By BEX Staff for AZBEX
The Arizona Cardinals are planning to invest $100M in the team’s training facility at Hardy Drive and Warner Road in Tempe, but the team is keeping quiet for the moment as to what those plans entail.
Team officials have said the plans are “very preliminary.” The Cardinals have retained Rossetti as the design firm and say plans are underway.
According to a statement released by the team, “Overall, the Cardinals finished last in the NFL in the third-annual survey that graded teams in 11 different categories. While there were good grades in a handful of those categories, the team scored lowest in the facility-related ones. The Cardinals said they are addressing those concerns with the new training facility project, the planning and design of which began several months ago.”
The statement said plans for a new facility have been shared with the team.
A local news outlet reported the planning and construction process requirements are uncertain at the moment. The City of Tempe owns the 14.8-acre site in the Tempe Sports Complex and leases it to the team.
The team is allowed to make minor alterations to the facility without the City’s approval, provided the City is kept abreast of plans. There are conflicting items in the agreements, however, about a project of the currently proposed scale.
Tempe invested $6.5M of the $7.1M costs for the original corporate and training facility under a 1989 lease agreement. That facility opened in 1991.
According to the article, a 2004 amendment to the lease agreement says, the team is “permitted without the necessity of obtaining consent from Tempe, to make such modifications and alterations to the Facility as the Cardinals may elect to make from time to time… provided that no such modifications or alterations shall diminish the value of the Facility.”
The team would, however, be required to notify Tempe before making the changes.
The original lease requires the Cardinals to obtain consent before the team can “make alterations or improvements having substantial cost.” There is no definition of the term, “substantial,” in the agreement.
Tempe officials say the City has a positive longstanding relationship with the Cardinals and looks forward to learning more about the plans in the future.
