Bond (finance)
In finance, a bond is an instrument of indebtedness of the bond issuer to the holders. The most common types of bonds include corporate bonds; the bond is a debt security, under which the issuer owes the holders a debt and is obliged to pay them interest or to repay the principal at a date, termed the maturity date. Interest is payable at fixed intervals; the bond is negotiable, that is, the ownership of the instrument can be transferred in the secondary market. This means that once the transfer agents at the bank medallion stamp the bond, it is liquid on the secondary market, thus a bond is a form of loan or IOU: the holder of the bond is the lender, the issuer of the bond is the borrower, the coupon is the interest. Bonds provide the borrower with external funds to finance long-term investments, or, in the case of government bonds, to finance current expenditure. Certificates of deposit or short-term commercial paper are considered to be money market instruments and not bonds: the main difference is the length of the term of the instrument.
Bonds and stocks are both securities, but the major difference between the two is that stockholders have an equity stake in a company, whereas bondholders have a creditor stake in the company. Being a creditor, bondholders have priority over stockholders; this means they will be repaid in advance of stockholders, but will rank behind secured creditors, in the event of bankruptcy. Another difference is that bonds have a defined term, or maturity, after which the bond is redeemed, whereas stocks remain outstanding indefinitely. An exception is an irredeemable bond, such as a consol, a perpetuity, that is, a bond with no maturity. In English, the word "bond" relates to the etymology of "bind". In the sense "instrument binding one to pay a sum to another", use of the word "bond" dates from at least the 1590s. Bonds are issued by public authorities, credit institutions and supranational institutions in the primary markets; the most common process for issuing bonds is through underwriting. When a bond issue is underwritten, one or more securities firms or banks, forming a syndicate, buy the entire issue of bonds from the issuer and re-sell them to investors.
The security firm takes the risk of being unable to sell on the issue to end investors. Primary issuance is arranged by bookrunners who arrange the bond issue, have direct contact with investors and act as advisers to the bond issuer in terms of timing and price of the bond issue; the bookrunner is listed first among all underwriters participating in the issuance in the tombstone ads used to announce bonds to the public. The bookrunners' willingness to underwrite must be discussed prior to any decision on the terms of the bond issue as there may be limited demand for the bonds. In contrast, government bonds are issued in an auction. In some cases, both members of the public and banks may bid for bonds. In other cases, only market makers may bid for bonds; the overall rate of return on the bond depends on the price paid. The terms of the bond, such as the coupon, are fixed in advance and the price is determined by the market. In the case of an underwritten bond, the underwriters will charge a fee for underwriting.
An alternative process for bond issuance, used for smaller issues and avoids this cost, is the private placement bond. Bonds sold directly to buyers may not be tradeable in the bond market. An alternative practice of issuance was for the borrowing government authority to issue bonds over a period of time at a fixed price, with volumes sold on a particular day dependent on market conditions; this was called a tap bond tap. Nominal, par, or face amount is the amount on which the issuer pays interest, which, most has to be repaid at the end of the term; some structured bonds can have a redemption amount, different from the face amount and can be linked to the performance of particular assets. The issuer has to repay the nominal amount on the maturity date; as long as all due payments have been made, the issuer has no further obligations to the bond holders after the maturity date. The length of time until the maturity date is referred to as the term or tenor or maturity of a bond; the maturity can be any length of time, although debt securities with a term of less than one year are designated money market instruments rather than bonds.
Most bonds have a term of up to 30 years. Some bonds have been issued with terms of 50 years or more, there have been some issues with no maturity date. In the market for United States Treasury securities, there are three categories of bond maturities: short term: maturities between one and five years; the coupon is the interest rate. This rate is fixed throughout the life of the bond, it can vary with a money market index, such as LIBOR, or it can be more exotic. The name "coupon" arose because in the past, paper bond certificates were issued which had coupons attached to them, one for each interest payment. On the due dates the bondholder would hand in the coupon to a bank in exchange for the interest payment. Interest can be paid at different frequencies: semi-annual, i.e. every 6 months, or annual. The yield is the rate of return received from investing in the bond, it refers either to The current yield, or running yield
Fox Tucson Theatre
The Fox Tucson Theatre is located in downtown Tucson, United States. The theater opened on April 1930 as a performance space in downtown Tucson, it hosts a wide spectrum of events and concerts featuring a variety of performing talent, ranging from ballets, to jazz, contemporary pop, world music and rock acts. The Fox to be called "The Tower", was built in 1929 by Nicholas Diamos for his Southern Arizona "Lyric Amusement" chain of theaters. Other theaters owned by the Diamos Family included the Plaza Theater in Tucson and the Grand Theatre in Douglas; the Diamos family story tells us this about the history: Before the Tower theater's completion, Fox offered to buy the theater. If Nicholas would not sell to Fox, Fox said they would build a larger theater across the street, cut distribution of their films, it was an offer Nicholas could not refuse, so he sold the theater to Fox. Fox agreed to have the Diamos brothers manage the theater. Opening night, April 11, 1930, proved to be the biggest party the small community of Tucson had seen.
With Congress Street closed and waxed for dancing, four live bands, a live radio broadcast and free trolley rides downtown, the party was one not to be missed. Those lucky enough to have bought tickets in advance—3,000 or so people—enjoyed the show inside as well as out; the film Chasing Rainbows, a Movietone short, a Mickey Mouse cartoon were well received by both audiences that evening, the Fox Theatre began its 40-year life as the center of Tucson's entertainment world. Competition from other venues, drive-ins and television conspired to end the run of popularity the Fox had enjoyed. Partial remodels of the theater left it with most of its original charm, but vanishing retail and housing downtown spelled the end in 1974. Various efforts to revive the theatre were unsuccessful, but luckily the property was spared the wrecking ball. Hidden from the view of the public for more than 26 years, the grand theater was never forgotten by its former patrons; the Fox Tucson Theatre is located in the heart of downtown Arizona.
The theater, a 1,200 seat 30,000-square-foot structure, is the only known example of a Southwestern Art Deco movie palace. The Fox Theatre was designed to be a dual vaudeville/movie house that would include a stage, a full fly loft, dressing rooms underneath the stage. Due to the Great Depression and the up-and-coming "talkies", there were limited opportunities to hold live plays and performances, as such, the dressing rooms were never completed. By the time the Fox Theatre's construction was completed, the overall budget increased from $200,000 to $300,000, including the furnishings, it opened on April 11, 1930, closed on June 18, 1974. Original programming at the theater included; the building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a "Nationally Significant Structure" is so listed due to its unique decor and special acoustical treatment,'Acoustone', designed due to the advent of "Talkie" movies, is the only known example of the material in existence. After sitting empty for 25 years, the theater, which had become home to over 40 homeless people, was nearly beyond restoration.
Extensive water damage and neglect had conspired to keep the building dark. The owners, who had planned to demolish the Fox for a future office building, had decided to let the building decay and had little interest in selling the property to anyone. Following a two-year negotiation with the property owner, the non-profit Fox Tucson Theatre Foundation was able to purchase the building in 1999 for $250,000. Stabilization and planning for the rehabilitation/restoration began at once with a new roof being installed to stop further damage from the elements. Small restoration projects such as the repair and relighting of the original chandeliers kept the community engaged—through bi-annual open houses and special event fund-raisers. Following a six-year, $13 million rehabilitation the theatre reopened on December 31, 2005. Elements of the restoration/rehabilitation included: Decorative plaster and mural restoration throughout the building Repair to the unique original'Acoustone' acoustic material Recreation of original seat fabric, carpet pattern and light fixtures from surviving examples and photographs New theatrical systems to better serve the performing arts community both locally and for touring productions As the theater fills an important niche in the community due to its seating capacity, the local and national performing arts community were eager for its return.
Programming at the theatre includes performances of Dance, Theater and Film, children's activities and community events as well as private corporate rentals. The Fox Tucson Theatre restoration was funded by a unique partnership of public and private dollars, was only the second historic theater in the country to utilize the combined Historic Preservation Tax Credits and New Markets Tax Credits. Additional funding came from the City of Tucson, the United States Government, the State of Arizona, TIF funding and private donations and grants; this unique combination of funding is a model for other historic properties to follow, the key players are offering their experience from the Fox project to other projects through workshops and one-on-one consultations. Without these unique funding strategies, the Fox would still be dark today; the community support for the project was another key aspect of its success. Over 200 volunteers were involved, the all-volunteer Board of Directors of the Fox Tucson Theatre Foundation worked tirelessly to complete the project in support of a small paid professional staff
Gila River Arena
Gila River Arena is a sports and entertainment arena in Glendale, Arizona. It is located about 12.5 miles northwest of downtown Phoenix. The Arizona Coyotes of the National Hockey League has been the primary tenant since the building opened on December 26, 2003, it sits on the north side of West Maryland Avenue across from State Farm Stadium, home of the National Football League's Arizona Cardinals. The venue anchors the City of Glendale's Westgate Entertainment District just east of Arizona Loop 101; the now-defunct Arizona Sting had played four National Lacrosse League seasons at the arena until their 13–11 loss to the Rochester Knighthawks in the 2007 Champion's Cup game. Negotiations on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement delayed the start of the 2008 NLL season, but the Sting did not participate, they ceased operations in 2009. Completed at a construction cost of US$220 million, it seats 17,125 for hockey and lacrosse, 18,300 for basketball and about 19,000 for concert events; the arena has 87 luxury suites.
It features a integrated video and advertising system from Daktronics. The arena's construction broke ground on April 3, 2002 and the Coyotes moved into the arena in late 2003. After relocating from Winnipeg on July 1, 1996, the team had spent its first seven and a half seasons at America West Arena in downtown Phoenix, not an old arena but it was designed for NBA basketball, was retrofitted for hockey. However, the arena floor was just large enough to fit a regulation hockey rink, several seats had badly obstructed views; as a result, before the team's second season in Phoenix, its hockey capacity had to be cut down from over 18,000 seats to just over 16,000 — the second-smallest capacity in the NHL at the time. After the Colorado Avalanche moved from McNichols Sports Arena into Pepsi Center in 1999, the Toronto Maple Leafs moved from the Maple Leaf Gardens to Air Canada Centre in the same season, America West Arena was the smallest NHL venue. A small section of seats on the lower level hung over the boards, obstructing the views for up to 3,000 spectators.
When the Coyotes were sold to a partnership led by Steve Ellman, that group committed to building a new arena in suburban Glendale. With agreements signed with the city of Glendale in 2001, the venue opened midway through the 2003–04 NHL season as the Glendale Arena on December 26, 2003, with the Arizona Sting of the National Lacrosse League defeating the Vancouver Ravens, 16–12, the 2004 NLL season opener; the first NHL game was held the next evening, as the Coyotes dropped a 3–1 decision to the Nashville Predators on December 27, 2003. The Coyotes' first win at the arena came on December 31, 2003, as they defeated the Los Angeles Kings 4-0; the arena was scheduled to receive the 2006 National Hockey League All-Star Game. However, the new NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement signed following the 2004–05 lockout cancelled the game, as under the terms of the new agreement, the All-Star Game would not be held during the year of the Winter Olympics in order for players to participate in the Games.
Many expected Glendale to gain the 2009 NHL All-Star Game as compensation. Jobing.com Arena was awarded the 2011 edition, but due to the ongoing bankruptcy case, potential ownership changes in the Coyotes organization, the possibility of relocation, the NHL decided to reopen bidding to host the game, which went on to the Carolina Hurricanes' RBC Center. Beginning in 2005, the venue has been host to the Arizona state high school basketball, volleyball and cheerleading tournaments in a mega-event called "February Frenzy", as the result of a formal agreement between the city of Glendale and the Arizona Interscholastic Association; the Arizona Sting did not play after the 2007 season and ceased operations in 2009. Since 2004, the PBR's Built Ford Tough Series bull riding tour has hosted an annual event at this venue. Prior to the 2009–2010 season, this was the only current NHL arena to have never hosted a playoff game, as the Coyotes' last playoff appearance was in 2002 when they still played home games in downtown Phoenix.
However, the team qualified for the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs. They played the Red Wings and lost the series 4–3; the 2010–2011 Coyotes season ended at Jobing.com Arena with a 4-game sweep of the Coyotes by the Detroit Red Wings. The arena saw extra action during the 2011–12 NHL season as the Coyotes not only qualified for the playoffs for the third consecutive season, but advanced to the Western Conference Finals for the first time in team history, losing to the eventual Stanley Cup Champion Los Angeles Kings in five games; every home playoff game as in years past featured a "White Out", continuing the tradition of years past in both Phoenix and Winnipeg playoff series of giving fans white T-shirts to wear for the games. The Arizona Coyotes missed the playoffs during the next 3 seasons, concluding the second half of the 2014–2015 season with a NHL worst record of 8–29–4. Losses mounted toward the 5-year out clause for the Coyotes. Coyotes ownership continued to revolve, as Philadelphia hedge fund manager Andrew Barroway was announced as the new majority owner in December 2014, only to back out as majority owner less than 6 months later.
Losses for the City of Glendale
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital and most populous city of Arizona, with 1,626,000 people. It is the fifth most populous city in the United States, the most populous American state capital, the only state capital with a population of more than one million residents. Phoenix is the anchor of the Phoenix metropolitan area known as the Valley of the Sun, which in turn is part of the Salt River Valley; the metropolitan area is the 11th largest by population in the United States, with 4.73 million people as of 2017. Phoenix is the seat of Maricopa County and the largest city in the state at 517.9 square miles, more than twice the size of Tucson and one of the largest cities in the United States. Phoenix was settled in 1867 as an agricultural community near the confluence of the Salt and Gila Rivers and was incorporated as a city in 1881, it became the capital of Arizona Territory in 1889. It has a hot desert climate. Despite this, its canal system led to a thriving farming community with the original settler's crops remaining important parts of the Phoenix economy for decades, such as alfalfa, cotton and hay.
Cotton, citrus and copper were known locally as the "Five C's" anchoring Phoenix's economy. These remained the driving forces of the city until after World War II, when high-tech companies began to move into the valley and air conditioning made Phoenix's hot summers more bearable; the city averaged a four percent annual population growth rate over a 40-year period from the mid-1960s to the mid-2000s. This growth rate slowed during the Great Recession of 2007–09, has rebounded slowly. Phoenix is the cultural center of the state of Arizona; the Hohokam people occupied the Phoenix area for 2,000 years. They created 135 miles of irrigation canals, making the desert land arable, paths of these canals were used for the Arizona Canal, Central Arizona Project Canal, the Hayden-Rhodes Aqueduct, they carried out extensive trade with the nearby Ancient Puebloans and Sinagua, as well as with the more distant Mesoamerican civilizations. It is believed that periods of drought and severe floods between 1300 and 1450 led to the Hohokam civilization's abandonment of the area.
After the departure of the Hohokam, groups of Akimel O'odham, Tohono O'odham, Maricopa tribes began to use the area, as well as segments of the Yavapai and Apache. The O'odham were offshoots of the Sobaipuri tribe, who in turn were thought to be the descendants of the Hohokam; the Akimel O'odham were the major group in the area and lived in small villages, with well-defined irrigation systems that spread over the entire Gila River Valley, from Florence in the east to the Estrellas in the west. Their crops included corn and squash for food, while cotton and tobacco were cultivated, they banded together with the Maricopa for protection against incursions by the Yuma and Apache tribes. The Maricopa are part of the larger Yuma people; the Tohono O'odham lived in the region, as well, but their main concentration was to the south and stretched all the way to the Mexican border. The O'odham lived in small settlements as seasonal farmers who took advantage of the rains, rather than the large-scale irrigation of the Akimel.
They grew crops such as sweet corn, tapery beans, lentils, sugar cane, melons, as well as taking advantage of native plants such as saguaro fruits, cholla buds, mesquite tree beans, mesquite candy. They hunted local game such as deer and javelina for meat; the Mexican–American War ended in 1848, Mexico ceded its northern zone to the United States, residents of that region became U. S. citizens. The Phoenix area became part of the New Mexico Territory. In 1863, the mining town of Wickenburg was the first to be established in Maricopa County, to the northwest of Phoenix. Maricopa County had not yet been incorporated; the Army created Fort McDowell on the Verde River in 1865 to forestall Indian uprisings. The fort established a camp on the south side of the Salt River by 1866, the first settlement in the valley after the decline of the Hohokam. Other nearby settlements merged to become the city of Tempe; the history of the city of Phoenix begins with Jack Swilling, a Confederate veteran of the Civil War.
He saw a potential for farming. He formed a small community that same year about four miles east of the city. Lord Darrell Duppa was one of the original settlers in Swilling's party, he suggested the name "Phoenix", as it described a city born from the ruins of a former civilization; the Board of Supervisors in Yavapai County recognized the new town on May 4, 1868, the first post office was established the following month with Swilling as the postmaster. On February 12, 1871, the territorial legislature created Maricopa County by dividing Yavapai County; the first election for county office was held in 1871. He ran unopposed; the town grew during the 1870s, President Ulysses S. Grant issued a land patent for the site of Phoenix on April 10, 1874. By 1875, the town had a telegraph office
Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium
Kino Sports Complex is a multiple-use sports complex in Tucson, Arizona. The Arizona Diamondbacks and Chicago White Sox utilized the complex's main ballpark, Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium, for Cactus League games each March and had their minor league complexes on-site; the ballpark was home to the Tucson Sidewinders of the Pacific Coast League for the team's last decade in Tucson, running from the stadium's 1998 opening season to the 2008 season. The ballpark was a temporary home to the Tucson Padres of the Pacific Coast League during the team's relocation to El Paso, Texas, it was the regular season home of the Pecos League's Tucson Saguaros baseball team from 2016 to 2017. It seats 11,500 fans, hosts concerts in addition to its primary function as a baseball park. Kino Sports Complex is used to host soccer matches. FC Tucson of USL League One plays its home matches at the complex's North Stadium, its primary soccer stadium; the complex serves as the preseason home of Major League Soccer's New York Red Bulls and host of the Desert Diamond Cup preseason soccer tournament.
Tucson Electric Park opened in 1998. Larger and more modern than central Tucson's Hi Corbett Field, it is situated 4 miles south of Hi Corbett, at the intersection of several major thoroughfares including I-10 and SR-86. TEP opened the same year that the Arizona Diamondbacks began operations in Phoenix, the Tucson Toros moved from Hi Corbett to TEP, renamed themselves the Tucson Sidewinders, became the Diamondbacks' AAA affiliate. Furthermore, the Diamondbacks themselves became a tenant of TEP for spring training, sharing the facility with the Chicago White Sox. Across town, the Colorado Rockies continued to hold their spring training at Hi Corbett Field; the Chicago White Sox had an agreement to move to Glendale in a stadium, completed in the 2009 season. However, the Sox' lease on TEP was to last through 2012. In order to leave TEP early, the Sox proposed a youth baseball academy backed by Major League Baseball surrounding TEP. On November 18, 2008 the Pima County Board of Supervisors agreed to the White Sox's revised offer of $5 million, thus allowing the team to move to Glendale in time for the 2009 season.
Colorado Rockies, spring training occupant of Tucson's Hi Corbett Field, the Arizona Diamondbacks, who were tenants at TEP and the Kino Sports Complex, indicated that they would both need Tucson to have three teams in order to continue playing there. Tucson was therefore abandoned as a spring training venue, all Cactus League games now take place in the Phoenix metropolitan area; the Diamondbacks and Rockies share the new Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, which opened in 2011 near Scottsdale. The Tucson Sidewinders played their last season at TEP in 2008; the team moved to Reno, renaming itself the Reno Aces and remaining the AAA affiliate of the Diamondbacks. At the same time, the Reno Silver Sox of the independent Golden Baseball League, displaced by the arrival of the Aces, relocated to Tucson. Instead of using TEP, the new team located itself at the more historic Hi Corbett Field and retook the historic name of the Tucson Toros. TEP was thus, without any Major League or minor league baseball tenant.
In 2010, after the end of the naming agreement with the local electric utility, Tucson Electric Power, the stadium was renamed after Eusebio Kino, the Jesuit missionary who first explored southern Arizona in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The Pima County Board of Supervisors approved the name change on January 18, 2011. In 2011, the San Diego Padres Triple-A affiliate relocated from Portland, Oregon to Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium and renamed itself the Tucson Padres, they were known as the Portland Beavers. The San Diego Padres organization wanted to arrange for a stadium to be approved and constructed in Escondido, however that stadium plan fell through when California eliminated their redevelopment agencies; the team departed Tucson for El Paso, Texas prior to the beginning of the 2014 season and assumed the name "El Paso Chihuahuas." Since 2012, FC Tucson has played its games at Kino Sports Complex's North Stadium. The club began its existence in the Premier Development League, in 2019 began play in the higher-level USL League One.
The Pima Community College Aztecs football played its home games at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium for several seasons. The team will move to the Kino Sports Complex North Stadium for its 2014 fall Football season. Media related to Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium at Wikimedia Commons Kino Sports Complex, operators of Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium FC Tucson – Stadium Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium – Ball Parks of the Minor Leagues Ballpark page on dbacks.com
State Farm Stadium
State Farm Stadium known as University of Phoenix Stadium, is a multi-purpose football stadium located in Glendale, west of Phoenix. It is the home of the Arizona Cardinals of the annual Fiesta Bowl, it replaced Tempe's Sun Devil Stadium as the Valley of the Sun's main stadium. The stadium is adjacent to home of the Arizona Coyotes NHL team; the stadium has hosted the Fiesta Bowl, the 2007, 2011 and 2016 College Football Playoff National Championships, Super Bowl XLII in 2008, the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl XLIX in 2015, will host Super Bowl LVII in 2023. It was one of the stadiums for the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup and the Copa América Centenario in 2016, it hosted the NCAA Final Four in 2017 and will do so again in 2024. The University of Phoenix acquired the naming rights in September 2006, shortly after the stadium had opened under the name Cardinals Stadium and retained the rights until September 2018 when State Farm acquired the naming rights; the Cardinals and State Farm reached agreement on an 18-year commitment that resulted in the team’s home venue becoming State Farm Stadium.
Since moving to Arizona from St. Louis, Missouri in 1988, the Cardinals had played at Sun Devil Stadium on the campus of Arizona State University; the Cardinals had only planned to play there. However, the savings and loan crisis derailed funding for a new stadium during the 1990s. Over time, the Cardinals expressed frustration at being tenants in a college football stadium; the lack of having their own stadium denied them additional revenue streams available to other NFL teams. The Cardinals campaigned several times in the years prior to its construction for a new and more modern facility; the ceremonial groundbreaking for the new stadium was held on April 12, 2003, the 63,400-seat stadium opened on August 1, 2006 after three years of construction. The stadium was designed by HOK Sport; the stadium is considered an architectural icon for the region and was named by Business Week as one of the 10 “most impressive” sports facilities on the globe due to the combination of its retractable roof and roll-in natural grass field, similar to the GelreDome and the Veltins-Arena.
LED video and ribbon displays from Daktronics in Brookings, South Dakota were installed in 2006 prior to Arizona's first game of the season at the new stadium. The cost of the project was $455 million; that total included $395.4 million for the stadium, $41.7 million for site improvements, $17.8 million for the land. Contributors to the stadium included the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority, the Arizona Cardinals, the City of Glendale; the stadium has 88 luxury suites — called luxury lofts — with space for 16 future suites as the stadium matures. The 25 acres surrounding the stadium is called Sportsman's Park. Included within the Park is an 8-acre landscaped tailgating area called the Great Lawn. There are no obstructed view seats in the stadium. There are visible areas in the upper deck of the end zone where seats could have been put in but were not due to the giant super columns supporting the roof structure; the stadium seating capacity can be expanded by 8,800 for "mega-events" such as college bowls, NFL Super Bowls, the NFC Championship Game, the Final Four by adding risers and ganged, portable "X-frame" folding seats.
The endzone area on the side of the facility where the field tray rolls in and out of the facility can be expanded to accommodate the additional seats. The roof opens in 12 minutes, it is the first retractable roof built on an incline. Events held at the stadium include Arizona Cardinals home games; the multipurpose nature of the facility has allowed it to host 91 events representing 110 event days between the dates of August 4, 2006 through the BCS National Championship January 8, 2007. The first preseason football game was played August 12, 2006 when the Cardinals defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers, 21–13; the first regular season game was played September 10 against the San Francisco 49ers. The stadium's air-conditioning system made it possible for the Cardinals to play at home on the opening weekend of the NFL season for the first time since moving to Arizona in 1988. On October 16, 2006, the stadium hosted a notable game between the Cardinals and the undefeated Chicago Bears where the Bears came back from a 20-point deficit to defeat the Cardinals.
The Bears would go on to play in Super Bowl XLI. University of Phoenix Stadium hosted Super Bowl XLII on February 3, 2008 in which the New York Giants defeated the undefeated New England Patriots 17–14 with a paid attendance crowd of 71,101; this was the second time the Phoenix area hosted a Super Bowl, the other being Super Bowl XXX held in nearby Tempe at Sun Devil Stadium in 1996 when the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Cardinals' first home playoff game since 1947 took place at the stadium on January 3, 2009, with Arizona beating the Atlanta Falcons, 30–24; the stadium hosted the 2008-09 NFC Championship Game between the Cardinals and Philadelphia Eagles on January 18, 2009, which the Cardinals won 32–25 in front of over 70,000 fans in attendance. The 2015 Pro Bowl was the first Pro Bowl to be held at the same location as the same year's Super Bowl since 2010; the Pro Bowl returned to Hawaii in 2016. On February 1, 201
Courtyard
A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area surrounded by a building or complex, open to the sky. Such spaces in inns and public buildings were the primary meeting places for some purposes, leading to the other meanings of court. Both of the words court and yard derive from the same root, meaning an enclosed space. See yard and garden for the relation of this set of words. Courtyards—private open spaces surrounded by walls or buildings—have been in use in residential architecture for as long as people have lived in constructed dwellings; the courtyard house makes. 6400–6000 BC, in the Neolithic Yarmukian site at Sha'ar HaGolan, in the central Jordan Valley, on the northern bank of the Yarmouk River, giving the site a special significance in architectural history. Courtyards have been used for many purposes including cooking, working, playing and places to keep animals. Before courtyards, open fires were kept burning in a central place within a home, with only a small hole in the ceiling overhead to allow smoke to escape.
Over time, these small openings were enlarged and led to the development of the centralized open courtyard we know today. Courtyard homes have been built throughout the world with many variations. Courtyard homes are more prevalent in temperate climates, as an open central court can be an important aid to cooling house in warm weather. However, courtyard houses have been found in harsher climates as well for centuries; the comforts offered by a courtyard—air, privacy and tranquility—are properties nearly universally desired in human housing. Ur, 2000 BC — two-storey houses constructed around an open square were built of fired brick. Kitchen and public spaces were located on the ground floor, with private rooms located upstairs; the central uncovered area in a Roman domus was referred to as an atrium. Today, we use the term courtyard to refer to such an area, reserving the word atrium to describe a glass-covered courtyard. Roman atrium houses were built side by side along the street, they were one-storey homes without windows that took in light from the entrance and from the central atrium.
The hearth, which used to inhabit the centre of the home, was relocated, the Roman atrium most contained a central pool used to collect rainwater, called an impluvium. These homes incorporated a second open-air area, the garden, which would be surrounded by Greek-style colonnades, forming a peristyle; this created a colonnaded walkway around the perimeter of the courtyard, which influenced monastic structures centuries later. Courtyard houses in the Middle East reflect the nomadic influences of the region. Instead of designating rooms for cooking, etc. these activities were relocated throughout the year as appropriate to accommodate the changes in temperature and the position of the sun. The flat rooftops of these structures were used for sleeping in warm weather. In some Islamic cultures, private courtyards provided the only outdoor space for women to relax unobserved; the traditional Chinese courtyard house, e.g. siheyuan, is an arrangement of several individual houses around a square. Each house belongs to a different family member, additional houses are created behind this arrangement to accommodate additional family members as needed.
The Chinese courtyard is a place of privacy and tranquility always incorporating a garden and water feature. In some cases, houses are constructed with multiple courtyards that increase in privacy as they recede from the street. Strangers would be received in the outermost courtyard, with the innermost ones being reserved for close friends and family members. In a more contemporary version of the Chinese model, a courtyard can can be used to separate a home into wings; this is exemplified by the Hooper House in Maryland. The medieval European farmhouse embodies what we think of today as one of the most archetypal examples of a courtyard house—four buildings arranged around a square courtyard with a steep roof covered by thatch; the central courtyard was used for working and sometimes keeping small livestock. An elevated walkway ran around two or three sides of the courtyards in the houses; such structures afforded protection, could be made defensible. In the first half of the 20th century, a trend developed in the sunbelt regions of the United States around Courtyard houses in California and Florida.
Designers such as the Davis family and the Zwebell family developed houses that used Mediterranean architecture, using carefully planned courtyards, they managed to create both a sense of community and scale. Using various levels of private/public gradations these courtyard houses were so successful that they have been copied throughout sunbelt of the United States. More and more, architects are investigating ways that courtyards can play a role in the development of today's homes and cities. In densely populated areas, a courtyard in a home can provide privacy for a family, a break from the frantic pace of everyday life, a safe place for children to play. With space at a premium, architects are experimenting with courtyards as a way to provide outdoor space for small communities of people at a time. A courtyard surrounded by 12 houses, for example, would provide a shared park-like space for those families, who could take pride in ownership of the space. Though this might sound like a modern-day solution to an inner city problem, the grouping of houses around a shared courtyard was common practice among the Incas as far back as the
Media related to Mesa Arts Center at Wikimedia Commons
