D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
February
2008
Super-Sized
At least for visitors to Phoenix — site of this month's Super Bowl — bigger is better. Here's what's new besides football in our nearest really big city.
By David A. Fryxell / Photos by Lisa D. Fryxell
The nation's biggest sporting event will be within a day's drive of Southwest New Mexico this month — an occurrence not likely to be repeated for a decade or so, unless your definition of a day's driving distance extends to double-digit hours behind the wheel. Super Bowl XLII, kicking off on Sunday, Feb. 3, is expected to draw more than 150,000 visitors to the Phoenix area, virtually in our own backyard. That horde will include some 3,500 members of the media, who will bring the big game — and the sights and sounds of the Southwest — to 1 billion television viewers worldwide. (Expect plenty of shots of saguaros.) Another 73,000 lucky football fans will see the game in person at the new University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, a western suburb of Phoenix.
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Phoenix's new stadium, site of the
Feb. 3 Patriots-Giants Super Bowl, features a two-acre-plus field that
rolls outside on an 18.9-million-pound "tray" |
If you don't already have a ticket to Super Bowl XLII, sorry, it's likely too late. But the Super Bowl's return to the Phoenix area serves as a reminder of all this fast-growing metropolis has to offer — and all of it just five hours or so away. With that Arizona state line in the way, it's easy to forget how close Southwest New Mexicans are to what's now the nation's fifth-largest city.
Since the Super Bowl last was played in the Phoenix area, big game XXX at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe in 1996, the metropolitan area has boomed from 2.75 million people to 3.3 million. Phoenix — which had already expanded a mind-boggling 728 percent from 1950 to 1996 — continues to be one of the nation's fastest-growing cities. That phenomenal growth has brought with it all the usual urban ills, from sprawl to traffic jams. But for those of us who don't have to live there — just visiting, thanks — Phoenix's rise to the ranks of America's major metropolises also has its advantages. Even denizens of the more remote corners of Southwest New Mexico can easily access all the amenities of a truly "big city."
And if you haven't been to Phoenix lately, you don't really know our nearest big city. There have been some changes — with more in the works — beyond just the ever-rising population numbers on the city-limits sign.
The most visible change this month, of course, is the hulking new stadium that's sprouted like a giant silver barrel cactus in the far-western reaches of the Phoenix metro area. The state-of-the-art University of Phoenix Stadium is home not only to the Super Bowl but also to the NFL's Arizona Cardinals — not, however, to the football team of the eponymous University of Phoenix, which has no sports teams, only online and other nontraditional students. Each January, the new Glendale facility will host the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, which also makes it home to the NCAA's BCS championship game every four years.
The $455 million stadium, designed by architect Peter Eisenman, is the first in North America to feature a retractable roof and a natural-grass field that rolls out to bask in the sun. The two-acre-plus field sits on an 18.9-million-pound tray, enabling the grass to spend most of the time outside, growing. Before game time, the field rolls into place — the process takes about an hour — through one goal-post end. Two giant retractable panels can also keep the field sunny while shading fans, or can be closed in about 20 minutes to allow air-conditioning against Arizona's famously hot weather.
This month's Super Bowl pre- and post-game telecasts will also show viewers a lot of Scottsdale. Even though Scottsdale lies on the other side of the metropolitan area from the stadium, most of the Super Bowl hoopla will take place among its tony restaurants and shopping plazas. And if you still think of Scottsdale as a sleepy Old West locale with a smattering of galleries, think again: It's now home to Fashion Square, the region's largest shopping destination, with 225 stores and eateries covering 1.8 million square feet. Bridges criss-cross the irrigation canals, creating a riverfront-like area that includes the $250 million Scottsdale Waterfront retail development and the newly opened The Mix at SouthBridge. Other shopping stops you may not have seen if you haven't been to Scottsdale lately include The Borgata, with 40 shops and restaurants in a setting meant to suggest a medieval Italian village, the Moroccan-themed el Pedregal Festival Marketplace, the open-air Biltmore Fashion Park, the Shops at Gainey Village and Kierland Commons.
The actual media headquarters for the Super Bowl will be in downtown Phoenix at the convention center — also new and not done growing. Two already-completed convention buildings offer 200,000 square feet of space; by the time the phased expansion project wraps up next January, Phoenix's convention center will boast almost 900,000 square feet of space for badge-wearing conventioneers. The complex will be filled with $3.3 million worth of public art — notably, the 40-foot mirror sculpture, "Art Is a Guaranty of Sanity," by Louise Bourgeois that looms over the atrium like an unblinking eye.
AttractionsDesert Botanical Gardens, 1201 N. Galvin Parkway, Phoenix, AZ 85008; (480) 941-1225; www.dbg.org Phoenix Art Museum, 1625 N. Central Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85004; (602) 257-1880; www.phxart.org Phoenix Convention Center, 100 N. 3rd St., Phoenix, AZ 85004; toll-free (800) 282-4842; www.phoenixconventioncenter.com University of Phoenix Stadium, 1 Cardinals Dr., Glendale, AZ 85305; (623) 433-7125; www.universityofphoenixstadium.com |
Next door to the convention-center project, Phoenix's Symphony Hall has also gotten a facelift. A new 1,000-room Sheraton hotel, opening in late fall, will complete the downtown makeover and nearly double the nearby space for conventioneers to collapse after a hard day of whatever it is they do.
Not that you'll have to stay in downtown Phoenix to attend a convention there or enjoy its other attractions: Twenty miles of light-rail track are now being noisily stretched north up Central Avenue from downtown to Bethany Home Road and south to Sky Harbor Airport in Tempe. When the trains start running in December, Phoenix residents and visitors alike will have a handy alternative to the city's sometimes-crowded mesh of highways.
The new light-rail line will run right past the Phoenix Art Museum, which has recently undergone a renovation and expansion every bit as impressive as the stadium or convention-center construction. Unveiled in 2006, the $50 million expansion transformed the museum from a mid-sized facility with an impressive collection (17,000 pieces) into a top-tier art museum capable of hosting blockbuster exhibitions. With a new lobby and added gallery space, the expansion almost doubled the museum's size overall.