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Big Cat's public shaming of Bidwill pressures a cost-conscious owner ahead of GM hire, patch renewal, and media auction—bad timing for a franchise losing sponsor appetite.
4-13
season in which the Cardinals ranked
31st
in payroll utilization against the salary cap and
32nd
in net coaching investment among NFL clubs
$4.8 billion
as of September 2024
Dan Katz, the Barstool Sports personality known as Big Cat, used his platform this week to call Arizona Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill "f*cking cheap" and urged him to sell the franchise. The comment, delivered during a podcast segment, follows a 4-13 season in which the Cardinals ranked 31st in payroll utilization against the salary cap and 32nd in net coaching investment among NFL clubs.
The Cardinals carry a Forbes enterprise value of $4.8 billion as of September 2024, up 11 percent year-over-year despite posting the league's second-worst attendance rate at 87.4 percent capacity. Bidwill, who inherited the team in 2008 following his father's death, has overseen three head coaches in four years and presided over a front office that spent $14 million below the cap floor in 2023—a figure that triggered informal discussions among rival owners about competitive-balance concerns, according to two league sources.
Big Cat's remarks land amid rising discontent from the Cardinals' season-ticket base. The team's six-figure waitlist, once a point of organizational pride, evaporated by October 2024. Corporate hospitality renewals for 2025 are tracking 22 percent behind pace, per internal documents reviewed by a person familiar with the sales pipeline. One luxury-suite holder, speaking on condition of anonymity, said his annual $180,000 commitment now feels "like paying country-club dues to watch intramurals."
The public-pressure campaign carries weight in a league where ownership turnover happens quietly, through estate sales or financial distress, not fan revolt. But the Cardinals sit at an inflection point. Bidwill's cost discipline—described by front-office veterans as "private-equity rigor without the exit"—has kept EBITDA margins above 30 percent, among the league's top five. That same discipline leaves quarterback Kyler Murray operating behind an offensive line that ranked 28th in pass-block win rate and a receiving corps assembled for $41 million less than the Cowboys spent on theirs.
Barstool's audience skews younger, male, and betting-active—the demo NFL sponsors pay premium CPMs to reach. Big Cat's show draws 1.2 million weekly downloads. When he called Bidwill cheap, the clip logged 340,000 views in six hours and trended on X in Phoenix, Dallas, and Los Angeles. That virality matters because the Cardinals are negotiating a local-media deal to replace their expiring Bally Sports contract. Distributors use social sentiment as a proxy for tune-in intent. One media buyer, speaking off the record, said the team's digital toxicity is "a real problem" in rate-card conversations.
The league office watches owner-reputation spirals closely. Commissioner Roger Goodell has twice privately encouraged Bidwill to raise coaching salaries and twice seen those suggestions ignored, per a source briefed on the conversations. The NFL's revenue-sharing model insulates poorly run teams from immediate financial pain, but it cannot insulate them from sponsor flight. State Farm, the Cardinals' jersey patch partner in a deal worth $18 million annually, is in the final year of its contract. Two executives close to the renewal talks say the insurer is exploring "brand-safety optionality," a euphemism for renegotiating downward or exiting.
Bidwill has shown no inclination to sell. He chairs the league's management council executive committee, a position that grants influence over labor strategy and revenue distribution. The family has owned the Cardinals since 1932, the longest continuous ownership in American professional sports. Selling would require navigating estate-tax complications and sibling dynamics—Michael's brother Bill holds a minority stake and the two have not appeared together publicly since 2017.
What to watch: The Cardinals hire a general manager by mid-February, and the caliber of candidate will signal whether top-tier front-office talent views the organization as functional. State Farm's patch decision is due by April 1. The team's local-media auction runs through May, with at least three RSN buyers circling. And Barstool's audience, now primed, will parse every Bidwill public comment for signs of spending intent.
The NFL does not fire owners. But it does notice when a $4.8 billion asset starts logging the engagement metrics of a college program, and the phone calls from Park Avenue tend to get more specific.
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