There’s no official way of determining the most popular sport in the state of Arizona.

Among the state’s four professional sports teams — the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, MLB’s Arizona Diamondbacks, NHL’s Arizona Coyotes and NFL’s Arizona Cardinals — the Suns have been in The Copper State the longest.

The Suns were established in 1968, and the franchise has been in Phoenix since its inception. The Cardinals relocated from St. Louis to Phoenix in 1988 (they switched to “Arizona Cardinals” in 1994). The Coyotes relocated from Winnipeg in the 1995-96 season, and the Diamondbacks were established in 1998.

But since the Cardinals’ arrival in the state of Arizona, it just feels like no team has drawn more overall popularity than the NFL squad.

The Cardinals have only made the playoffs five times since 1999, but attendance and general following hasn’t waned in the slightest. The Redbirds are coming off their first playoff appearance in six years, having won 11 games before getting eliminated by the Los Angeles Rams in the Wild Card Round.

The Cardinals are a +2500 dark horse to win Super Bowl 57 next year at FanDuel.

Some of the current Arizona sportsbook promo codes include risk-free bets of up to $1,000.

Customers can bet on the winners of games, the spreads, over/under, futures and player futures. For example, Cardinals quarterback has +1800 odds of winning the 2022 league MVP Award at DraftKings, and the Redbirds are +300 to win the NFC West.

Football Is Life In Arizona

The Coyotes simply cannot be considered anywhere close to the level of popularity as the Cardinals. The franchise has been the subject of relocation rumors for several years, and attendance has consistently been near the bottom.

Ditto for the Diamondbacks, who have struggled to reach perennial contention status since their 2001 World Series championship season. The Suns didn’t make the playoffs from 2011 to 2020, and attendance was constantly near the bottom during the painful losing years.

But through the good and the bad years of the Cardinals, football has been the popular sport in the state of Arizona. And that’s despite, generally speaking, having less overall playoff success and deep runs like the Diamondbacks and Suns.

The Cardinals have also enjoyed a major increase in social media following over the years, as noted by Statista. It’s not just the Cardinals that are so popular, of course. The Copper State is also home to three Division 1 football teams: The University of Arizona, Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University.

Several notable NFL players have come out of the Wildcats’ program in recent years, including Super Bowl LII MVP Nick Foles, Houston Texans defensive tackle Roy Lopez and future Hall of Fame tight end Rob Gronkowski.

Glendale: A Prime Super Bowl Location

If football wasn’t increasingly popular in The Copper State, the NFL wouldn’t choose Arizona as one of its favorite locations to host the Super Bowl.

Arizona has hosted three Super Bowl games to date: Super Bowl XXX between the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers, Super Bowl XLII between the New York Giants and New England Patriots, Super Bowl XLIX between the Patriots and Seahawks.

State Farm Stadium is also scheduled to host next year’s Super Bowl, which will run on Feb. 12, 2023.

So from 2008 to 2023, State Farm Stadium will have hosted three Super Bowls. The only other venue to have hosted multiple Super Bowls in that span are Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay (Super Bowl XLIV and Super Bowl LV).

The Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana hosted XLVII between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers. The Superdome will also host Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9, 2025.

If Cardinals fans are lucky, their football team will be the third straight club to play a Super Bowl inside their own venue. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, of course, became the first when they hosted and defeated the Kansas City Chiefs in last year’s Super Bowl.

Fittingly, the Los Angeles Rams did it one year later when they played the Cincinnati Bengals at SoFi Stadium. Like the Bucs, the Rams took care of business “at home” to win the Super Bowl.

The Cardinals are well-positioned to make several deep playoff runs with Kyler Murray, DeAndre Hopkins and Budda Baker leading the way. A Super Bowl parade in Glendale would certainly go a long way in further showing the football world how the Cardinals are Arizona’s team.