Busch Stadium III
| ||
|
Busch Stadium (also referred to informally as New Busch Stadium or Busch Stadium III) is the new home for the St. Louis Cardinals of the National League. It replaces Busch Memorial Stadium and occupies a portion of that stadium's former footprint. The stadium opened on April 4, 2006 with an exhibition between the minor league Memphis Redbirds (AAA-Pacific Coast League) and Springfield Cardinals (AA-Texas League), both minor league affiliates of the St. Louis Cardinals, which Springfield won 5-3. The official major league opening game occurred on April 10, 2006, as the Cardinals defeated the Milwaukee Brewers 6-4. A commercial area, dubbed Ballpark Village, is being developed adjacent to the stadium over the remainder of the former stadium's footprint. The stadium is the third stadium in the city of St. Louis to carry the name Busch Stadium. Sportsman's Park was renamed Busch Stadium in 1953, after team owner August Busch. After the first Busch was closed down in 1966, both the Major League Baseball Cardinals, and the NFL's St. Louis Cardinals got a new multi-purpose stadium, named Busch Memorial Stadium.
Busch Stadium has been chosen by MLB to host the 2009 All-Star Game. [1]
[edit] History
[edit] Funding
In 1995, St. Louis Cardinals team ownership began to lobby for a new ballpark in downtown St. Louis, but the team was unable to acquire funding for the project for several years. In June 2001, the State of Missouri signed a contract with the team, proposing a ballpark in downtown St. Louis, but a subsequent funding bill was struck down in May 2002, leaving the saga open. Team owners sought a location near Madison, Illinois, adjacent to Gateway International Raceway, until the city of St. Louis drafted a financing plan for the team to construct the new stadium in downtown St. Louis. The Stadium was financed through private bonds, bank loans, a long-term loan from St. Louis County, and money from the team owners. The development, including the Ballpark Village will cost approximately $646 million with the stadium alone costing $346 million.
In its debut season every game sold out, giving a total attendance of 3,407,104 for the season, the second-largest in team history.
[edit] Construction
New Busch Stadium was designed by HOK Sport and built by Hunt Construction with an estimated cost of $365 million. The stadium was built in phases:
- First, the construction of the south side of the new stadium.
- Second, the wrecking ball demolition of the old stadium, which began the week of November 7, 2005 and lasted until December 8, 2005.
- Third, building the north side of the new stadium (i.e. the left field area).
The field level (16,880 seats), terrace level (9,150), and bleachers (3,661) were completed in time for opening day, with total capacity on that day of 37,962, not including up to 2,751 standing room tickets. Construction on the seating area was completed in late May increasing the capacity for the May 29, 2006 game vs the Houston Astros with finishing touches performed throughout the year. Including all 2,886 standing-room-only tickets for the general public and the suites and party rooms, the stadium's total capacity is 46,861. Natural grass turf was installed in March 2006.
[edit] Features and design
Whereas the old stadium was fully enclosed and in the style of a "cookie cutter," the new stadium is much more open-air, allowing an unobstructed view of its surroundings. It offers a panoramic view of the downtown St. Louis skyline, as well as the city's distinctive Gateway Arch. The Arch and several other significant St. Louis landmarks are reflected in the park's architecture.
The Gate 3 entrance on the west side of the stadium is most iconic, with a large "bridge" resembling the Eads Bridge arching over the entrance. Outside this entrance also stands a bronze statue of Cardinals legend Stan "The Man" Musial. Other Cardinals statues that previously surrounded Busch Memorial Stadium are now displayed outside Gate 4. The exterior contains historical plaques of Cardinals logos, the STL insignia and a Busch Stadium logo behind home plate. Hand-carved originals were cast into colored concrete for a total of 94 castings that adorn the brick facade. Replicas of these unique plaques are available for purchase. Around the exterior of the stadium, embedded into the sidewalks are fan-purchased bricks surrounding marble plaques commemorating the Top 100 Cardinal Moments.
The interior incorporates many familiar elements from the previous Busch Stadium into the new, intimate "retro-era" design. The traditional green fences and cardinal red seats are a theme continued from the previous ballpark. The center field batter's eye is a grassy knoll, flanked symmetrically by bleacher seats and the bullpens. Although a new electronic scoreboard is now in use in right center-field, the old scoreboard is still displayed as a monument to the old stadium on the main concourse, acting as a buffer to the nearby Interstate 64/Highway 40. Furthermore, the neon flying redbird display is faithfully recreated on the new LED ribbon boards during Cardinals homeruns.
The new stadium has nearly the same field dimensions as the old stadium, although with less foul territory. It apparently plays fairly to both hitters and pitchers, as well as lefthanders and righthanders.
Directly north of the stadium, construction will soon commence on Ballpark Village, which will include both commercial and residential space, an aquarium, and the new St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.
[edit] 2006 weather incident
On July 19, 2006, a thunderstorm associated with a passing derecho whipped up very high winds throughout St. Louis. At the new Busch Stadium, the storm knocked over portable concession stands, damaging the infield rain tarp as it was deployed, and dislodged several of the plastic sheets that were designed to protect the open-air press box. One of those sheets, at least 10 feet by 5 feet (3 m by 1.5 m) in dimension, fell into the stands. At least thirty spectators were injured, of which five were taken to the hospital (one of those had a seizure apparently unrelated to the storm). The game, which saw the Cardinals defeat the Atlanta Braves 8-3, was delayed by 2 hours and 21 minutes, while the crews cleaned up. [1] The stadium now has designated shelter areas for such disasters which are located throughout the ballpark in strategically placed ramps and stairwells.
[edit] Playoff history
On October 7, 2006 and October 8, 2006, the new Busch Stadium hosted its first playoff games. On October 7, 2006, in Game 3 of the 2006 National League Division Series, the San Diego Padres defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 3-1. However, the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Padres in Game 4, on October 8, 2006, to win that 2006 National League Division Series 3 games to 1.
On October 14, 2006, during the first National League Championship Series game in the short history of the new Busch Stadium, the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the New York Mets to take a 2-1 lead in that series. The Cardinals went on to win the 2006 National League Championship in 7 games.
On October 24, October 26, and October 27, 2006, the Cardinals hosted the first World Series games at the new Busch Stadium against the Detroit Tigers. The Cards won all 3 games, and secured their 10th world championship, 4 games to 1. After the game, many fans climbed the famous statue of Stan Musial to celebrate.
By virtue of the Cardinals winning the World Series in 2006, the new Busch Stadium joined a very short list of ballparks whose occupants won the Series in the ballpark's inaugural year. The last one was Yankee Stadium, in 1923.
[edit] Picture Gallery
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
