ARIZONA SUNSET

 

STADIUM TOUR

We finally got to take our tour this morning. Thank goodness we’re retired and flexible with our plans.

We picked up Judy, Don and Paul once again and headed to the University of Phoenix stadium. This stadium is where the Arizona Cardinals play their home games.

This was really a great tour and I would recommend it to everyone. One of the facts that really caught my attention was that the stadium has the University of Phoenix name. They pay $7.7 million a year for 20 years for this right. And the University of Phoenix does not have a football team. Or any athletic team for that matter.

Here are some other facts about the stadium. I couldn’t remember most of the facts that Cheryl gave us during the tour but I was able to find most of them on line.

The stadium features the only rollout field AND retractable roof in North America. Dallas now has a rollout field with their new stadium. The field was rolled in while we were there because of the Fiesta Bowl last week-end and the BCS game this next Monday night.

This is one of the luxury lofts.

Approximately 63,400 permanent seats, expandable to 72,200 seats. It had the extra seats in place during our tour because of the BCS game. 88 luxury lofts, approximately 7,400 Club Seats, Two 39,000 square foot Club Lounges

77 - Public Restrooms - and yes they have more women’s than men’s (35 for the women and 30 for the men). The other 12 are family restrooms.

10 elevators and 18 escalators for public use. If you have a luxury loft, you, of course, have four private elevators to your seats.

The exterior is supposed to represent a barrel cactus. I just don’t see it. We took a vote and we think it looks more like Jiffy Pop. Remember those?

We weren’t allowed in the Cardinals locker room but we toured the visitor’s locker room. Not very fancy.

Fun Facts

• The stadium seats, if set in a straight line, would stretch for approximately eighteen (18) miles.
• The amount of concrete used on the stadium is equal to 900 miles of sidewalk, the distance between Phoenix and San Francisco.
• The stadium air-conditioning system will generate 8,000 tons of cooling capacity, enough to cool 2,300 residential homes in the Phoenix area.
• These people are cleaning the seats and checking to see if any of them need to be repaired.
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• Two massive "thermometers" at the south end zone gauge crowd noise. The north end zone bridge displays photos of past players.
• There are six levels in the stadium: the field (or service) level; the main concourse, the club level, the suite level; the upper concourse and the mechanical level.
• The luxurious Club Level features wider seats, preferred parking, private entrances, and climate controlled club lounges with multiple two-story spaces, comfortable seating, plentiful TV monitors, upgraded food and beverage offerings and dedicated restrooms.

This is the press room. Everybody on the tour thought this would be a great place to watch the game from. Of course, this was before we got to see the luxury box seats.

The Field

The grass field rolls out of the stadium on a 18.9 million pound tray, residing outside of the stadium except for football and soccer events. This picture shows where the field resides when it is outside. If work needs to be done on the watering system or the rollers, they have a “jiffy lube” type area where the engineers can work under the field.

• The grass field remains outside the stadium in the sun until game day getting the maximum amount of sunshine and nourishment, eliminating humidity problems inside the stadium and providing unrestricted access to the stadium floor for events and staging.
• The site has the stadium situated along a slight northwest to southeast axis for maximum sun exposure for the field in the outboard position.
• Having the rollout field saves $50 million in costs since it is more economical to move the field than having the entire roof retract to allow the necessary sunshine to reach the grass.
• The roll out playing field weighs 18.9 million pounds and will travel at a speed of 11.5 feet/minute (1/8 mph); it will take approx. 75 minutes to travel approximately 741 feet.
• The field is 234 feet wide x 403 feet long and 39 inches tall.
• Field tray rests on 13 rail tracks and moves in and out of the stadium on 546 steel wheel assemblies (42 rows).
• 76 - of the wheel sets are powered by a 1- horsepower motor (total = 76 hp).
• The field will support approximately 94,000 square feet (over 2 acres) of natural grass.
• The grass is a Bermuda hybrid. It was planted by using plugs that provide the best long-term field conditions.
• The tray has a fairly sophisticated irrigation system that works on timers and can be customized. The water will drain through a 1-inch-deep mat and several pipes that lead to a main drainpipe underneath the field tray.
• A few inches of water will remain in the tray while the field is in play to keep the grass moist.

The Roof

• The translucent “Bird-Air” fabric roof will allow the stadium to have an open, airy feel even when the roof is closed. The roof has two large retractable panels that will uncover the entire playing field while providing maximum shading for fans. The roof can be closed and the facility air conditioned in the hot months, while the roof can be opened to take advantage of the Valley’s world-famous climate in cooler months.
• The roof is supported by two 700-foot long trusses.
• Each truss is 87 feet high at its tallest point and weighs about 1,800 tons.
• The top of the roof is 206 feet above grade.
• Each roof panel weighs 550 tons.
• The roof takes approx. 15 minutes to open.

ANOTHER GET TOGETHER

Eating and friends – what more could you want. Carol and Steve hadn’t met some of the people in this area, so I made arrangements for everybody to meet at Garcia’s Mexican Restaurant. This restaurant came highly recommended by Jeri and we wanted to check it out.

After the guys got home from fishing we headed to the restaurant to meet up with Erica and Karla, Sherry and Sharon, and Paul.

What a great group. We had a wonderful time visiting but they finally threw us out. Well not literally, but they had stacked all the chairs behind us on the tables so it was rather a large hint. We had only been there 2 1/2 hours but I guess that was long enough.

Jeri, the food was really good but I want you to try Los Gringos Locos the next time you’re in the area. However, they don’t have the bean stuff for the chips and that was a definite hit with this crowd.

OOPS

On Monday, we picked up my sister and her hubby, and Paul and headed out to Glendale to take a tour of the University of AZ stadium. I bought the tickets on line at Ticketmaster and our tour was at 12:30. Got to the ticket window and discovered that I had actually bought the tickets for the 10:30 tour on Thursday. How I did that, I’ll never know. But it’s very unusual for me to mess up because I check and double check those things.

Not a real big deal since we’re all retired with no set schedule, BUT, Glendale just happens to be 55 miles from Apache Junction. Oh well.

We figured since it was lunch time we might as well find a place and have a leisurely lunch before we headed home again.

There’s an area just north of the stadium that’s like a small downtown area with lots of different bars and restaurants. None of us had ever been to Jimmy Buffets Margaretville, so we all opted for lunch there. Really good food and we had a fun time just visiting. After lunch we dropped everybody off and came home.

We’re going to try again on Thursday to do the tour.

Oh, by the way, the boat is ready to go and the fishing trip is on for tomorrow.

STEVE AND CAROL

We met Steve and Carol when we were in Oklahoma and had such a wonderful time with them. This time they came to AZ. They had tickets to the Fiesta Bowl (OK was playing, of course) and were really happy their team won.

After all their celebrating we finally caught up to them on Sunday night and met them for dinner at the Black Angus. So good to see them again.

The guys spent a lot of the evening plotting a fishing trip. I think Jim has finally met someone that likes to fish as much as he does. Now we just need to get the boat fixed.

Loved Steve’s post on the Escapees forum after dinner: Plot, Plot, Fish, Fish, Oh what a relief it is.

Once again, we were so busy visiting that no pictures got taken.

AUNT HAPPY

New Year’s Day we picked up a prescription for my aunt and took it over to her apartment.

Doesn’t she look absolutely fantastic for 97!

She is part of the generation where women always dressed up. She hates to be seen without her jewelry and makeup on.

We told her we were going out to dinner with friends and she was excited that we were going to be able to get “gussied” up. It was kind of hard to tell her that we don’t “gussy” up anymore.

Her name is Norma but as a child her parents started to call her Happy because she was always a very happy child. And the nickname stuck. I must have been in my 20’s before I learned her name wasn’t really Happy. She was married to my Dad’s brother and they never had any children but she was a grade school teacher until she retired.

She is very sharp mentally as well as physically. She does use her walker because she doesn’t want to risk falling. She doesn’t need glasses and takes very few pills. Hates to have to take the ones she does take.

Sure hope we get to spend several more winters with her.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Hope and pray that 2011 is the very best year ever for everyone.