Changing The Play

By Anita Hamilton / Glendale

The steel-clad shell and huge size make it look more otherworldly to newcomer Matt Leinart. "It looks like a big spaceship to me," says the rookie quarterback-in-training, who just signed with the National Football League's biggest losers. With just one play-off victory since winning the championship in 1947, as the Chicago Cardinals, the St. Louis--now--Arizona Cardinals are in the midst of the longest play-off dry spell in the league. The Cardinals have also set the records for the lowest attendance and revenues in the NFL. Now the Bidwill family, which has owned the team since 1933, is predicting that its swanky new nest in Glendale will help resurrect the much maligned team.

Technically speaking, it's a substitution of capital for management. The $455 million, 63,400-seat arena, designed by architect Peter Eisenman with HOK Sport and featuring the only retractable playing field in North America, is expected to do more than fatten the family's net worth. According to Michael Bidwill, a former federal prosecutor and son of owner Bill Bidwill, who now runs the team's day-to-day business operations, "There is a direct correlation between revenue from new stadiums and being able to compete. The teams with new stadiums are consistently in the play-offs."

Actually, the teams that are consistently in the play-offs tend to be the ones with the best players, coaches and managers. That they happen to play in a new stadium may be more of a coincidence. A stadium-building program that the NFL started under former commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who left office in July after 17 years, has helped finance a dozen new playing palaces. That includes such venues as New England, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Philadelphia, Denver and Washington. Sure, the Super Bowl--champion Steelers play in the new

Heinz Field (which has done nothing for Heinz, by the way), but the same team won four Super Bowls playing in the odious Three Rivers Stadium. The common denominator is the Rooney family, which has owned the Steelers for as long as the Bidwills have ruled the Cardinals. Over the past 40 years, though, the Rooneys have been far better managers than the Bidwills.

Michael Bidwill, 41, makes the case that the stadium is the shiny manifestation of a new business model that will narrow the gap on the field and on P&L. Seated in one of the generously cushioned, red club seats on the day before the stadium's grand opening on Aug. 12, he says the extra revenue that Cardinals Stadium will generate each year is already helping the team attract and keep top talent. That includes former Indiana Colts running back Edgerrin James, 28, who just signed a four-year, $30 million contract, as well as breakout stars like wide receiver Anquan Boldin, 25, who got $10 million in signing bonuses when he re-upped his contract last year through 2010.

What's more, the air-conditioned arena, which lets in natural light through its retractable roof made of woven polyester reinforced with Teflon, also restores a home-field advantage lost to the desert heat. Because of the climate, the Cardinals haven't had a home opener in the open-air Sun Devil Stadium at Arizona State University in Tempe since they moved from St. Louis in 1988. And when they played at home, the 73,000-seat stadium was often half empty. Now, with the eight home games sold out for 2006, "all that positive energy gives our guys a boost," says coach Dennis Green.

No wonder Michael Bidwill is all smiles as he gives a personal tour of the red-carpeted locker room and the carefully manicured, natural-grass playing field. ("It's Tifway 419," he points out.) Even though the team has been a loser on the field, it has been a winner on the books; it's difficult to lose money in the NFL. The $50,000 investment made by Michael's grandfather in 1933 has mushroomed into a franchise worth more than $700 million today. And while the Cardinals have historically made less money than other clubs, they're hardly in the poorhouse. This year, for example, they'll get the same $100 million--plus in revenues from national television rights that every other team gets. The NFL, armed with new TV contracts, should gross more than $7 billion, up from $6 billion in 2005.

Employees know, however, that even a new headquarters doesn't guarantee a better operation. "Buildings don't win games. Players do," says Kurt Warner, the veteran starting quarterback who led the team to a dismal 5-11 season last year. But buildings can produce income. The stadium could generate an additional $60 million in revenue, since the team keeps two-thirds of ticket sales and all the money from suites. The Bidwills can bank on an additional $25 million or more in estimated annual profits (on top of the $16.5 million Forbes calculates the team made in 2004), according to Andrew Zimbalist, a sports-business expert and economics professor at Smith College. "I'm sure Bidwill is delighted," says the economist, but he notes that the extra income isn't a competitive advantage. First, other teams have similar extra income streams that new stadiums generate. Second, the Cardinals aren't going to be outspending anyone for talent because all NFL teams have a salary cap--$102 million in 2006, up from $85.5 million in 2005--which most reach.

One problem the Cardinals have not been able to shake is the ongoing criticism of Bill Bidwill's management style. The notoriously aloof, bow-tied Mr. B has been criticized for everything from the exorbitant premiums he charged for the sizzling-hot metal bleacher seats at Sun Devil Stadium, when the team moved to Arizona in 1988, to poor choices in coaches, free agents and draft picks. "I think he's been very misunderstood because he hasn't felt comfortable speaking up," says Michael, who describes his father as a nice, shy guy.

During one particularly bleak period, from 1993 to 1996, the Cardinals went through three head coaches, firing the first, Joe Bugel, after he failed to meet Mr. B's public ultimatum that the team win at least nine games. "That was a terrible decision. The team was headed in the right direction, and then you're starting all over," says ABC football analyst Ed Cunningham, who played for the Cards from 1992 to 1995.

Jake Plummer, the club's former QB, who led the team to its January 1999 play-off victory against the Dallas Cowboys, blames the downturn on the loss of experienced players like Lomas Brown and Larry Centers to free agency because the Bidwills didn't want to pay up. Comparing his Broncos careerhe was 13-3 last season with his Cardinals stint, Plummer says consistency makes all the difference. "I've had the same linemen in front of me for the last three years. Keeping a nice, tight group of guys goes a long way toward winning."

More veterans might have stayed with the Cards if management hadn't been so tightfisted or even openly hostile to them. In 1999, for example, the Bidwills offered Mark Smith, the team's best defensive tackle, a contract that would pay him less than his backup was making. At one point during the protracted negotiations, which extended two games into the season, then general manager Bob Ferguson joked that Smith should be grateful for anything higher than the minimum wage earned by fast-food workers.

Rod Graves, who has been general manager since 2002, says the Cardinals are birds of a different feather now, but the reputation lingers. "We're just not far enough removed from the perceptions of the past," he says. Known for his careful, diplomatic demeanor, Graves has won raves from top agents. "He's definitely a classy guy," says Drew Rosenhaus, who represents James, Boldin, Darnell Dockett and rookie Gabe Watson. "As opposed to years and years of long, acrimonious contract negotiations, Rod has been extremely effective in player acquisitions and negotiations," says Leigh Steinberg, agent for the 365-lb. offensive linebacker Leonard Davis, who will take home about $10 million this year. Graves says his personal goal is to build a core of players "who we consider bell cows," like Boldin and James on offense, Bertrand Berry on defense, and kicker Neil Rackers.

As Graves and Michael Bidwill set a new tone for the team (Bill Bidwill continues to sign off on major deals), players are sticking around rather than fleeing the Valley as soon as their contracts are up. Rackers, 30, who set the NFL record with 40 field goals last year, says he signed a four-year, $6.75 million contract last fall out of loyalty to the club, which hired him when he was "unemployed" in 2003 after a three-year stint with the Cincinnati Bengals. "I'll stay here as long as they want me," he says. Berry, 31, who signed in 2004 after leaving the Denver Broncos, says of his move: "I saw it as a challenge. I wanted to be one of the guys who was in the forefront. Everything is set up for us. There is no excuse for us not to be successful."

One of the best reasons they might be is the arrival of running back Edgerrin James. Not only is he a benchmark player--the four-time Pro Bowler is just 181 yds. shy of becoming one of the top 20 rushers of all time--but he's changing the corporate culture. "This is not a bad team. It just needs to do the little things to take it over the top," says Edge, whose gold-capped front teeth sparkle in the light when he smiles--something he has been doing a lot since he moved to the Valley this spring. "I go through and tell every lineman, 'If y'all don't make mistakes, trust me, we're good.' I let people know that I believe in them and that I'm here for them."

Edge is so pumped up for the 2006 season, which kicks off Sept. 10 against the San Francisco 49ers, that he has even found a reason to love the Arizona fans, who in past years were more likely to root for the opposing team (especially when it was the Dallas Cowboys or Green Bay Packers) than for the Cardinals. On the Monday after the first preseason game, during which fans booed the Pittsburgh Steelers as they ran onto the field, Edge told TIME, "They appreciate a football team. These people want to win so badly."

Dan Alandar, 52, is one of those fans. A season-ticket holder for four years, the X-ray-machine salesman from Peoria, Ariz., says he and his girlfriend used to bring mist sprayers and portable fans to keep cool as they grilled on the bleachers at Sun Devil Stadium. "The first four or five games used to be a test of your endurance," he says. Now the couple enjoys $100 cushioned club seats in the soaring, air-conditioned arena.

And even though many sports fans around the country seem skeptical about the Cardinals' imminent rebirth--some wonder whether the defense will hold up--Alandar has a much sunnier outlook. "They were always on the verge of being a good team. This year I think they'll make the play-offs." Maybe Edge was right about those Cardinals fans: they really do want it bad.