The Arizona Cardinals are launching a luxury hospitality offering for road games, leveraging owner Michael Bidwill’s Gridiron Air charter flight business to serve fans wanting to see the Cardinals play outside Phoenix.
Cardinals Premier Travel, recently announced to season ticket holders, will start with one game in the 2025 season, the Nov. 3 “Monday Night Football” game in Dallas. Pricing starts at $2,500 for the silver tier, $4,500 for the gold tier and $6,000 for the platinum tier.
Bundled hospitality experiences built around tickets are nothing new in sports, but the Cardinals believe the private planes are a differentiator. Customers will fly to Dallas on a Gridiron Air-owned Boeing 777, painted in Cardinals red and white (they’ll use one of two identical planes not in use by the team that weekend).
Among other selling points in the package, that means the charter flight will return to Phoenix immediately after the conclusion of the Monday night game -- “just like the team,” Bidwill says -- which wouldn’t be possible if you depend on commercial flights.
“We think our packages are incredibly compelling for fans,” Bidwill told SBJ. “We make it simple and turnkey, and we take away all of the hassles in dealing with ground transportation and getting back that night after the game.”
The idea came from Bidwill’s desire to better monetize the aircrafts, and is being overseen by Cardinals SVP/Ticket Sales & Service Joel Adams. To put the package together, the Cardinals also enlisted help from Legends -- which will host a reception in Dallas with Cardinals retirees and team execs -- and the Cowboys to ensure ticket availability, which are in the lower level, club level or suites depending on the package. The trip includes two hotel nights, gift bags and merchandise.
The Cardinals declined to discuss the precise economics of the travel business line, but Bidwill said results of the pre-sale indicate the first flight will be profitable. “We know the demand is there, people are doing their own travel already,” he said.
Indeed, several teams and league execs say there appears to be a post-pandemic trend of fans specifically building plans around their teams’ road games at new scale.
The Falcons offer tickets to one road game each season to its club season ticket holders. Both the N.Y. Giants and Cowboys license their brands to independent businesses -- Big Blue Travel and Star Sports Tours travel, respectively -- who offer road trip packages around those teams. But officials believe the Cardinals are first to use private chartered planes and own the businesses themselves.
