Weather permitting, the St. Louis Cardinals will hit a major Busch Stadium milestone tonight, with the 50 millionth fan in ballpark history to cross the turnstiles.
(Alas, rain is in the St. Louis forecast.)
The Cardinals expect to have more than 33,000+ fans in attendance for this evening’s game, which will be the 1,221th home game with fans. Dating back to the first game at Busch Stadium on April 10, 2006, the Cardinals’ regular-season attendance total currently stands at 49,977,443. If 22,557 fans are tallied (which seems likely if not washed ; the Cardinals have never had a crowd of less than 30,000 for a regular-season game with no capacity restrictions, and the lowest attendance figure for a regular season game was 30,090 on September 5, 2012 versus the New York Mets), the Cardinals will set a new MLB record for fewest dates needed to draw 50 million in a ballpark, bettering the previous mark of 1,259 set by the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park from 2000-2015.
The organization will recognize the attendance milestone with a on-field ceremony shortly before tonight’s first pitch.
“50 million fans at Busch Stadium in a little over 16 years is incredible, said Bill DeWitt III, Cardinals Team President. “Not only does it reflect the success we’ve had on the field, but also the consistently great support we get from our fans every year. We are truly grateful for their passion and dedication to Cardinals baseball.”
The Cardinals will become the third MLB team to reach the 50-million regular-season attendance mark since the 2006 season, joining the Los Angeles Dodgers (54,665,629) and New York Yankees (52,661,626). Since 2010, only the Dodgers have a higher home regular season attendance total than the Cardinals. Some attendance notes from the team:
- The St. Louis Cardinals sold out the first 162 games at Busch Stadium beginning with the Home Opener on April 10, 2006 through the 2008 Home Opener on April 1.
- The Cardinals had a streak of 240 consecutive regular season games with a least 40,000 fans in attendance, from September 25, 2013 through September 25, 2016.
- 79.5 percent of Cardinals regular-season games (906 of 1,140) have had attendances of over 40,000 fans.
- The largest regular-season crowd at Busch Stadium was 48,547 on Sunday, May 12, 2019, vs. Pittsburgh (Mother’s Day, first-ever Cardinals Purse gate giveaway).
- The Cardinals have averaged 41,996 fans per regular season game since Busch Stadium opened in 2006.
Technically, this is the third Busch Stadium. The first began life at Sportsman’s Park and was used by the Cards through May 8, 1966; Busch Memorial Stadium opened May 12, 1966.
Photo by Mark Cryan.