Busch Stadium Fansite

Busch Stadium, home to the Major League Baseball team, the St. Louis Cardinals, is actually the third stadium to carry the name Busch.  The first stadium was Sportsman’s Park, but was renamed to Busch Stadium after Cardinals team owner, Gussie Busch.  It closed in 1966 and Busch Memorial Stadium was built to house both the baseball Cardinals as well as the National Football League St. Louis Cardinals.

The “new” Busch Stadium was opened in April 2006 after a long battle to see it built.  The Cardinals owners started lobbying for a new ballpark in downtown St. Louis in 1995, but funding was inaccessible for several years.  An agreement was reached in 2001 with the State of Missouri, but nearly a year later the funding bill was struck down.  Team owners sought locations away from the downtown area, until the city of St. Louis came up with a financing plan to get the ballpark built in downtown.  Private bonds, bank loans, funding from St. Louis County as well as team owner investments totaling $346 million finally came together and the dream of a new stadium was realized.

The new Busch Stadium was designed by HOK Sport and constructed by Hunt Construction in three major phases:  first was construction of the south side of the new stadium, followed by demolition of the old Busch Memorial Stadium in the winter of 2005, and lastly the construction of the north side of the stadium.  The field and terrace level seats and bleachers were completed in time for opening day with a capacity of over 37,000.  By late May, the seating area construction was completed including party rooms and suites, increasing total stadium capacity to over 46,000. 

The new stadium has an open-air design with a panoramic view of the downtown St. Louis skyline, including the Gateway Arch.  The traditional green fences and red seats remain part of the design from the old stadium.  While a new electronic scoreboard is used, the old scoreboard is on display as a monument to the old stadium as well.  Additional homage to the old stadium holds true in the statues of previous Cardinal players appear outside the entrances, including Stan “The Man” Musial.

In the 2006 season, every game was sold out, resulting in 3.4 million attendance for the season, which was the second largest season in team history.  In October 2006, Busch Stadium hosted its first playoff games with the Cardinals defeating the San Diego Padres with three games to one in the series.  The Cardinals went on to win the 2006 National League Championship in seven games.  Busch Stadium hosted its first World Series games against the Detroit Tigers with the Cardinals winning all three games on their home turf, and went on to win their 10th World Series Championship with a win of four games to one.

This exciting inaugural year for Busch Stadium was one for the books as well since this was the first time that a new stadium’s occupants won a World Series in its first year since 1923.

A portion of the new stadium was built on the former stadium’s ground site, with the remaining old stadium grounds being earmarked for Ballpark Village, a commercial and residential project that will add $300 million to the cost of the entire Busch Stadium project.  The Ballpark Village will also include a new St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.  The Busch Stadium has been selected to host the 2009 All-Star Game by the Major League Baseball commission.