Arizona Cardinals Sports Book at Sportsman's Park

West of Phoenix, State Farm Stadium is home to the National Football League's Arizona Cardinals and the annual Fiesta Bowl. SmithGroup has worked with the Cardinals organization on two projects on the eight-acre Great Lawn, a popular tailgating locale for football fans right outside the stadium. The client wanted to begin adding more services to the lawn area, including food and beverage concessions, restrooms, and a variety of seating areas. It envisioned amenities that would not only serve football fans, but also begin to build a marketable year-round events venue.

Two permanent structures now flank the Great Lawn: Heritage at Sportsman’s Park provides outdoor patio and deck seating, food service and restrooms. Facing it across the lawn, the BetMGM Sportsbook houses a sports bar, full-service restaurant, private meeting spaces, and sports wagering. Landscaping and lighting were key to the project’s success outside of game days, sparking interest from afar and establishing a sequence of arrival across the parking lots to these lively new areas. Just as it is a core game-day experience for Cardinals fans, the site now is positioned to host functions of all types and sizes well beyond the football season.

Heritage is designed to be a prominent beacon for visitors yet provides a variety of human-scale spaces. The pavilion's stair and elevator tower uses perforated masonry, metal screening and specialty lighting to become a focal point. Food service and restrooms occupy the ground level, along with a patio and pergola adorned with trees and lighting, which is used as a beer garden on game days and can flex to many entertainment uses. Levels two and three are large open-air pavilions and decks with great views of activities throughout the grounds. Textured masonry, lighting and natural light interplay and add movement throughout the site. Grasses, vines and other native plantings provide additional screening and shade and integrate the building with the broader landscape of sculptural palo verde trees that extend to the entry drive and beckon visitors.

The exterior uses masonry and metal panels, with a curved wall of stone panels that carries from the exterior entrance through the building. The lighting design includes dramatic uplighting on the exterior, subtle decorative lighting on a feature stair and specialized security lighting for wagering areas. Mechanical systems were deftly tucked away behind site walls and decorative screens and were condensed into compact footprints for both buildings to preserve architectural aesthetics while maintaining public access on all four sides of the buildings.

The projects establish a cohesive design standard for a convivial and flexible property, setting the stage for profitable year-round use.