St. Louis Cardinals: Could home stadiums be in play for 2020?

One of the most recent ideas for the 2020 season could see the St. Louis Cardinals playing at Busch Stadium. What would this plan look like?

It seems as though a plan for St. Louis Cardinals‘ baseball to return in June is gaining steam. The most recent plan, reported by Bob Nightengale of USA Today, is very different than the other “radical realignment” plans. We also have some more specific details about what exactly the plan could look like.

Like the previous realignment with Texas involved, this plan would involve three major divisions of 10 teams. Unlike the other plans though, the divisions would be separated geographically and the regular season schedule for each team would include games against just those teams in their division.

However, these games would be played in each team’s home stadiums. This is the first plan that suggested home stadiums would be possible, and what makes it possible is that fans would still not be in attendance. Playing in the same geographic regions would greatly reduce travel. The ability for the Cardinals to play in Busch would be huge for fans. There would just be something weird about seeing the Cardinals be the “home team” in any stadium other than Busch.

This plan would also fix the issue that many players had with the other plans: being away from their families.

For me, the most fun part of all of this is what the new central division would look like.

Nightengale listed this as his best guess for what the divisions would look like. In my initial opinion, this just seems fun. I’ve seen a few people on Twitter express disdain for any drastic shakeups, saying that they would prefer no season at all.

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Respectfully, I completely disagree. I think that baseball returning, even if it looks very different in 2020, can be a huge part in bringing everyone back to normalcy in the country. Nothing has been the same since all of this started.

This year’s NFL draft was the most-watched draft in history because it was the first national sport that had something new and novel happen (sorry WNBA draft). If the MLB was anywhere near the front of the wave of sports returning, it could be amazing for their TV ratings and following.

Playing the Braves as well as the White Sox and the other AL teams would be very entertaining because those are teams we don’t get to see as much as the normal NL Central teams. Catching both sides of the Chicago rivalry would be great and there is a chance that new rivalries could be formed in these new divisions.

There is still plenty to work out, as Nightengale notes, three owners told USA Today that they would refuse to play if the players didn’t take a pay cut. This seems greedy, but if there are no fans, revenues would be through the floor. An agreement would need to be made, but letting greed get in the way of an agreement is against the interests of both sides.

Nightengale notes that the best sign is that testing is becoming more available and that states are slowly beginning to reopen. The timetable is still to begin baseball activities in June, but there is nothing official yet.

I am all for baseball in any capacity and the fact that it’s looking more and more likely that teams will be able to play at home against new rivals makes it all the more fun in my eyes. More official news will likely come out in the next month and each time the plans seem more and more feasible.