Concerts, new game-day experiences planned for Arizona football home games

Improvements are coming for home games at Arizona Stadium this fall.

The game-day enhancements include on-field suites, pregame concerts and lowered prices for concession items sold during the UA’s seven home games this season.

In partnership with Dusk Music Festival, the UA is hosting “Bear Down Bash,” a 14-part concert series and tailgate on Bear Down Field located north of Arizona Stadium before every home game. The Bear Down Bash will also have concerts before seven men’s basketball games.

Single-game passes for the Bear Down Bash are $30; season passes are $210. “Si Charro” is catering the VIP tailgates this season.

“We wanted to provide music, entertainment and provide an elevated tailgate experience, and this is one way to do that,” said Tony Daniel, the UA’s senior associate athletic director of revenue generation and engagement.

Select concession items at Arizona Stadium will be “cut in half from the prices in 2024 to what you’re going to see at Arizona Stadium in ‘25,” Daniel said. As part of the “Bear Down Deals,” fountain sodas and bottled water will be $3, while hot dogs, nachos and popcorn will be priced at $4 at 19 concession stands across Arizona Stadium.

Daniel said Arizona “wanted to make sure that when you come to the game with your family and your friends, you can have an enjoyable experience at a reasonable price.” The lowered prices of the aforementioned concession items is a similar initiative as the Phoenix Suns’ $2 value menu at PHX Arena.

This season, the UA is implementing a “competitive fee” for football, basketball, baseball and softball season-ticket holders. The competitive fee for football and men’s basketball season tickets will be $50, and $25 for women’s basketball, softball and baseball season tickets. The competitive fees, lowered prices for concession items and money raised for a newly-added $20.5 million revenue-sharing budget “all works together,” Daniel said.

“We want this thing to be as cohesive as possible, so it helps in those ways,” he said. “Everyone knows our new reality of what revenue sharing means and that’s where a lot of that stuff is going and what our focus is. But at the end of the day, we want our fan experience to be the best in the country.”

The competitive fee, well, “helps us be competitive,” added Daniel.

“We named it that way because it’s going to keep us relevant in this new model,” Daniel said. “Our student-athletes are our first priority. To give them opportunities the rest of the country has, we had to be competitive within ourselves in the landscape, but also competitive in the face that we have this new $20 million reality. All of those things combined are why that thing came about. It’s part of today’s world.”

Daniel also said that Arizona is having “ongoing conversations” with Eegee’s, the popular Tucson-born company, about serving its frozen fruit drinks this season.

“We’re trying to figure out ways to work on them getting back to the stadium,” Daniel said.

Additionally, Arizona Stadium will have a “Food Truck Alley” in the western concourse of Arizona Stadium. Vendors include Coffee Cure, El Perrito Sonoran Dogs, Dippin’ Dots, Chick Fil A, Solid Grindz Hawaiian Barbecue, Drink MKT, Sir Veza’s Tacos and Tots and Coors Light.

Arizona is adding a “premium seating” plan for home games, which includes two 25-person concourse suites valued at $36,250 for the season. For the first time at the UA, Arizona Stadium will have on-field seating, with its 100-person “Cats Club” along the north end zone and six on-field cabanas on the sidelines. The cabanas, priced at $25,720 for the season, range in capacity from 16 to 20 people. A Cat’s Club season ticket starts at $1,110. More information can be found at tuc.life/seating.

On the day of games, fans can purchase passes to walk into Arizona Stadium with the team during the “Wildcat Walk” down Cherry Avenue, along with running out with the team before a game, sitting in the radio booth for a quarter and listening to a postgame press conference.

Arizona Stadium is also improving its pyrotechnics and fireworks for the team’s runout leading up to the game, and will have new fan-engaging features on the video board.

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The Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl presented by Gin & Juice by Dre and Snoop will have a 50-50 raffle for fans attending games. Fans can purchase raffle tickets at BearDown5050.com or scan a QR code at the entrances into Arizona Stadium.

Arizona’s latest game-day updates are a result of the Wildcats experiencing other Big 12 venues last season. Daniel noted BYU and UCF as memorable game-day experiences. BYU had live music and other engaging activities for fans outside of LaVell Edwards Stadium.

“I thought both of those environments were done really well,” Daniel said of UCF and BYU.

Added Daniel: “We have a great environment and we want to continue building on that. ... We want this to be a full-day experience and opportunity for our students, our student-athletes and all Wildcat fans to enjoy.”

UA defense harasses offense in Practice 12

For Arizona’s dozenth practice of training camp on Wednesday, nearby lightning forced the Wildcats to move from Arizona Stadium to the Davis Sports Center — again. It’s the second practice that had to be moved from Arizona Stadium to the Wildcats’ indoor practice facility.

Monsoon, amirite?

As a result, Arizona’s punting segment had four kicks bounce off the ceiling at Davis Sports Center. Here are more notes and takeaways from the 12th practice, as Arizona shifts to Week 3 of training camp:

Arizona’s defense had a productive day in 7-on-7 and team periods. The defense produced five interceptions — two of them were tipped off pass-catchers’ hands. Safety Quinn Olson intercepted quarterback Noah Fifita’s pass that was tipped off Kris Hutson’s hands. Safety Genesis Smith had an interception, while cornerback Jay’Vion Cole had a pass breakup in a 7-on-7 period.

In a team period, cornerback Michael Dansby intercepted Fifita on a deep pass at the 1-yard line while covering Hutson. Cole also had an interception that was off the hands of tight end Tyler Powell. Alongside Taye Brown, redshirt freshman linebacker Jabari Mann took reps with the first defense. Mann intercepted walk-on quarterback Mason Bray for a touchdown and a tackle for no gain.

Fifita threw an over-the-shoulder touchdown pass to Hutson with Dansby in coverage. Fifita’s connected on multiple passes over the middle with Javin “Nunu” Whatley. Fifita avoided a sack on the final pass to Whatley. Between maneuvering around the pocket, passes over the middle in tight windows through traffic, screen passes and deep balls, Fifita looks sharp — and the route concepts are tailored for the receivers’ skillsets.

Arizona defensive lineman Julian Savaiinaea had two sacks in the final team period.

Arizona kickers Michael Salgado-Medina and Tyler Prasuhn both went 3-for-4 kicking field goals. Salgado-Medina missed from 40 yards out, but made a 35-, 44- and 48-yard field goal. Prasuhn’s miss was from 44 yards, but he made his 35-, 40- and 55-yard attempts.

Rich Rodriguez-era quarterback BJ Denker attended practice on Wednesday. Denker played two seasons for the Wildcats from 2012-13, before beginning his coaching journey. Denker is the offensive coordinator at Saguaro High School in Scottsdale. Former UA receiver and tight end Terrence Miller is Saguaro’s running backs coach.

The University of Hawaii approved plans to build a new Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, according to Front Office Sports on Wednesday.

The $400 million stadium will seat 22,500 fans and is set to open in 2029. Hawaii’s first home game of the ‘29 season is against Arizona on Aug. 25, 2029. The Wildcats close out nonconference play against Virginia Tech and Air Force in 2029.

Photos: University of Arizona football training camp rolls into Week 3