As they have been doing for several seasons, the Arizona Cardinals have announced their "Protect the Nest" ticket packages. They pick popular games, ones that typically bring a large visiting team following and require that tickets for other games be purchased. The idea is that it will limit the number of away fans purchasing tickets and it also ups the ticket sales for slightly less popular games.
The Cardinals have two packages, a Red and a White, that are connected to the home games against the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks.
The Red Plan features the September 21 49ers game along with the September 8 Monday Night Football contest against the San Diego Chargers and the matchup against the Washington Redskins on October 12.
The White Plan contains the December 21 game vs. Seattle along with the November 16 contest with the Detroit Lions and the matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs on December 7.
Season-ticket members will have the exclusive opportunity to purchase the "Protect the Nest" plans starting Wednesday, July 16 at 10:00 AM via the Account Manager function at www.azcardinals.com.
The plans will go on sale to the general public on Friday, July 18 at 10:00 AM and again only through the team's official website, www.azcardinals.com. Starting Monday, July 21, they can be purchased at the Cardinals Tempe training facility box office (8:30 AM-5:00 PM) and at University of Phoenix Stadium (10:00 AM-6:00 PM).
The choice of games to put on the plans is not surprising. Divisional games against the Niners and Hawks have been very popular. What is interesting, at least to me, is the decision to tie in the season opener to the packages. While one would think that selling out the season opener on Monday Night Football would not be difficult, there are a couple of reasons why the team would do it.
First of all, that game HAS TO be a sellout. It would be extremely embarrassing for the team to not sell out that game after years of sellouts, as it is on national television and the season opener, with the added intrigue that the team will add Kurt Warner to the Ring of Honor at halftime.
There other factors are that, being on a Monday Night, logistics like jobs that people have make it more difficult to attend a game and the fact that Chargers fans are not particularly known for their strong following outside their area.
Will any of you be taking advantage of these plans?