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I think a lot of no shows are company owned season tickets that nobody wants to use.
I agree to an extent. But if attendance is averaging 37,000 on the season, and turnstiles are more like 15,000, I don’t think 22,000 of them are corporate ticket holders. Maybe 50%?
I don’t know the breakdown between companies and private citizens, but DeWitt III has been quoted that 70-75% of all ticket sales for the year occur before Opening Day. How many individuals can afford to plunk down the cash needed to buy two or four season tickets, let alone a box or suite for 81 games? That has to be a pretty big nut.
(Edit: I know they also sell partial season packages, which might help somewhat.)
Speaking of “attendance”, this is paid attendance, not buns in seats, which would have been even worse. The MO franchise trending up isn’t the Cardinals, which lost three of four to KC this season.
Something in the boxscores at KC caught my eye …
For the first time since the advent of interleague play, the Royals had larger home crowds at Kauffman Stadium for games against the Cardinals than Cardinals did at Busch for Royals’ visit.
More: https://t.co/t9PvXmsoBn
— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) August 13, 2024
Even with a brand like the Cardinals – it IS possible to screw it up; and Mo has done a real nice job of doing just that. Now, is he (a) simply following marching orders from BDW OR (b) are they aligned in their thinking process OR (c) is he THE actual mastermind behind what we’ve seen for most of the past decade and BDW goes with what JM has strongly suggested?
The managerial hires following TL suggest that neither JM nor BDW want a strong leader with OPNIONS of their own in that seat. They seem to want a ‘company man’ in that position. (I think we all suspect that was the ‘philosophical difference’ that led to Schilt’s firing and – oh by the way – look at where he has the Padres….)
They are clearly in the “Get in and get hot” camp for team / roster building.
The team, the brand, and the farm system are all in state that I would describe as “just short of a shambles” and yeah, attendance is suffering and quite frankly – it should.
Let’s play: Who Is The Asshat? Mo, BDW, or Both?
They killed the golden goose. I used to go to 1 game of each home series against teams that were any good. And stumble up to Wrigley for a 3 game series every year.Those days are long gone.
There are so many issues with this organization it wouuld be hard to list them all. The two that bother me the most is they always go for the path of least resistance and they refuse to do a proper rebuild. Very very few teams can truly be a top notch contender every year. We need to bite the bullet, go a couple of years playing younger players, fully restock the farm system, then try to go for an extended run. Instead we just cobble together the same 80-85 win team every year.
Gscottar, I think that’s the more realistic path. The Cardinals have publicly stated three main objectives: 1) Build through the farm system; 2) Maintain a payroll commensurate with revenue (which is now decidedly mid-market); and 3) “Compete every year.” They need to pick two.
First they need to hire a HOF manager and then they need to become incredibly lucky in the 13th and 4th round of the draft. Real simple formula…
I’m not a proponent of tearing things down and losing intentionally. Teams should compete and try to win. That’s the whole point. Those who don’t miss the point. But I am for making smart, well-timed moves. We should have moved Helsley at the deadline. Maximum value. Instead we moved Carlson. Minimum value. So we didn’t move the player who was probably doing better than he really is or at least better than he probably ever will again. And we did move the player who we returned too quickly from injury, watched him fail, and then shoved at the end of the bench to only get starts against lefty pitchers. That’s not smart. I’m now a bit irritated that we lost Robertson for nothing because we’ve shoved too many players onto the 40-man but I can accept that’s not a huge loss (although we could have kept him by trading Helsley).
Next season we will watch Helsley falter occasionally, Carlson put up 3 WAR, and Robertson be a solid cog in a bullpen. In the meantime, Helsley’s salary will double, Armstrong will have put up no value and be gone, and we will have lost Robertson for nothing. Hopefully none of that matters because the replacements coming up will be better. Maybe that will be the case. But I’m sure we all have our reasonable doubts.
Ok. Done with my soapbox of negativity. I’ll devote my time to the minor leagues solely for the remainder of the season. There’s some fun stuff happening there too. Lots of players I’m getting more excited about!
I am sure we can all agree that I was not being too negative all season, but rather was out front blazing the trail for others to follow.
Mo is not going to do a rebuild because it would be an admission of failure. The only hope is for BDW to see that the handful of magic beans he was sold are worthless. If he does, he will understand that it is not just the ML roster that needs a rebuild.
I’m not for doing a complete tear down ala the Cubs and Astros of the early to mid teens but we could defintiely shed some aging players who are doing nothing but clogging up payroll and roster spots (Matz, Goldy, Arenado, Mikolas) not to mention getting rid of roster spot wasters like Crawford and Carp.
If we had an IF of Contreras, Burly, Donovan, Winn, and Gorman to go along with an OF of Noot, Siani, and Walker and a rotation of Gray, Fedde, Pallante, McGreevy, and Graceffo would we drastically worse thn we are now? I doubt it and we would be much cheaper. You could go ahead and get rid of Contreras, Gray, and Fedde too but if you want to at least be semi-competetive that might be too much. I know that the Cardinals want to sell tickets but at some point you have to stop the merry go round, fix it, then turn it back on again.
The club has mis-characterized its personnel the last several years. I like the way jnevel put it – we tend to make deals for low value guys, and hold on to high value guys.
Another thing we do, at least it looks this way, is we make too many transactions based on non-on-field reasons (Arozarena, Garcia, O’Neill, Carpenter, Crawford).
If things go south over the remainder of the season I think we need to deal most of the over 30 guys and bring in younger, athletically talented players.
I would 100% do what the Astros did if we can get 2 titles and 7 straight NLCS appearances out of it.
The Cubs did have a nice 3-4 year run but NOTHING like what the Astros have put together.
After all the FA activity and roster turnover this off-season, it’s not at all clear the Cardinals got any better.
2024: 60-60; -56 run differential
2023: 54-66; -22 run differentialMeanwhile, they forfeited the opportunity to get at least some modicum of value (and salary relief) from potentially moving Goldschmidt and Arenado at last year’s deadline; they punted on getting meaningful value for Helsley at this year’s deadline (before his salary escalates in arb); they committed themselves to 2 more years of Sonny Gray (age 35 and 36 seasons) for $65mm; and in the process they sacrificed another 2nd round draft pick and slot money, essentially handicapping themselves in a rare draft where they were picking near the top of every round.
They just can’t bring themselves to get off this treadmill of straining mightily every year to try to cobble together mid-80s wins and a WC berth, and as a result they punt almost every hard decision until it’s too late.
How many individuals can afford to plunk down the cash needed to buy two or four season tickets, let alone a box or suite for 81 games?
I more recently lived in Chicago than St. Louis, but my cousin and several former co-workers had season tickets to the Cubs.
I know at least one of my friends has season tickets to the Cardinals and Blues.
I will also say my Cousin makes enough selling his Cubs tickets on the secondary market for the games he doesn’t go to such that it covers the cost of the games he does go to.
I dont like tanking but i do believe in being smart in setting goals season by season. Instead of trying to get lucky and hot at right time, how about creating our own luck. I do think focusing on our youth and development is best. Be honest with the fans and say hey we may have a couple more down years but patience will bring the fruits of our labor. Im not saying complete rebuild but our goals need to adapt and change. Sure attendance may falter a little but eventually if things go well, ypu will get the crowds back. We def need better coaching and player development in my opinion. Im just saying instead of trying to be good enough to get hot and lucky, a every season plan, lets still play to win but realistic enough to make moves that make us better in 2026 or 2027 then go from there.
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