Arizona Daily Sun
When it comes to raising the summertime profile of a city on the remote Colorado Plateau, it’s hard to beat hosting a pro football team’s training camp.
And when a small city like Flagstaff does such a good job that it rates a two-page spread in Sports Illustrated, it makes the sudden departure of the Arizona Cardinals after 23 years all the more upsetting.
But now come the August 2013 sales figures for Flagstaff hotels, restaurants and bars, the first August since 2005 without the Cardinals.
And if tourism is what you care about, there might not be that much to upset you.
The figures show a double-digit increase in restaurant and bar sales — 11.6 percent — over 2012, the last August the Cardinals were in town. Hotels were up only 7.3 percent, but most Cardinals fans were day-trippers from the Valley and didn’t stay overnight anyway.
