The Busch Stadium is located in St. Louis, Missouri and is the home of MLB team the St. Louis Cardinals. Completed in 2006, the Busch Stadium replaced the Busch Memorial Stadium and the new ballpark is located on a portion of the old stadiums footprint. Adjacent to the stadium, a new commercial area is being built and is called Ballpark Village, which will be filling the rest of the footprint left from the Busch Memorial Stadium. This is the third stadium in St. Louis to bear the title Busch Stadium, starting in 1953 when Sportsman's Park was renamed Busch Stadium after their team owner Gussie Busch. The original Busch Stadium closed in 1966 to make way for the Busch Memorial Stadium which is where both the MLB Cardinals and the NFL Cardinals called come until the Busch Stadium opened in 2006.
The new Busch Stadium was built for a whopping price of $365 million and was designed by the same firm and senior project designer that brought Jacobs Field in Cleveland, Heinz Field in Pittsburgh and the Sydney Olympic Stadium to life. The field includes field level, terrace level, bleacher and standing room seating options. At maximum capacity, the field will seat just under 47,000. In 2006, the finishing touches on seating were completed and a natural grass turf was installed on the field. The Busch Stadium's debut season boasted a completely sold out season, totaling 3,407,104 people for the season which is the fourth largest single season attendance rate in team history. In 2009, the Busch Stadium was the host of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
While the previous Busch Stadiums could be classified as "cookie-cutter" facilities, the newest Busch Stadium took a different approach to design and the ballpark has a more "retro-classic" feel. There are great views of downtown St. Louis while at the ballpark and many great features inside the venue. The iconic Gate 3 entrance located on the west side of the field has a large "bridge" that is similar to the Eads Bridge arching over the entrance. There is also a bronze statue of team legend Stan "The Man" Musial.
The fans at the Busch stadium have quite a few options as far as food and beverage go, ranging from the classic ballpark items like brats and peanuts to fancier fare of St. Louis favorites like pork steak sandwiches and toasted ravioli. Their main provider of beer is Budwiser, as they are under contract with the stadium but in the recent years a smaller local brewery has thrown their hat into the ring. Their locally brewed Schlafly beer has become more present at concession stands. A unique facet of the Busch Stadium is that the Cardinals allow for outside food and drink to be brought into the field, making it commonplace to see vendors selling discounted snacks and beverages and even the occasional scalper offering a box of Cracker Jacks along with your tickets.
