is the new slogan for the Cardinals this year. Last night I made my first trek to Busch III. I heard a few mixed reviews about it - mostly good, but I wanted to form my own opinion. I actually went in expecting to be disappointed a bit.
How foolish of me! Ha ha ha ha!
So, here's my Busch Stadium report:
The Good:- Some haters (
some Cubs fans), are already knocking the stadium because it's supposed to be a "throw back" ballpark. I actually couldn't disagree more. The stadium blends marvelously with the existing downtown architecture with a mix of red brick and metal truss work that is to give honor to the Eads Bridge that connects Illinois to Missouri. The result is not throw-back, not modern, but a building that matches beautifully the rest of downtown St. Louis.
- The concessions are about 50x better. Busch II had nothing really special in the way of food (minus the Kosher Dog), but BIII has really stepped it up with a variety of different stands (The Gashouse Grill, Dizzy's Diner, El Birdos Cantina, ect...) that offer different options.
- Wide open concourses and tons of open space to hang out and still watch the game make the experience more than just sitting in your seat. 3-tier walkways around the main pillars in the outfield are especially cool.
The Bad:- The out of town score board scrolls through the scores as opposed to displaying them all at once. Just annoying.
- From where I was sitting, I couldn't hear the P.A. hardly at all. One big complaint from the opener was that the sound system was too loud, so I don't know if they turned it WAAAY down or if it was my seat.
- The retired numbers and World Series Championship banners are too small.
The Great- The view. With the Arch, the courthouse and skyline just beyond the outfield wall make for what could be the best view in all of baseball.
Up at the top is one of the 60 pictures I took. I'll try to get them up on an on-line album soon...
