Last weekend marked new milestones for Busch Stadium, as the St. Louis Cardinals set attendance records on Saturday and Sunday.
With the rival Chicago Cubs in town for a three-game series, the Cardinals saw a strong turnout at Busch Stadium. Saturday’s game set a new attendance by attracting 47, 882 fans, but that was topped on Sunday followed by a figure of 47,925 spectators.
Busch Stadium opened in 2006, so it has had plenty of time over the years to draw big crowds to Cardinals’ regular season contests. Decent weather, the presence of the Cubs, and the Cardinals’ improved play of late were among some that were noted as contributing to the surge in attendance over the weekend. More from CBS St. Louis:
Cards vice-president of ticket sales, Joe Strohm, says the near-perfect May weather and having the Cubs in town brought out 47,882 fans on Saturday, a new record that they then broke the very next day by packing an extra 43 fans in on top of that.
“People have asked ‘how does that happen?’ when you would think probably the record breaking crowd would be opening day or in the postseason, and really the difference between the two is on opening day we may have had a few more complimentary tickets given out on those particular days,” he says.
It is worth noting that Friday’s game was a solid draw as well, as the Cardinals reported an attendance figure of 47,601 for that game. Busch Stadium has hosted some major crowds for non-baseball events in the past, including an attendance of 48,263 for a soccer match between Chelsea and Manchester City in 2013.