In a tumultuous few days, the Cardinals finished their season, handled football and business items to prepare for the offseason, and turned their stadium around to host a playoff game.

It started with a call from NFL executive Dawn Aponte, who asked Bidwill: “Could you be ready?”

State Farm Stadium often serves as a contingency plan in the event of an emergency, and this call made it clear that that was likely, not possible. Even before the league shouted “go,” Bidwill’s organization sprung into action.

“Later that morning I talked to the team and said, ‘Look if this is going to happen, let’s get ahead of it,'” Bidwill said. “Let’s prepare and start thinking about everything we need to do to make this happen.”

From preparing the stadium to determining the ticket situation (Rams use Ticketmaster, Cardinals use SeatGeek) to logistics, they looked into everything. Bidwill said he spoke with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell several times to discuss details.

“Even before the announcement, we focused all of our attention on making sure we were ready to go,” Bidwill said. “We knew that people in their organization were under enormous stress and that their families and friends had lost everything, and we wanted to be as considerate as possible. And then we realized that the families were coming. It was like, OK,” that’s a whole other level.

Bidwill asked his staff to put together lists of everything the Rams might need, from activities to babysitters to ice cream shops.

“We tried to think of everything,” he said.

The Cardinals did their best to make the Rams feel at home. According to the club, this is how it works:

• They struggled to get enough paint in the Rams’ colors – Blue PMS 2736 and Yellow PMS 109 – for the field and end zone. To that end, 200 gallons were driven over 1,500 miles to Arizona from a factory in Leland, Mississippi, arriving Saturday. The playoff-themed stencils were shipped from Los Angeles.
• Within a few days’ notice, the team ordered enough food to feed 60,000 players and now has normal game day quantities. That means 10,000 hot dogs, 3,000 hamburgers, 4,500 chicken fillets, 5,500 individual pizzas, 3,500 pounds of kernels for popcorn, 1,200 pounds of prime rib and 800 pounds of beef tenderloin.
• The Cardinals sent two Boeing 777 aircraft to pick up the Rams, their staff and their families, including 300 people and eight pets. To achieve this, they used Gridiron Air, a company founded by Bidwill. “It was good that we were able to do it on such short notice,” Bidwill said.
• All Rams equipment, trucked to Phoenix, arrived at the facility at 12:30 a.m. Saturday morning. The Cardinals support staff worked with the Rams until 3:30 a.m. to get it set up and ready for meetings. Additionally, the Cardinals cleared out a total of 74 lockers so the Rams had room. For example, Marvin Harrison Jr.’s locker is now Puka Nacua’s locker.
• Ticket sales skyrocketed, 52,000 tickets were sold within two hours and by the end of the first day the event was completely sold out. More than 90 suites and all luxury seats have been sold.
• The team received commitments from over 3,500 matchday staff, an incredible number of short-term contracts. The stadium’s game entertainment team worked around the clock to prepare and bring all videoboard content and digital assets from SoFi Stadium to State Farm Stadium. It will look like a Rams home game.
• The Cardinals created thousands of media and personnel cards that fit into their system.

Bidwill was particularly impressed by ticket sales. Most games on neutral sites are not like that. He realized pretty quickly that this wasn’t normal.

“It was pretty clear in the first 12 minutes,” he said. “It was like the pace of a Taylor Swift-style concert sale, meaning it was really fast.”

If the Rams win, they can return to LA if it is safe to do so. Bidwill said their doors remain open.

“You are welcome to stay,” he said.