ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - The St. Louis Cardinals hosted 39,808 fans at Busch Stadium this weekend in the first home series of the 2021 series. There were fewer fans in the stands for the three-game series combined than there were at the home opener in 2019 (45,304).
Obviously, it's due to the pandemic and public health guidelines that have limited the number of fans that can be allowed inside Busch Stadium. But the team is staying positive that it won't be like that all season.
In fact, Cardinals vice president of stadium operations Matt Gifford says they've already got a plan ready to be implemented once those guidelines are softened. There's one specific public health protocol he's paying attention to.
"The next milestone for us is really when does six feet become three feet for zero feet," Gifford says. "And I think that has a lot to do with the numbers continuing to drop. I think it has to do with the vaccinations going up. And I think we'll see that."
Currently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says "it is important to stay at least 6 feet away from other people and wear a mask to slow the spread of COVID-19." But there will likely come a time when that guidelines changes, similar to how the government organization changed its recommendations on how long to self-quarantine after infection.
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"What were hoping is that eventually (social distancing guidelines) will be dropped by the CDC and if that happens we've got contingencies already to expand the capacity and I think we'll be able to do that by what we've learned coming up here in April and working with the city on that," Gifford says.
He says he's learned that he doesn't want to predict anything when it comes to the pandemic – so there's no timetable on when the Busch Stadium capacity will be increased.
So far, the Cardinals are only selling about 15,000 tickets to each game in April. The team also announced a number of new rules in place that fans should get familiar with before heading to Busch Stadium:
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