Baseball road trip 2007
Busch Stadium (also referred to informally as "New Busch Stadium" or "Busch Stadium III") is the home of the St. Louis Cardinals of the National League of Major League Baseball. It replaced Busch Memorial Stadium and occupies a portion of that stadium’s former footprint. Busch Stadium has been chosen by MLB to host the 2009 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.[4]
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. 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.
History
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.[5][6] 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.[7] 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.[8]
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.[9]
On June 7, 2008, the stadium hosted its first-ever concert, with Dave Matthews Band playing to a crowd of approximately 35,000. The Black Crowes served as the opening act.
[edit] Construction
New and old Busch Stadiums.
New and old Busch Stadiums.
New Busch Stadium was designed by HOK Sport and built by Hunt Construction with an estimated cost of $365 million. 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.[10] 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 a fully enclosed "cookie-cutter" facility similar to Riverfront, Veterans and Three Rivers stadiums, 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 – in addition to being a baseball-only facility. 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 Busch Stadium
The Gate 3 entrance on the west side of Busch Stadium
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 at the corner of Clark and Eighth streets, outside the Cardinals’ team store. 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. 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 in the main concourse as a monument to the old stadium, acting as a buffer to the nearby I-64/US-40. Furthermore, the neon flying redbird display is faithfully recreated on the new LED ribbon boards during Cardinals home runs. A tornado siren also sounds and fireworks are launched from the right field scoreboard after Cardinal home runs and wins.
The new stadium has nearly the same field dimensions as the old stadium, although with less foul territory. Observations indicate it plays fairly to both hitters and pitchers, as well as left-handers and right-handers[citation needed].
After St. Louis Post-Dispatch sportswriter Rick Hummel was honored with the J. G. Taylor Spink Award and induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in 2007, the Cardinals renamed the stadium’s press box the "Bob Broeg-Rick Hummel Press Box", honoring the two local writers enshrined in Cooperstown.
Longtime KSHE radio personality John Ulett serves as the stadium’s public address announcer, while Ernie Hays is the stadium organist. Both of these men served in these same positions at the old Busch Memorial Stadium. For the 2006 World Championship season and 2007, Scott Schaefer served as Hays’ back-up organist playing 30 games each season. Jeremy Boyer (not related to the Cardinals great Ken Boyer) also filled in once in a while as the stadium’s organist.
Directly north of the stadium, construction will soon commence on Ballpark Village which will include both commercial and residential space and the new St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.
[edit] Recent Additions
In 2008, the St. Louis Cardinals introduced the Champions Club [1] inside Busch Stadium. The Club used to be a number of corporate suites along the third baseline. It seats 382 fans in the remodeled suite section. The Champions Club also hosts a pilot program called the SkyBOX. St. Louis-based Vivid Sky introduced the SkyBOX into the Champions Club in April 2008. The SkyBOX gives Champions Club patrons the ability to view instant replays and statistical information via a wireless device (iPhone or iPod Touch).
[edit] 2006 weather incident
On July 19, 2006, a severe 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 whom 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. [11] The stadium now has designated shelter areas for such disasters which are located throughout the ballpark in strategically placed ramps and stairwells. Ballpark personnel also displayed the National Weather Service’s weather radar display on the video board in the outfield.
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