Busch Stadium - St. Louis, Missouri
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 38° 37.325 W 090° 11.669
15S E 744243 N 4278574
Home of the St. Louis Cardinal in downtown St. Louis.
Waymark Code: WM7ZJ2
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 12/29/2009
Views: 29
"Busch Stadium (also referred to informally as "New Busch Stadium" or "Busch Stadium III") is the home of the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball. It replaced Busch Memorial Stadium and occupies a portion of that stadium's former footprint. Busch Stadium was chosen by MLB to host the 2009 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
The ballpark opened on April 4, 2006 with an exhibition between the minor league Memphis Redbirds and Springfield Cardinals, both affiliates of the St. Louis Cardinals, which Springfield won 5-3. The first official major league game occurred on April 10, 2006 as the Cardinals defeated the Milwaukee Brewers 6–4 behind an Albert Pujols home run and winning pitcher Mark Mulder. 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 St. Louis to carry the name Busch Stadium. Sportsman's Park was renamed Busch Stadium in 1953, after team owner Gussie Busch. The first Busch closed in 1966, and both the baseball Cardinals, and the NFL's St. Louis Cardinals moved to a new multi-purpose stadium, named Busch Memorial Stadium.
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 Missouri state government 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 $665 million with the stadium alone costing $365 million
New Busch Stadium was designed by Populus (then known as HOK Sport) and built by Hunt Construction with an estimated cost of $344.8 million, which proved too low by $20.2 mil. to its final cost of $365 mil. HOK's senior project designer for Busch Stadium was Jim Chibnall, who was also the lead designer of Jacobs Field in Cleveland, Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Sydney Olympic Stadium and other notable stadiums throughout the world.
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.
In its debut season every game was sold out, giving a total attendance of 3,407,104 for the season, the second-largest in team history, but since surpassed in both 2007 and 2008, therefore the 2006 attendance now ranks fourth in team history." - Wikipedia
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