Since 1998 the Cardinals have exceeded 3 million in attendance every year except the covid years and 2003 when they just missed the mark with 2.91 million fans. That is until last year when the Cards had an almost 10% drop in attendance from 2023 to 2024 (3.24 million to 2.87 million). This year, that number will drop a lot lower. With just 9 home games left on the schedule, St. Louis just only have 2 million attendance for 2025. 2,006,070 to be exact. Considering they average of around 27,000 fans a night, that equates to about 2,251,000 fans for the 2025 campaign.
Well, except for the fact that attendance is on a downward trajectory. In the series finale against the Oakland (Sacramento?) Athletics, Busch Stadium III had the lowest attendance since the stadium opened in 2006. And it wasn’t that many games prior to the A’s game that the Cardinals previously set that record. It was so bad, Jack Buck was extremely critical of the front office and ownership in his social media post.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom. The St. Louis Cardinals took care of business Wednesday night, beating the Oakland 5-1 to close out their three-game set. St. Louis claimed the series with back-to-back wins and inched closer to .500 at 70-71.
Matthew Liberatore gave the Cards exactly what they needed on the mound, tossing 5 1/3 shutout innings. At the plate, Nolan Gorman went a perfect 3-for-3 with a home run, and Willson Contreras chipped in three hits of his own. It was a balanced effort across the roster, the kind of night every manager hopes for.
But while the Cardinals put on a solid performance, the building was as empty as it has ever been for a Cardinals game since the park opened 19 years ago. According to the Athletic’s Katie Woo, the official attendance was just 17,002 — the lowest in Busch Stadium III history outside of COVID-restricted games.
That number actually broke a record that had stood less than two weeks. On August 25, the paid crowd of 17,675 — at the time, the smallest in stadium history and the first under 20,000.
Since then, the trend has only gotten worse. And that’s despite the fact that, on the field, the Cardinals have remained competitive. With a few weeks left in the regular season, they still have a chance to finish above .500.
But it seems they don’t have much of a chance of hitting 2,250,000 fans for the season. I sure hope Chaim and the Dewits are paying attention.
