St. Louis Cardinals News: Team announces expanded home attendance

Slowly but surely, Busch Stadium will be closer to full capacity, as the St. Louis Cardinals announced expanded home attendance.

Busch Stadium has felt alive again with fans being allowed when the St. Louis Cardinals are playing at home. Fake crowd noise and cardboard cutouts tried their best, but there’s nothing that could replace the real thing.

At the start of the year, the Cardinals announced they would be at about 33% capacity to start the year or right around 13,500 fans. Back before games started, team leadership had warned that this starting capacity would have to stick there until 100% capacity was allowed given the dimensions of the ballpark.

As it turns out though, there is a middle ground as far as attendance is concerned. According to Katie Woo of The Athletic, the Cardinals will be expanding attendance to “nearly double” where it was to start the year, starting on May 21 when the Cubs come to St. Louis.

https://twitter.com/katiejwoo/ status/1392265742586941445?s= 21

They also are having a vaccination event at the stadium this week, handing out two free tickets to fans who come get their vaccine at the stadium as incentive.

DoIng some math, the Cardinals are able to get up to the 27,000 mark in attendance. Joining 101 ESPN’s morning show, Karraker and Smallmon, Bill DeWitt III said that this level of attendance will still allow about three feet of distancing between seating pods. He also announced that the team hopes to get to 100% capacity by the end of June.

Behind the strength of their home crowd, the Cardinals are 12-8 on the year and having even more energy from the crowd should help. The Cardinals currently have the second-best record in the National League, only behind the San Francisco Giants.

When the Cubs come to town for the first meeting between the two teams in 2021, it’ll be amazing to see Nolan Arenado indoctrinated into the rivalry as well as see how the Cubs look this year. Currently, they are 5.0 games back of the Cards in 4th place at 17-19.