This jarring image of Busch Stadium highlights Cardinals' fall from relevancy

No, I'm not even talking about the cover photo. But yeah, that gets at the issues facing the St. Louis Cardinals organization too.

It feels like every single home game the Cardinals play these days sets a new record for the lowest attendance the team has had in Busch Stadium III history. And yet, just when you think it can't get any worse, the images that keep surfacing of dwindling crowd attendance just keep getting more and more shocking.

The latest and I think most jarring of images comes courtesy of Robert Cohen, photojournalist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who captured a close to empty Busch Stadium during the National Anthem on Thursday afternoon.

I have never seen the stadium that empty during batting practice, let alone the National Anthem. St. Louis is known for having one of the best stadium environments in all of baseball, consistently packing the house in support of the Cardinals. But now the crowds look akin to markets like Tampa Bay and Oakland that get little fan support. It's truly a devastating fall from grace for the organization and one I never thought we'd see.

The Cardinals will not be continuing their trend of 3 million fans attending games this season, and I wouldn't be shocked to see the images get even worse as September comes and the team continues to inevitably tailspin. The Cardinals have made their bed for this season already, and both John Mozeliak and ownership need to take a long look in the mirror and make hard decisions in the coming months if they want to get back to typical fan support in 2025 and beyond.

Maybe if the Cardinals lean heavily on their youth in September fans could have a bit of a better turnout at the ballpark, but I do not envision any way that we see these crowds get back to where they typically have been. That is a major problem for the Cardinals' revenue, but they would be asking for years of continued woes if they turn that into an excuse to cut back spending in a significant way.

Listening to the Padres' broadcast this week and their shock regarding the evaporation of fans in the stands was quite sobering as well. The Cardinals are known around baseball for having the most loyal and diehard fans in the game, and while there are some who are trying to say this proves that was not the case, I would argue that fans understand that ownership will be quicker to action if it impacts their pocketbook.

I truly feel for those who work within the Cardinals' organization who are not involved with baseball operations or vendors and businesses who rely on the buzz of baseball to feed their families. The Cardinals' fall from relevancy impacts more than just the people in the dugout, the front office, and ownership, it impacts real people who have nothing to do with the play on the field.

Fans should go to games if they want to. I hope to catch a few before the season is over myself. But I don't expect the gates to be flooded anytime soon, and if ownership and the front office aren't careful, we may be circling back in early 2025 lamenting record-low crowds for Opening Day and the entire season.