Could part of a Phoenix-area road be renamed after the Arizona Cardinals?
Feb 9, 2018, 4:31 AM | Updated: 9:01 am
(Flickr/Peter Eisenman with HOK Sport)
(Flickr/Peter Eisenman with HOK Sport)
PHOENIX — If there is one thing that the Valley rallies behind, it’s sports — especially the Arizona Cardinals.
Phoenix and its suburbs often honors its teams and those who have made them so great by renaming landmarks after them, such as the Arizona Diamondbacks did with former pitcher Randy Johnson in 2016.
But another city is looking to rename one of its streets after a famed Valley team.
According to the Glendale Star, the city of Glendale is looking to rename part of Bethany Home Road in honor of the Cardinals.
Glendale Mayor Jerry Weiers first requested the issue in June 2017, arguing for the change because the Cardinals “typically gets us on television nationally all the time, along with Super Bowls and everything else.”
“I think that (the Cardinals) have become very good partners with the city, and I see a great future working with them and, certainly, we need to take advantage of that,” he said at the time. “You know, branding is everything and why aren’t we taking advantage of that when we could?”
City staff will present a report to councilmembers next week to gauge their interest on renaming the street in front of University of Phoenix Stadium from between 83rd and 99th avenues to Cardinals Way.
If approved, the only thing that would be affected are street and highway signs. The cost of the change is estimated to be $80,000.
The Arizona Department of Transportation would pay $75,000 to replace 12 signs along the Loop 101, while the city would pay $5,000 to change five street signs along Bethany Home Road between 83rd and 91st avenues.
The change also would not be an honorary street name: It would be a permanent renaming of that portion of Bethany Home Road.
If the change is approved, it would be the second street in Glendale named in honor of sports teams. The city council named a street inside Westgate as Coyotes Boulevard in honor of the Arizona Coyotes.
So far, Councilmember Joyce Clark, whose district encompasses the roadway, said she is in favor of the change — so long as the city doesn’t end up footing the whole bill and the name change would just be “honorary.”
