Arizona’s desert wonder

GLENDALE, Ariz. – A strange sound erupted an hour before the Arizona Cardinals’ first game in their new stadium Saturday afternoon.

The visiting team was booed as it took the field for pregame warm-ups.

This rarely occurred in the Cardinals’ former home, Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, where visiting fans often outnumbered Cardinal faithful.

Cardinals Stadium is sold out for the 2006 season, and the more than $450 million retractable-domed palace was awash in red as a crowd of 63,400 watched the Cardinals beat the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers 21-13 in their preseason opener.

“I’ve been in some places that have a great atmosphere and a great home-field advantage,” quarterback Kurt Warner said. “Obviously, we didn’t have that necessarily last year. So to come running into the stadium and see all the red and hear the reaction, I couldn’t be more excited.

Now, our job is to continue to give them a good product and show them what they want to see so that they continue to stand up and scream for us all year long.”

The noise wasn’t the only change from those somnolent Sundays in Sun Devil Stadium. Greg Bloemke, a 43-year-old season-ticket holder, felt a blast of air conditioning as he walked in from the 100-degree temperatures in the parking lot.

“The first impression was cold,” he said.

The Cardinals said it was 75 degrees in the stadium, 17 degrees cooler than the outdoor temperature.

This is another change from Sun Devil Stadium, where Cardinal fans baked in metal-backed bleachers. That’s why ASU plays most of its early-season games at night. But the Cardinals were bound by television contracts to play in afternoon heat.

“It was just miserable,” said Dave Stanton, a 39-year-old Scottsdale resident who had season tickets for 10 years in Tempe. “You almost dreaded going every Sunday.”

Many fans didn’t bother. But that changed Saturday, when a full house turned out. Fans were dazzled by a state-of-the-art stadium that has been hailed as one of the top 10 sports facilities in the world by Business Week magazine. The silver structure, which rises from farmland in this suburb west of Phoenix, was designed by Peter Eisenman.

The facility will also host the Fiesta Bowl, and in January 2007 will be the site of the first new Bowl Championship Series national title game. The stadium also has been awarded the 2008 Super Bowl.

“I think that it’s wonderful,” owner Bill Bidwill said. “Anyone who asks, I said, ‘We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.’ “

The players joined the chorus of cheers for the building.

“Everything about this place is just amazing,” Arizona guard Reggie Wells said. “You get on the field – it’s going to be voted the best place to play in the league.”

Fans held up camera phones as they passed through the turnstiles. Many focused on the translucent roof, which allowed the desert sunlight to stream in.

“This is nice. It will wear off if they don’t play well,” said Dave Stanton’s mother, Marta, who wore a vintage Jake Plummer Cardinals jersey.

The optimism generated by the new stadium is unprecedented in the long and not particularly glorious history of the Cardinals, who were formed as a football club in 1898 and became an NFL charter member in 1920. The vagabond franchise left Chicago for St. Louis in 1960 and moved to the desert in 1988.

The Cardinals have enjoyed little success through the decades, but the club is celebrating its past now that it has its own home for the first time.

The stadium features a ring of honor. Five Pro Football Hall of Famers are included: longtime owner Charles W. Bidwill Sr., the father of Bill Bidwill; quarterback Charley Trippi; running back Ollie Matson; quarterback Jimmy Conzelman; and cornerback Dick “Night Train” Lane.