Busch Stadium's meek crowds send hollowing message to Cardinals' ownership

The St. Louis Cardinals sent a message to their archrivals from Chicago on Friday night, but the fanbase sent a louder one to ownership.

On the same night that Yadier Molina made his long-awaited return to the Cardinals' dugout and the young bucks led by Jordan Walker, Michael McGreevy, and Thomas Saggese continued the Cubs' second-half woes, the atmosphere at Busch Stadium was muted at best.

All season long, reasons were given as to why the crowds were not picking up yet. Some wondered if the beginning of summer would attract families to the ballpark. Ownership was certainly hoping that getting to nine games above .500 would inspire enough confidence in the fanbase. Excuses were made about scorching hot temperatures and frequent inclement weather raining on the Cardinals' parade.

None of it has made a difference, though, and nothing can illuminate that issue more than the lack of fan support for a Friday night Cardinals-Cubs game in the dog days of summer.

Empty seats at Busch Stadium illuminate a growing issue for Cardinals' ownership

The announced attendance of 33,453 did not accurately reflect the atmosphere around the stadium that evening. Empty seats littered the ballpark, and full sections lacked any fans. And to be frank, the Cubs faithful showed up in a significant way, evidenced by my entire row being filled with Cubs fans, aside from myself and another. Shoutout to Matt, Brandon, Gonzo, Chad, Roxy, Brecken, and Waverly!

Meek felt like the perfect description for the faithful on Friday. Fans who were in attendance still celebrated a Cardinals victory, welcoming Molina home to St. Louis, saluting the late Ryan Sandberg, and tipping their cap to the "youngry" club that continues to scrap and claw, despite minimal investment from the ones cutting the checks.

Even so, Busch lacked the roars that typically accompany a huge weekend series. Had the game gone in the other direction, it would have felt like enemy territory.

The Cardinals are on track to sell just 2.2 million tickets this year, a whopping one million fewer tickets sold than back during the 2022 season. The Cardinals have seen the largest drop in attendance in all of baseball each of the last two seasons (not including the displayed Tampa Bay Rays, who are currently playing in a minor league stadium after Hurricane Milton took out Tropicana Field).

From 2000 to 2023, the Cardinals sold no less than 3,000,000 tickets a season and finished in the top five in attendance almost every year. Sitting bottom third in baseball in attendance this year is an unprecedented shift in fan support under the ownership of chairman Bill DeWitt Jr.

Significant changes were put into motion last fall, as 2025 has served as the awkward backdrop for a changing of the guard from president of baseball operations, John Mozeliak, to president of baseball operations in waiting, Chaim Bloom. While one has to wonder how much that change alone may draw fans back to Busch Stadium, ownership hasn't exactly done itself many favors with its external messaging.

It's hard not to let Bill DeWitt III's tone-deaf comments in March of 2024 echo louder than the empty seats. When asked about fans insisting they would stay away from the ballpark until the organization made significant changes, the Cardinals' president and soon-to-be chairman chuckled as if he was amused, and seemingly drove the wedge between this storied organization and its fanbase even wider.

"The thing I sometimes chuckle about is when I see sometimes comments [like], ‘We’ve got to not show up to send a message that this isn’t acceptable to the owners.' I find that one somewhat illogical reasoning, because we just turn this revenue machine into a payroll machine. I mean, that’s what this is, this business. We try to drive as much revenue as we can, and then it gets put on the field, for the most part.”

It doesn't take a business degree to understand that a significant drop in revenues typically leads to less spending, but it also doesn't take a public relations expert to understand that was better left unsaid.

As tickets remain unpurchased and seats stay folded up throughout Busch, one has to wonder if ownership's tune will change amid strong backlash from their historically loyal customers, or if the DeWitt family will dig their heels in and see who blinks first. It's a standoff that is usually reserved for a market like Tampa Bay, and perhaps that is why they tapped the shoulder of Bloom to succeed Mozeliak, who is all too familiar with that during his time with the Rays and was tasked with cutting costs while running the Boston Red Sox.

Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I have a hard time believing that the DeWitts will allow this to fester much longer. As my friend Bernie Miklasz shared on "The Bernie Show" this week, previous ownership groups have squandered this "golden goose" before, but the majority of DeWitt Jr.'s time owning the club has been marked by winning baseball and stewardship of the Birds on the Bat.

Perhaps as Mozeliak's success grew stale in these later years, so too did ownership's relentless pursuit of excellence. Time will tell if Bloom and his new regime are allowed to spread their wings and get the Redbirds back to prominence. But if ownership waits around for fans to swallow their pride and invest in a deteriorating product, this organizational rebuild will take far longer than it needs to.

Not drawing fans for a weekend series against the Chicago Cubs should be the biggest of red flags and loudest of warning sirens. Cardinals fans have warned that this day was coming, and they have made their dissatisfaction loud and clear. There's only one question left to answer:

Is ownership listening?