The St. Louis Cardinals have had record-lows in attendance this season, as the team continues to struggle on the field.
The Cardinals have three games left at Busch Stadium this year, and they're on pace to have their lowest attendance since the COVID-19 pandemic season.
St. Louis ranks No. 19 in the MLB, averaging 27,581 fans per home game, which is more than 8,000 fewer fans than Busch Stadium saw per game last season.
Cardinals' Attendance Affects Businesses
The Cardinals low attendance numbers aren't fun for the team or the fans to see. However, it's having an even bigger impact on the surrounding area.
Businesses around Busch Stadium rely on the foot-traffic Cardinals' games generate to succeed. St. Louis is one of the most historic teams in the MLB and has always found a way to put a good, enticing product on the field to get fans out to the ballpark.
However, that hasn't been the case the last coupe of years.
"It's hurting everybody downtown," said Karen Boschert, who owns K's Unique Hotdogs and sells right outside of Busch Stadium (h/t stlpr.org). "They're not coming anymore — they don't want to spend the money downtown on the product that's on the field, the parking, the tickets."
#Cardinals announce a tickets sold crowd of 17,675 tonight.
— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) August 26, 2025
That is the smallest in Busch Stadium III history, and it is the first time they’ve sold fewer than 20,000. #stlcards pic.twitter.com/iA2Cv2WSth
Boschert has sold hotdogs outside Cardinals' games for more than 20 years, but had to downsize from two locations to one this year because of the lack of sales.
The drop in sales has been massive too. Boschert estimated her sales have dropped 80 percent from their peak, due to the lack of foot traffic in downtown.
But, Boschert isn't the only one suffering. Sales in the 63102 ZIP code, which contains a large portion of the restaurants and other businesses around Busch Stadium, dropped by $50 million through the end of June, compared to last year, according to data from the Missouri Department of Revenue.
Going further back, businesses in that same ZIP code made roughly $530 million in taxable sales in 2023, and that dropped to $490 in 2024, which was the first yearly decrease in sales since the pandemic in 2020.
Two years ago, the Yankees' Sunday visit to St. Louis drew 44,676 tickets sold at Busch Stadium. That was in 2023 -- a losing season.
— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) August 17, 2025
Today's announced ticket sales: 25,365.#stlcards #Cardinals #MLB
The Cardinals were in the playoff hunt once again in 2025, but didn't make any flashy moves at the MLB trade deadline and are looking at their third straight year of missing the playoffs.
St. Louis came close last year, winning 83 games. However, the Cardinals would have to win their final nine games to match their record from 2024.
With the production on the field diminishing, businesses around Busch Stadium are following suit. However, Roschert is still hopeful things will turn around, and that starts with the Cardinals winning more games.
"The Cardinals won't always be bad, you know, they're not going to keep doing that," Roschert said (h/t stlpr.org). "I don't want to stop because I know we'll turn it around."