Sports in Arizona

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Sports in Arizona includes professional sports teams, college sports, and individual sports. All four major league sports teams in Arizona are based in the Phoenix metropolitan area.

Contents

Professional sports teams

Professional sports teams in Arizona include four major league sports teams, plus minor league and semi-pro teams:

ClubSportLeagueFoundedChampionships
Arizona Cardinals American football National Football League 18982 (1925, 1947) [1]
Phoenix Suns Basketball National Basketball Association 19680
Arizona Diamondbacks Baseball Major League Baseball 19981 (2001)
Arizona Coyotes Ice hockey National Hockey League 19960
Phoenix Mercury Basketball Women's National Basketball Association 19973 (2007, 2009, 2014)
Phoenix Rising FC Soccer USL Championship 20140
FC Tucson Soccer USL League One 20100
Valley United FC Soccer National Independent Soccer Association 20200
FC Arizona Soccer National Premier Soccer League 20160
Tucson Roadrunners Ice hockey American Hockey League 20160
Tucson Saguaros Baseball Pecos League 20163 (2016, 2020, 2021)
Arizona Rattlers Indoor football Indoor Football League 19926 (1994, 1997, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017)
Northern Arizona Wranglers Indoor footballIndoor Football League20211 (2022) [2]
Tucson Sugar Skulls Indoor footballIndoor Football League20190
Arizona Sidewinders Ultimate (sport) Western Ultimate League 20200

College sports

With three state universities and one private university in NCAA Division I, and several community colleges, college sports are also prevalent in Arizona. The intense rivalry between Arizona State University and the University of Arizona predates Arizona's statehood, and is one of the oldest rivalries in the NCAA. [3] The thus aptly named Territorial Cup, first awarded in 1889 and certified as the oldest trophy in college football, [4] is awarded to the winner of the "Duel in the Desert", the annual football game between the two schools. Both UA and ASU are members of the Pac-12 Conference, one of the so-called Power Five conferences in Division I FBS, the top tier of U.S. college football.

The other two Division I members in Arizona are Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, which plays football in the second-level Division I FCS, and Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, a private school that does not sponsor football.

Arizona also hosts several college football bowl games. The Fiesta Bowl, originally held at Sun Devil Stadium, is now held at State Farm Stadium in Glendale. The Fiesta Bowl has been part of the College Football Playoff (CFP) since its creation for the 2014 season, and is paired with the Peach Bowl in Atlanta as rotating hosts of CFP semifinals. The Fiesta Bowl hosted a CFP semifinal in 2016, and will next host a semifinal in the 2019 season. University of Phoenix Stadium was also home to the 2007 and 2011 BCS National Championship Games and hosted Super Bowl XLII on February 3, 2008. It hosted the state's first Pro Bowl on January 25, 2015, Super Bowl XLIX on February 1, 2015, and the College Football Playoff National Championship on January 11, 2016. The stadium also hosted the Final Four of the 2017 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament and 2024 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. The Cactus Bowl is currently played in Phoenix at Chase Field. It was first held at Arizona Stadium at the UA campus in Tucson, then moved to Chase Field when it was known as Bank One Ballpark, and then to Sun Devil Stadium before returning to Chase Field in 2015.

Individual sports

Due to its numerous golf courses, Arizona is home to several stops on the PGA Tour, most notably the Phoenix Open, held at the TPC of Scottsdale, and the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Marana. The lower-level Cactus Tour, for women golfers, is mostly in Arizona.

Auto racing is another sport known in the state. Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale is home to NASCAR race weekends twice a year. Firebird International Raceway near Chandler is home to drag racing, off-road racing and other motorsport events.

Baseball

A spring training game between the two Chicago teams, the Cubs and the White Sox, at HoHoKam Park in Mesa. SpringTrainingHoHoKamPark.jpg
A spring training game between the two Chicago teams, the Cubs and the White Sox, at HoHoKam Park in Mesa.

Arizona is a popular location for Major League Baseball spring training, as it is the site of the Cactus League. The only other location for spring training is in Florida with the Grapefruit League. In 2009, the Los Angeles Dodgers opened a new spring training facility in Phoenix owned by Glendale, making them the 14th team in Arizona. Spring training has been somewhat of a tradition in Arizona since 1947 (i.e. the Cleveland Indians in Tucson until 1991, and the San Diego Padres in Yuma until 1992) despite the fact that the state did not have its own major league team until the state was awarded the Diamondbacks in Phoenix as an expansion team. The state currently hosts the following teams for spring training:

Besides being home to MLB spring training, Arizona is also home to the Arizona Fall League. The Fall League was founded in 1992 and is a minor league baseball league designed for players to refine their skills and perform in game settings in front of major and minor league baseball scouts and team executives, who are in attendance at almost every game. The league got exposure when Michael Jordan started his time in baseball with the Scottsdale Scorpions.

Professional football

In addition to games involving the Arizona Cardinals, four Super Bowls have been hosted in Arizona:

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sun Devil Stadium</span> Football stadium in Tempe, Arizona

Mountain America Stadium, Home of the ASU Sun Devils is an outdoor college football stadium in the southwestern United States, on the campus of Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe, Arizona. It is home to the ASU Sun Devils football team of the Pac-12 Conference. The stadium's seating capacity as of 2018 is 53,599, reduced from a peak of 74,865 in 1989. The natural grass playing surface within the stadium was named Frank Kush Field in 1996 in honor of the former coach of the team. The stadium underwent a five-year, $304-million renovation that was completed in August 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glendale, Arizona</span> City in Arizona, United States

Glendale is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. Located about nine miles northwest of the state capital Phoenix, Glendale is known for State Farm Stadium, which is the home of the Arizona Cardinals football team. The city also contains the Arrowhead Towne Center shopping mall. As of the 2020 census, Glendale had a population of 248,325.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fiesta Bowl</span> Annual American college football postseason game

The Fiesta Bowl is an American college football bowl game played annually in the Phoenix metropolitan area. From its beginning in 1971 until 2006, the game was hosted at the Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Since 2007, the game has been played at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Since 2022, it has been sponsored by Vrbo and officially known as the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl. Previous sponsors include PlayStation, BattleFrog, Vizio, Tostitos, IBM (1993–1995) and Sunkist (1986–1990).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guaranteed Rate Bowl</span> Annual college football tournament in Arizona

The Guaranteed Rate Bowl is an annual college football bowl game that has been played in the state of Arizona since 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kino Sports Complex</span> Sports venue in Tucson, Arizona

Kino Sports Complex is a multiple-use sports complex in Tucson, Arizona. The Arizona Diamondbacks and Chicago White Sox formerly utilized the complex's main ballpark, Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium, for Cactus League games each March and had their minor league complexes on-site. The ballpark was also home to the Tucson Sidewinders of the Pacific Coast League for the team's last decade in Tucson, running from the stadium's 1998 opening season to the 2008 season. The ballpark was a temporary home (2011–2013) to the Tucson Padres of the Pacific Coast League during the team's relocation to El Paso, Texas. It is also the regular season home of the Pecos League's Tucson Saguaros baseball team since 2016. It seats 11,500 fans, and hosts concerts in addition to its primary function as a baseball park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hi Corbett Field</span> Baseball stadium in Tucson, Arizona

Hi Corbett Field is a baseball park in the southwestern United States, located in Tucson, Arizona. With a seating capacity of approximately 9,500, it was the spring training home of the Colorado Rockies and Cleveland Indians of Major League Baseball, and is currently home to the University of Arizona Wildcats of the Pac-12 Conference.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phoenix Municipal Stadium</span> Baseball stadium

Phoenix Municipal Stadium is a baseball stadium, located in Phoenix, Arizona. It is often referred in short as Phoenix Muni. The stadium was built in 1964 and holds 8,775 people. It is currently the home to the Arizona State Sun Devils baseball program, having relocated to Phoenix Municipal Stadium at the start of their 2015 season. It is the former spring training home to the Oakland A's, having played their home games from 1982 to 2014. The San Francisco Giants held spring training at the ballpark from 1964 to 1981, when they moved to Scottsdale Stadium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scottsdale Stadium</span> Baseball field in Scottsdale, Arizona

Scottsdale Stadium is a ballpark located in Scottsdale, Arizona, United States. Designed by the architect of the Baltimore Orioles’ Camden Yards, Populous, the stadium was expanded to its current state in 1992 and holds 12,000 people. It has been the spring training home of the San Francisco Giants since 1984, when the capacity was just 4,721.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">State Farm Stadium</span> Stadium in Glendale, Arizona

State Farm Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Glendale, Arizona, west of Phoenix. It is the home of the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL) and the annual Fiesta Bowl. It replaced Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe as the home of the Cardinals, adjacent to Desert Diamond Arena, former home of the Arizona Coyotes of the National Hockey League.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camelback Ranch</span> Baseball stadium located in Phoenix, Arizona

Camelback Ranch–Glendale is a baseball complex located in Phoenix, Arizona and owned by the city of Glendale. It is operated by Camelback Spring Training LLC. It is the spring training home of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago White Sox. The main stadium holds 13,000 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sports in the Tampa Bay area</span> Overview of sports opportunities in the Tampa Bay area

The Tampa Bay area is home to many sports teams and has a substantial history of sporting activity. Most of the region's professional sports franchises use the name "Tampa Bay", which is the name of a body of water, not of any city. This is to emphasize that they represent the wider metropolitan area and not a particular municipality and was a tradition started by Tampa's first major sports team, the original Tampa Bay Rowdies, when they were founded in 1975.

Compadre Stadium was a stadium located in Chandler, Arizona. It was the spring training home of the Milwaukee Brewers from 1986 to 1997 and the home field of the Chandler Diamondbacks of the Arizona Fall League from 1992 to 1994. The ballpark was privately financed by local developers and built at a cost of $1.6 million in 1985. It closed in 1997 and sat abandoned for a number of years, with the outfield being used for grazing, before finally being demolished in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sloan Park</span> Baseball park in Mesa, Arizona

Sloan Park is an American baseball park in Mesa, Arizona, which opened in 2014. The primary operator is the Chicago Cubs and the ballpark serves as their spring training home and is also the home of the Arizona League Cubs of the Arizona League and the Mesa Solar Sox of the Arizona Fall League. Sloan Park was built and paid for by residents of the City of Mesa, approved by ballot measure. It was primarily built to house spring training operations for the Chicago Cubs, who had previously played at nearby Hohokam Stadium. The stadium design was led by Populous. The dimensions of the playing surface closely match those of the Cubs' regular home stadium, Wrigley Field. There are many secondary fields at the park, most of which are training and practice fields.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">College Football Playoff National Championship</span> End of season American football event

The College Football Playoff National Championship is a post-season college football bowl game, used to determine a national champion of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), which began play in the 2014 college football season. The game serves as the final of the College Football Playoff, a bracket tournament between the top four teams in the country as determined by a selection committee, which was established as a successor to the Bowl Championship Series and its similar BCS National Championship Game.

The 2014 Fiesta Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 31, 2014, at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The 44th Fiesta Bowl was one of the New Year's Bowls of the College Football Playoff. It was one of the 2014–15 bowl games that conclude the 2014 FBS football season. The game was sponsored by the Vizio consumer electronics company and is officially known as the Vizio Fiesta Bowl.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sports in Phoenix</span>

Sports in Phoenix include several professional sports franchises, and is one of only 13 U.S. cities to have representatives of all four major professional sports leagues, although only one of these teams actually carry the city name and play within the city limits. Phoenix was the last of the metropolitan areas with teams in all four leagues to gain its first major professional sports team, when the Suns were granted a franchise in 1968.

References

  1. "Arizona Cardinals | History & Notable Players | Britannica". www.britannica.com. 2023-07-29. Retrieved 2023-08-14.
  2. "NORTHERN ARIZONA WRANGLERS WIN 2022 IFL NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP". goifl.com. Retrieved 2023-08-09.
  3. Knauer, Tom (November 22, 2006). "What is the Territorial Cup?". The Wildcat Online. Archived from the original on October 8, 2008. Retrieved April 2, 2007.
  4. Official 2007 NCAA Division I Football Records Book (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association. 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 25, 2008.