Opposing broadcast laments Cardinals' attendance hemorrhage

The return of ballyhooed former St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Shildt didn't entice Cardinals fans to come out to the ballgame on Aug. 26 against the San Diego Padres, as the reported number of tickets sold reached a meager 28.697, and the number of fans at the game appeared to be far lower than that. The broadcasters on the Padres network, Bally Sports San Diego, were taken aback by the sparsity of the crowd.

If any Cardinals fans were still under the illusion that their team's attendance woes weren't noticed outside of St. Louis, those thoughts were shattered on Monday night, as Padres broadcasters Don Orsillo and Mark Grant deemed the lack of fans at Busch Stadium "shocking" and "not the Busch Stadium I am used to in late August and early September."

That game marked the second-lowest attendance in the history of the third iteration of Busch Stadium, surpassed only by the previous home game four days earlier, and that number looks poised to dwindle further as students return to school and the Cardinals continue to fall out of contention.

Baseball has made a minor comeback in terms of overall attendance the past two seasons, but the Cardinals have been bucking that trend. People can point to a myriad of reasons for the downturn, whether it be the sweltering summer heat, heightened inflation or fears for safety in downtown St. Louis, but the team's failure to place a winning product on the field is clearly the main factor for the fall-off of fans in the stadium.

The Cardinals have been in an unfamiliar situation as a laughingstock of the league in the past two seasons. In 2023, Willson Contreras was pegged as a scapegoat for many of the team's problems, and 2024 has seen the gross mishandling of Jordan Walker, a potential superstar whom the Cardinals can't decide how to utilize. But in the past, the Cardinals could still hang their hats on the fact that well over 30,000 people would show up to every home game. Without that privilege, the Cardinals ownership looks primed to cry poor and blame the fans for a supposed inability to spend money on players in 2025.

It's difficult to stomach the current state of Busch Stadium and the Cardinals. Noticing your own shortcomings is one thing, but when your team continues to receive scorn and derision across the league and your dearth of fans becomes noteworthy, it's time for everyone in the Cardinals organization to step back and face reality: The team is in a tailspin, and everyone around the league knows it. Bringing back legacy players and establishing leadership in the clubhouse only goes so far. To win back the fans, you need to win games.