Home team: Phila. native with Ariz. now.

Philadelphia native Jim McDonald bleeds Eagles green. He froze in 700-level seats at Vet stadium cheering the team as a teenager. In Jacksonville, he was heartbroken when they lost to the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXIX.

"But being out here and working for the Cardinals organization, I have to go with the home team," McDonald, 32, said yesterday by phone from Glendale, Ariz.

Phooey!

McDonald, who was raised in the Somerton neighborhood in the Far Northeast, is an employee with Global Spectrum, the division of Comcast-Spectacor that manages about 80 arenas and big stadiums. Comcast-Spectacor is a partnership between Spectacor, which is owned by Ed Snider, and cable giant Comcast Corp. Comcast-Spectacor also owns the Philadelphia Flyers and 76ers.

McDonald relocated to Arizona two years ago as the director of operations at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, home of the Arizona Cardinals.

He has a staff of about 400 part-time employees. They clean the stadium and convert it between events - trade shows, concerts and football games.

The Arizona stadium has a retractable roof (14 minutes to open or close) and a unique mobile turf field that slides in and out of the stadium. The mobile field keeps the Bermuda hybrid grass healthy and nourished in the sun, McDonald said. The trip for the 18.9-million-pound field takes about 90 minutes. It runs on tracks like a trolley.

McDonald expects 64,000 fans and an additional 400 television, newspaper and magazine reporters for the Eagles-Cardinals game. "I don't want to say that it's just another Sunday because the stakes are higher," he said.

Jim said his mother, Gail, will be at the game with him in Arizona.

His daughter, Devon, and his father, Duck, will watch the game in Philadelphia - pulling for the Eagles.