Christina Gough
Research expert covering sports and video gaming
Arizona Cardinals - statistics & facts
Founded in 1898, the Arizona Cardinals are the oldest extant professional football club in the United States. The team was first established in Chicago as the Morgan Athletic Club and later joined the National Football League (NFL) when it was formed in 1920. After moving from Chicago to St Louis in 1960, the team eventually relocated west to Tempe, Arizona in 1988. Nowadays, the Arizona Cardinals compete in the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West division. Although the team has never won a Super Bowl title, the Cardinals came close in 2009 when they were beaten by the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII. Prior to the formation of the NFL, however, the Cardinals had won two championships in 1925 and 1947 when they were still based in Chicago.
What are the financials of the Arizona Cardinals?
Under Michael Bidwell, the principal owner of the Arizona Cardinals, the team’s franchise value rose to 3.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. Franchise value is typically determined by financial indicators such as revenue, cash flow, and taxes. In 2022, the Arizona Cardinals’ revenue reached 500 million U.S dollars. This figure showed an increase of 33 million U.S. dollars compared to the previous year’s total of 467 million. Despite the team’s growing revenue and overall franchise value, the Arizona Cardinals had one of the lowest franchise values of all NFL teams in 2022. After deducting operating costs such as the payroll of the Arizona Cardinals, the operating income of the franchise amounted to 112 million U.S. dollars in 2021.How many fans attend the average Arizona Cardinals game?
The Cardinals are currently based in the Phoenix metropolitan area in Arizona and play their home games at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, AR. In 2022, the team’s average regular season home attendance was around 65.2 thousand. Although the cost of attending a Cardinals game is cheaper than that of most other NFL teams, a family of four can expect to pay around 487 U.S. dollars according to the 2022 Fan Cost Index. This figure is largely due to the average ticket price of an Arizona Cardinals game, which was roughly 91 U.S. dollars in 2022. Meanwhile, the team with the highest average ticket price that year was the Las Vegas Raiders.Do the Arizona Cardinals have a strong social media following?
The Arizona Cardinals had the fourth lowest social media following in the NFL as of May 2023, with the franchise’s official X page, (formerly known as Twitter) recording approximately 1.15 million followers. The New England Patriots, by comparison, had roughly four times as many X followers. When compared to the social media followings of individual NFL players, however, all NFL teams had a significantly smaller social media outreach. Odell Beckham Jr., for instance, had nearly 17 million Instagram followers as of January 2023.
