Phoenix, Arizona - Sports

Sports

See also: U.S. cities with teams from four major sports

Phoenix is home to several professional sports franchises, including representatives of all four major professional sports leagues in the U.S. – although only two of these teams actually carry the city name and play within the city limits. Of all the U.S. metropolitan areas with teams in all four leagues, Phoenix was the last to get its first major franchise, this being the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association (NBA), which started play in 1968 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

In 1992 the Suns moved to the America West Arena, which is now the US Airways Center. In 1997, the Phoenix Mercury was one of the original eight teams to launch the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Both teams play at U.S. Airways Center. The U.S. Airways Center was the setting for both the 1995 and the 2009 NBA All-Star Games. The Phoenix Flame of the International Basketball League began play in the spring of 2007. They play at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

The Arizona Cardinals moved to Phoenix from St. Louis, Missouri in 1988 and currently play in the Western Division of the National Football League's National Football Conference. The team, however, has never played in the city itself; they played at Sun Devil Stadium on the campus of Arizona State University in nearby Tempe until 2006. Sun Devil Stadium held Super Bowl XXX in 1996 when the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Cardinals now play at University of Phoenix Stadium in west suburban Glendale. University of Phoenix Stadium hosted Super Bowl XLII on February 3, 2008, in which the New York Giants defeated the New England Patriots. It is also the home of the annual Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, a college football bowl game that is part of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS).

Phoenix has an arena football team, the Arizona Rattlers of the Arena Football League. Games are played at US Airways Center downtown.

The Phoenix Coyotes of the National Hockey League moved to the area in 1996; they were formerly the Winnipeg Jets franchise. They play at Jobing.com Arena, adjacent to University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale.

The Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball (National League West Division) began play as an expansion team in 1998. The team plays at Chase Field (downtown). In 2001, the Diamondbacks defeated the New York Yankees 4 games to 3 in the World Series, becoming not only the city's first professional sports franchise to win a national championship while located in Arizona, but also one of the youngest expansion franchise in U.S. professional sports to ever win a championship.

Additionally, due to the favorable climate, fifteen Major League Baseball teams conduct spring training in the metro Phoenix area in what is known as The Cactus League. The Cincinnati Reds were the last team to begin play in Goodyear, AZ as the 15th Cactus League team and share the stadium in Goodyear with the Cleveland Indians. Since 2011, the Cactus League has been based solely in greater metro Phoenix as the last two teams that had played in Tucson (The Colorado Rockies and the Arizona Diamondbacks) now share a spring training home near Scottsdale.

The Phoenix International Raceway is a major venue for two NASCAR auto racing events per season. Boat racing, drag racing, and road course racing are also held at Firebird International Raceway. Sprint car racing is no longer held at Manzanita Speedway.

Phoenix hosted the United States Grand Prix from 1989 to 1991. The race was discontinued after poor crowd numbers.

Phoenix has also hosted the Insight Bowl at Chase Field until 2005, after which it moved to nearby Tempe, as well as several major professional golf events, including the LPGA's Safeway International and The Tradition of the Champions Tour. Phoenix was originally scheduled to host the 2006 NHL All-Star Game, but it was canceled due to the 2006 Winter Olympics (the recently adopted NHL collective bargaining agreement prohibits the All-Star Game to be held during Olympic years).

Phoenix has been named as a team in the WAMNRL which will begin in summer 2011.

Phoenix's Ahwatukee American Little League reached the 2006 Little League World Series as the representative from the U.S. West region. Phoenix is one of the three cities that hosts the annual Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon in January. On March 28, 2010, the University of Phoenix stadium hosted WWE's flagship event, WrestleMania XXVI, which had broke the stadium's attendance record with 72,219 fans which have been broken by the 2011 BCS National Championship Game with 78,603 fans. Phoenix has also hosted TNA Bound for Glory on October 14, 2012.

Club	Sport	League	Venue	Championships
Arizona Cardinals	Football	National Football League – NFC	University of Phoenix Stadium	2*
Arizona Diamondbacks	Baseball	Major League Baseball – National League	Chase Field	1
Phoenix Suns	Basketball	National Basketball Association – Western Conference	US Airways Center	0
Phoenix Coyotes	Ice hockey	National Hockey League – Western Conference	Jobing.com Arena	0
Phoenix Mercury	Basketball	Women's National Basketball Association	US Airways Center	2
Arizona Rattlers	Arena Football	Arena Football League	US Airways Center	3
Arizona Scorpions	Basketball	American Basketball Association	Phoenix College	0
Arizona Storm	Indoor Soccer	Professional Arena Soccer League	Arizona Sports Complex	0
Real Phoenix FC	Indoor Soccer	Professional Arena Soccer League	Barney Family Sports Complex	0
Phoenix FC	Soccer	USL Professional Division	TBD	0
Phoenix Monsoon	Soccer	National Premier Soccer League	Poston Butte High School	0

(*) Note: The Cardinals won 2 of their championships while in Chicago.