Look at all those red seats.
The St. Louis Cardinals played in front of the smallest home crowd in the history of Busch Stadium III when they hosted the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday, Aug. 25, their ticketed attendance of 17,675 featuring over 2,000 more empty seats than any game outside of the COVID years.
Prior to that game, the last time the Cardinals played at home and sold less than 20,000 tickets came 28 years to the day previously, on Aug. 25, 1997. St. Louis played in front of just 16,965 fans that day, but they had something of an excuse. It was the postponement of an April snowout, and that was the only time in 1997 that the Cardinals played with less than 20,000 tickets sold despite a 73-89 finish.
Each of the Cardinals’ four-game set against Pittsburgh saw a ticketed attendance of less than 20,000: they averaged just 18,752 fans during the series. It’s a stunning fall from grace for a franchise that finished second in home attendance in 2022, falling behind only the cavernous 56,000 seat Dodger Stadium. This season, the Cardinals occupy the No. 19 spot.
Not even the New York Yankees, whose brand strength routinely sells out road venues — the Cardinals hosted them in August 2023, another lost season, and averaged 44,586 tickets sold — were able to help sell out Busch Stadium during the weekend of Aug. 15. This year’s series with the Yankees averaged just 30,111 fans, prompting the following statement from Cardinals Vice President for Ticket Sales Joe Strohm to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
“At the end of the day, it’s [attendance] not where we want to be, so there’s work — there is work that needs to be done,” Strohm said. “That’s the one thing: fans have a right to voice their pleasure or displeasure, and we know there is work to get people back. We have to earn them back. That’s the entertainment industry. You’ve got to earn people’s discretionary income.”
The Cardinals’ leadership has issued a similar refrain in recent seasons as home attendance dropped from second to fourth to seventh to nineteenth. What did they do about it this past offseason? They didn’t sign any free agents until the eve of the 2025 season, when they inked reliever Phil Maton to a one-year, $2 million contract during spring training. Right now, they have No. 1 prospect JJ Wetherholt tearing up Triple-A, and won’t even promote him to the big leagues despite an immediate need in the infield.
Rhetoric about the reputation of the St. Louis faithful as the “Best Fans in Baseball” aside, it makes sense that interest would table off following the retirement of homegrown legends like Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright. Nevertheless, this remains a stunning fall from grace for the Cardinals. Between 2016 and 2018, the last time they missed the playoffs for three years in a row — as they seem poised to this season barring a September miracle — their lowest finish in attendance was the No. 3 spot.
Across the landscape of professional sports, we’ve seen formerly young and motivated ownership groups taper off and stagnate, seemingly happy with their early success and ensuing reputation: Hal Steinbrenner with the Yankees, Jerry Jones with the Dallas Cowboys, Art Rooney II with the Pittsburgh Steelers and now, perhaps, Bill DeWitt III and the Cardinals.
The Cardinals’ leadership can continue to say all the right things about winning back fans’ trust, but DeWitt and Chaim Bloom, the heir-apparent as President of Baseball Operations will need to put their money where their mouth is this offseason. Otherwise, they’ll continue to see firsthand why the saying goes that indifference is worse than anger.
