Busch Stadium Historical Analysis by Baseball Almanac

Busch Stadium

During the late 1950s August A. Busch Jr. decided that if the St. Louis Cardinals were going to prosper and attract the fans necessary to support a Major League franchise, it would have to move out of the Grand Avenue Busch Stadium and into a new ballpark.

A new stadium in downtown St. Louis provided a much needed redevelopment of the downtown area and in 1964, ground was broken. On May 12, 1966, Busch Stadium officially opened as the new home of the St. Louis Cardinals and the home plate from Busch Stadium (Grand Avenue location) was used & brought over for the first game ceremony. In a 12-inning inaugural, the Cardinals defeated the Atlanta Braves, 4-3.

Busch Stadium is basically a two-deck all-concrete facility with approximately half its seats in each deck. The seats completely surround the playing field without posts or columns to obstruct fans' views. The nearly circular structure has an outside diameter of more than eight-hundred feet, covers more than twelve acres and is one-hundred thirty feet tall, measured from the playing field to the top of the stadium.

"That tarp (at Busch Stadium which rolled ovelass="topquote">

"That tarp (at Busch Stadium which rolled over his left knee causing a bone chip and bruises) was a real man eater." - Vince Coleman in the 1985 National League Championship Series

Busch Stadium Major League Occupant(s)
Data
	First Game	05-12-1966
	Last Game	10-19-2005
Busch Stadium Ballpark Capacity & Seating Chart
Data
Capacity Changes (Yearly Attendance)	1966	49,676
Capacity Changes (Yearly Attendance)	1997	49,814
Busch Stadium Ballpark Diagram & Dimensions
Data
Backstop	1966	64'
Left Field	1966	330'
Power Alleys	1966	386'
	1973	376'
	1977	386'
	1983	383'
	1992	375'
	1997	372'
Center Field	1966	414'
	1971	410'
	1972	414'
	1973	404'
	1977	414'
	1992	402'
Right Field	1966	330'
Busch Stadium Miscellaneous Items of Interest
Data
Fences	1992	10½ Padded Concrete [Left]
	1992	8' Padded Canvas [Left]
	1966	10½ Padded Concrete [Center]
	1973	8' Wood [Center]
	1977	10½ Padded Concrete [Center]
	1992	8' Padded Canvas [Center]
Field Surfaces	1966	Grass
	1970	Artificial Turf
	1996	Grass
Busch Stadium

The architects who designed Busch Stadium were Sverdrup & Parcel and Associates; Edward Durell Stone (design collaborator); and Schwarz & Van Hoefen, Associated.

Sportsman's Park (1920-1952) was renamed Busch Stadium — which often causes some historical confusion — in 1953 after Anheuser-Busch purchased the club in 1953. Here is a stadium breakdown for the St. Louis Cardinals:

Grand Avenue Grounds	1876 - 1877
Union Park	1885 - 1886, 1892 - 1897
League Park	1898
Robison Field	1899 - 1920
Sportsman's Park	1920 - 1952
Busch Stadium (Grand Avenue)	1953 - 1966
Busch Stadium (Stadium Plaza)	1966 - 2005
Busch Stadium (II)	2006 -

Busch Stadium items of interest: Just below the roof there are ninety-six open arches. A statue of Stan "The Man" Musial was unveiled outside the ballpark in 1968. Every single seat in the stadium was painted red in 1987. A manually operated / traditional scoreboard measuring 17' high x 270' wide was built in centerfield in 1997 (the visitors bullpen was moved to right field).

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