PHOENIX -- Mesa residents rejected a proposal to build a stadium for the Arizona Cardinals in their city Tuesday night.

The state Tourism and Sports Authority once favored a site in northwest Mesa, but gave up on it after two citizens groups gathered enough signatures on separate initiative petitions to force Tuesday's vote.

That reduced Mesa to the status of a backup site, but city officials spent the $65,000 to set up a special election to allow the people to be heard.

"We just don't want this kind of thing in Mesa,'' said Gary Fuchs, a member of Stand Against the Stadium Site. "If we wanted that, we would live in Tempe or Phoenix. Look around Mesa and see how many big buildings there are. There aren't many, because we like our nights clear and our skyline uncluttered.''

Councilman Mike Whalen, the prime mover in the run to land the stadium, said it would have been "a great economic venue for Mesa.''

"Unfortunately, a lot of folks didn't believe that or didn't believe it was going to be a free deal,'' Whalen said. "Or deeper than that, I think a lot of folks in the whole county were so frustrated with the process that they just wanted it to go away.''

He and Fuchs both thought the percentages of the vote were skewed in a different direction by the TSA's awarding of the site to Glendale, a west side suburb, in the weeks before the election.

The only practical effect of the vote was to eliminate one of two alternate sites, authority spokesman Brad Parker said. He said there was nothing standing in the way of a December groundbreaking in Glendale.

Facing a deadline to deliver signed agreements with a site host to the governor and attorney general, the sports authority decided on Aug. 29 to put the $350 million building next to a new Phoenix Coyotes hockey arena being built in Glendale. The appropriate documents were delivered Sept. 3 -- hours before the authority met to make the Glendale choice official.

The authority's board left little doubt that the uncertainty over the outcome of the Mesa initiatives reinforced its desire to strike a deal with a municipality that welcomes the stadium and related commercial development.

The 67,000-seat, air-conditioned building with a retractable roof is expected to help the Fiesta Bowl stay among the top four in the Bowl Championship Series. It also will be used to try to attract Super Bowls, NCAA Final Fours, national conventions, trade shows and concerts to the largely undeveloped area about 15 miles northwest of central Phoenix.

The Cardinals have played in college-owned Sun Devil Stadium since coming to Arizona in 1988.