ST. LOUIS — A beautiful Friday night at Busch Stadium as the Cardinals begin a six-game home stretch, bringing tens of thousands of fans to downtown St. Louis.
This week, talks about future renovations at Busch Stadium are making headlines. A recent report in the Riverfront Times says the team may want public money to pay for possible renovations over the next few years.
Our partners at the St. Louis Business Journal spoke with Cardinals president Bill DeWitt III who said that idea is "premature."
Related: 'Premature' to say St. Louis Cardinals want public money for Busch renovations, DeWitt says
Such conversations came after one of the smallest crowds in the stadium's history last week.
If you want to talk about attendance, you have to talk to Karen Boschert, who runs K's Unique Dogs and has been selling hot dogs in St. Louis for 26 years. She can analyze recent attendance numbers at Busch Stadium by looking at the number of hot dogs she's sold over the last few years.
"This year it's slow," Boschert told 5 On Your Side. "The weather, last time we had the eclipse —that hurt us a little bit that night. When the Blues— I think they're done now, but that affects us. It all affects us when they have soccer and Battlehawks because a lot of people have season tickets for a lot of those places."
Boschert lost about $40,000 last year. It was her worst Cardinals season ever. So the entrepreneur is happy to see fans pouring into the stadium on April 19.
The Cardinals told us they had sold over 37,000 tickets in advance for Friday's game. During the game, announcers said the final attendee total was more than 40,000.
The team also pointed to being ranked fifth in the league for average home game attendance this season. The Redbirds are only trailing big markets like the Dodgers, Yankees, Braves and Phillies.
One fan from St. Charles, Rob Frkovic, has been coming every other week.
"Attendance has been fantastic for every game I've been at so far," Frkovic said. He's already been to three games since opening day. "I can't speak for the other ones, but every game I've been at, it's been great."
So great, fans aren't sure why there have been conversations about the Cardinals potentially doing renovations sometime over the next few years. A consideration as Busch Stadium approaches its 20th anniversary in 2026.
"I mean, I don't have much experience with other stadiums, but we've never had an issue with anything," Nancy Glynn, a Cardinals fan from O'Fallon, said while attending Friday's game with her husband, Mike. "Getting in and out is easy. Everything you need is right there."
Some fans online have said fixing aging infrastructure or new amenities may partly come from public funding.
However, the St. Louis Business Journal spoke with Dewitt III, who said, "Why would I be out asking for public money when I don't even know what I'm asking for yet?"
The Cardinals are not commenting further on the idea of even hypothetical public funding.