Inside The Cardinals

Cardinals Beat Athletics In Front Of Smallest Crowd In Busch Stadium History

How will the Cardinals fix the issue?
Patrick McAvoy|
Jul 4, 2020; St. Louis, Missouri, United States; A view of empty seats during workouts at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images
Jul 4, 2020; St. Louis, Missouri, United States; A view of empty seats during workouts at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images | Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

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St. Louis Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals had a good night on Wednesday in the win column.

St. Louis concluded a three-game series against the Athletics and came out on top, 5-1. the Cardinals won the series overall and finished the series in general by winning two straight games. The Cardinals got positive contributions from all across the roster. Matthew Liberatore went 5 1/3 shutout innings, Nolan Gorman went 3-for-3 with a home run, Willson Contreras collected three base hits of his own, and the Cardinals moved within one game of .500 at 70-71.

For as good as the Cardinals played on Wednesday, there weren't many people there to see it. In fact, The Athletic's Katie Woo shared that St. Louis' official attendance of 17,002 actually was the lowest in the history of Busch Stadium III, not including COVID.

"New season-low (and stadium history-low) attendance for tonight's Cardinals/A's game," Woo said. "Official attendance: 17,002."

How can the Cardinals fix the problem?

St. Louis Cardinals players hats
Apr 24, 2022; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; A view of St. Louis Cardinals players hats and gloves in the dugout during a game with the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park. Mandatory Credit: David Kohl-Imagn Images | David Kohl-Imagn Images

Now, that's pretty stunning. On August 25th, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch shared that the club's attendance of 17,675 that night was the first time fewer than 20,000 tickets were sold for a game.

"Cardinals announce a tickets sold crowd of 17,675 tonight," Goold said. "That is the smallest in Busch Stadium III history, and it is the first time they’ve sold fewer than 20,000."

Since then, the number has fallen to the point it was at on Wednesday. All in all, the product on the field has been solid for the most part this year. The Cardinals can still be an above-.500 team with a few weeks left to go in the regular season. But, this issue of attendance has been a big talking point throughout the entire season and as we have gotten closer to the end, it has just gotten worse and worse.

It's going to be interesting to see how the Cardinals address the fan-attendance growing issue. It's not as if interest the team itself is down. That is at least close to steady, but attendance continues to drop.

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Patrick McAvoy
PATRICK MCAVOY

Patrick McAvoy's experiences include local and national sports coverage at the New England Sports Network with a focus on baseball and basketball. Outside of journalism, Patrick also is pursuing an MBA at Brandeis University. After quickly rising as one of the most productive writers on the site, he expanded his reach to write for Baseball Essential, a national baseball site in Sports Illustrated Media Group. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding Inside The Cardinals, please reach out to Scott Neville: nevilles@merrimack.edu

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