http://www.sportsline.com/columns/weblogs/entry/257/042006
Dodd's and Ends
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By Dennis Dodd
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
Tell Dennis your opinion!
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Updated: Apr/25/2006 12:06 PM
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Ohio State omen in the desert?<!-- Sesame Modified: 04/25/2006 12:33:33 --> <!-- sversion: 2 $Updated: lylec$ -->I wore shorts.
That was the first mistake in showing up for a tour of the new Cardinals Stadium out here in the desert. Then I had to be fitted with work boots and a hard hat.
Regulations around a work site, you know. Eventually, I looked like a valet for the Hell's Angels. Dressed in all black, skinny as a rail. Dorky.
"Anything else we can do for you?" one of my colleagues said sarcastically as I slipped on a pair of long pants provided by the Arizona Cardinals.
The Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority had offered a bunch of writers a tour of the almost-finished stadium out on the western edge of the Phoenix metro. It will be the site of not only the Fiesta Bowl but the new BCS national championship game on Jan. 8.
We're here for the annual BCS meetings, but it doesn't hurt to check out our future working conditions. Us working stiffs wanted to see how many amenities we'll enjoy. Several, it turns out, but that's not the story.
We took one look inside the 63,300-seat retractable-roof structure and realized Ohio State fans are going to be very happy. Color scheme?
Scarlet and gray. The seats are alternately dingy gray and red throughout, sort of the Arizona Cardinals colors.
Definitely Ohio State colors. Even The Shoe doesn't look this Buckeye.
For a program that has been to the desert three of the last four seasons, this is either an omen, an invitation or an incentive. Probably all three. Ohio State is my No. 1 team right now. Toward the end of spring I've been debating whether that should change.
Then this sign from above -- and below. You see, Cardinals Stadium (it will no doubt be slapped with some corporate name at some point) has a movable
field. Pretty much only the second stadium like that in the world.
Here's the deal. The 40-inch high, 234-foot wide, 403-foot long "tray" of natural grass sits outside, except for games. On game day, 76 one-horsepower motors drive the tray at 11.5 feet per minute indoors. To move the 16.9 million pounds of turf and machinery takes about 65 minutes each way.
With the tray out, Cardinals Stadium can potentially host Final Fours and regionals. With the tray in, well, one wag thought of positioning the two teams in the BCS title game on the field as it rolled in.
How would that be for drama?
Not going to happen, even with Fox now televising the games.
Arizona, Phoenix and the BCS are getting the desired splash. The $400 million structure rises out of the desert like a space ship. It's going to have all the state-of-the-art whistles and bells. There's little else around it. The structure is basically carved out of avocado fields just like its next-door neighbor, the Glendale Arena.
If you're staying in Scottsdale for the games, well, don't. It's at least a 50-minute drive out here.
Both buildings are so far west that they are halfway to L.A. There's a bunch of residential, commercial and retail being built up around it, so this is going to be a wonderland someday.
For now? It's a dusty playground with an Ohio State color scheme.
And by the end of the tour I really started to like the pants, boots and construction hat. Especially when some scruffy biker pulled up outside and asked me to watch his bike.
Make that,
told me to watch his bike.
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