Busch Stadium
The New House of Cards
When the baseball fans of St. Louis, aptly recognized as being the best in America, get used to a name, they don't like to change it! During Sportsman's Park's last 13 years, it was known as Busch Stadium. When the Cardinals moved downtown to a cookie-cutter facility in 1966, it was also called Busch (Memorial) Stadium. Now that the team's fabulous new park has opened its doors, I guess it should be no surprise that it is called Busch Stadium as well. The fans, as well has Augie Busch himself, wouldn't have it any other way!
Some people have already started referring to the new park as "Busch III" to differentiate it from its two predecessors. Not a bad idea. For now, I think I'll refer to it as "New Busch," and we'll call the recently demolished facility "Old Busch."
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Ballpark Stats |
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| First game: April 10, 2006, a 6-4 win over Milwaukee |
| Capacity: 46,861 (of which, 43,975 are fixed seats or bleachers) once all parts of the park are completed |
| Architect: HOK Sport Venue Event |
| Price: $365 million |
| Home dugout: 1B side |
| Field points: northeast |
| Playing surface: bluegrass |
| Betcha didn't know:
The spot where old Busch Stadium's right-field foul pole was located is in deep left-center field of the new park |
So how does the new version measure up? Very well, and as I examine New Busch point by point, I think you'll see what I mean.
That doesn't mean that I have no gripes about it. Far from it (and I'll be laying out those negative aspects throughout the review). But as a successor to the most classic of the downtown "multi-purpose" stadiums built in the 1960s and '70s, it is most worthy.
As with all of BASEBALLPARKS.COM's in-depth reviews in recent years, this one will examine New Busch in four key areas: its setting; its exterior; its architectural design and its fan amenities.
On Deck -- The Setting
If you attend games regularly at a certain ballpark, then you develop certain habits -- your preferred route to the stadium, favorite place to park, favorite nearby tavern, etc. Now imagine that your team moves into a brand-new ballpark, but you don't have to change any of your tried-and-true practices.
That's what has happened for Cardinal fans.
The new Busch Stadium is directly next door to the old Busch Stadium. In fact, there is a spot in deep left field of the new park that would also have been in fair territory near the previous right-field foul pole. Talk about proximity!
This meant that the construction crew had an interesting challenge: how to build as much of New Busch as possible with Old Busch still standing. This is similar to the way Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati was constructed, and in that case, a large chunk of the outfield seating at Cinergy Field was removed prior to the Reds' final season in the old stadium. There was no such phenomenon in St. Louis, but it did mean that the left-field structure of New Busch wasn't completed by its opening day.
The good news is that favorable weather and even better planning put that phase of the construction ahead of schedule, and those seats were ready to go about six weeks earlier than originally scheduled.
The setting for New Busch -- while not being very different than Old Busch -- is still noteworthy. That's because modern-day architectural thinking no longer creates stadiums in the shape of ash trays, which prevented many of the fans at Old Busch from seeing the city's prized landmark (the Arch) from their seats. At the new park, it is visible from far more seating sections, including a good portion of the field level. The resulting view, which also includes the city's beautiful old courthouse, is really something special.
That view will change a little bit in coming years. That's because the land where the old park once stood will be developed into a "ballpark village," with shops, commercial space and even some dwelling places. At the time of this writing, it is merely a graded lot.
The aerial shot above helps put the ballpark's location in perspective. This was taken from a plane preparing to land at the St. Louis airport. It is looking southwest toward the city's downtown. The Mississippi River is in the foreground, with the gleaming Arch along its banks. New Busch Stadium is close to the center of this scene, as we are looking at the main seating bowl -- and its red-red-and-more-red seats -- from beyond center field.
By the way, the "flatter" of the two bridges toward the bottom of this shot is the Eads Bridge, and it figures prominently in the design of one of the entryways of the ballpark. More on that later.
But there is one aspect of the setting that is, well, unsettling. The new park is wedged into the land between the old park and a busy, elevated highway. At this point in St. Louis, this highway carries both Interstate 64 and U.S. Highway 40. Now, in my mind, an Interstate would trump a U.S. Highway, and I would assume that locals would refer to this freeway as I-64. They don't. They all call it Highway 40 -- so I will, too.
The really bad aspect of this is that entryways behind home plate (above left) and near right field are literally in the shadow of this busy highway. I hope that fans will look to the third-base entry as being the "main" entryway into the park, because it is gorgeous, plus its appearance isn't marred by the freeway. But the fact remains that the home-plate entry and the entire concourse that runs parallel to the first-base line (the exterior of which is shown in the right-hand photo above) are impacted by the view and noise from the elevated highway.
First base -- The Exterior
Setting aside the fact that the southern edge of the stadium is so close to Highway 40, the exterior of the new Busch Stadium is absolutely beautiful. The brickwork is wonderful, and in that respect, it reminds me of Ameriquest Field in Arlington.
The entryways are marvelous, although the ones on three corners (behind home plate, left-field and right-field) are pretty similar to each other. By the way, once you're inside the one behind home, you'll encounter an awe-inspiring rotunda.
The crowning achievement of the entryways, though, is Gate 3 behind third base. HOK, the architects behind this beautiful ballpark, designed a gateway for the ages, using the Eads Bridge as its inspiration. The shots below let you see what this looks like both outside the stadium and from within.
When you first arrive at this ballpark, don't be in a rush to see the inside. Make a point of walking around the exterior to experience all of the nice touches -- in the brickwork, in the personalized bricks and "tiles" in the sidewalk, in the landscaping and in the walkway along the north edge of the stadium. This walkway includes not only an unexplained green-and-yellow set of lines crossing the walkway (below left -- by the way, it marks where the outfield wall of old Busch Stadium used to be) but also a fence where those without tickets can peer into the place, sometimes even catching a glimpse of action on the field.
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