p>\n<p>There was one scene from State Farm Stadium this season that seemed to exemplify what has become of the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/arizona-cardinals\/355\" data-autotag=\"c6331531-478d-4c7a-b93a-28f5b26af3f9\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Arizona Cardinals<\/a>\u2019 home-field advantage.<\/p>\n<p>It came against the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/tennessee-titans\/336\" data-autotag=\"f9731e2d-52ac-46db-9b52-ab518dbe13b4\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Tennessee Titans<\/a>, back in Week 5. While the stadium was mostly full that day, one section was glaringly empty: the Casa Roja club, which sits at midfield, directly behind the opposing bench.<\/p>\n<p>The club was added last offseason, with luxury dining options and extra-wide seats. A year earlier, the team added &#8220;Casitas&#8221; \u2014 field-level luxury boxes \u2014 behind one end zone.<\/p>\n<p>In both areas, a single-game ticket goes for more than $1,000. And both removed sections previously filled with season-ticket holders who were forced to either relocate or pay significant price hikes.<\/p>\n<p>On social media, these new additions have drawn criticism from long-time fans.<\/p>\n<p>In his Jan. 5 press conference to announce the firing of head coach Jonathan Gannon, owner Michael Bidwill was asked about that frustration \u2014 and specifically the notion that the Cardinals are primarily catering to wealthy fans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;m not sure I totally agree with that,\u201d Bidwill said. \u201cI think that we have done a lot of things to enhance the stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bidwill then pointed to specific examples.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFood selection at the stadium,\u201d Bidwill said. \u201cWe&#8217;ve now got over a dozen different local brands inside the stadium. We have enhanced the Wi-Fi, which everybody has access to. The video boards, the gameday experience, the gameday entertainment. All the enhancements outside the stadium. The upgrades in the concessions, we just rebranded all the concessions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bidwill concluded his thought with a defense of the recent stadium renovations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery year, we make investments into State Farm Stadium,\u201d Bidwill said. \u201cWe&#8217;re very proud of those investments. There are opportunities where we have made some substantial investments that I&#8217;m not sure we get complete credit for, in the terrace level and other areas that are accessible to all fans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, the product has grown increasingly unaffordable \u2014 at least for fans who purchase directly through the team. Shortly before the home finale, tickets were available on the secondary market for just $12, a reflection of the Cardinals\u2019 poor performance in their 3-14 season. But season ticket holders have seen consistent price hikes in recent years, with increases often eclipsing 10%, depending on the location of their seats.<\/p>\n<p>Bidwill defended those increases by noting that the Cardinals are \u201cstill, I believe, below the average of NFL pricing for game tickets.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He was then asked whether the financial impact on fans is a concern.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, we try to take that into consideration when we&#8217;re pricing,\u201d Bidwill said. \u201cSo our team is looking at that every year. And so we try to make it as affordable as we can. But we also have to go out there and compete with the rest of the National Football League.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With their next head coach hire, the Cardinals will aim to do that. The question is whether it will be enough to bring fans back to State Farm Stadium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Republic analyzes the Cardinals&#8217; firing of Jonathan Gannon The Republic&#8217;s Theo Mackie and Greg Moore discuss the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2078],"tags":[821,247,265,375,390,2604,822,807,95358,1327,441,816,7,20842,243,828,820,830,6126,33884,248,267,246,206,823,88,6,35196,245,264,815,9,266,526,394,527,776,806,95357],"class_list":["post-658453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arizona-cardinals","tag-affiliate","tag-american","tag-american-football","tag-arizona","tag-arizona-cardinals","tag-arizonacardinals","tag-arts","tag-az","tag-bidwill","tag-cardinals","tag-entertainment","tag-events","tag-football","tag-hub","tag-live","tag-live-sporting-events","tag-local","tag-local-affiliate-arts-u0026-entertainment","tag-michael","tag-michael-bidwill","tag-national","tag-national-sports","tag-neutral","tag-new","tag-new-visitors-az","tag-news","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-hub","tag-overall","tag-overall-neutral","tag-sporting","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-tennessee","tag-tennessee-titans","tag-titans","tag-u0026","tag-visitors","tag-wi-fi"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}