Opening Day in St. Louis: can it get any better? What about Busch Stadium?
"We kind of chuckle every year because we ask ourselves that question because — how do you top it?"
Cardinals president Bill DeWitt III told KMOX during pregame coverage Thursday the team makes a few adjustments each year, like using video in different ways. But, for the most part, they tend to "play the hits."
"How do you beat the Cydesdales and the Hall of Famers in their red jackets. Just a sense of a renewal and rekindling, thinking about the past and this wonderful franchise," he said. "Then, looking ahead."
With respect to Busch Stadium, DeWitt said Cardinals representatives will increase their traveling this year to other ballparks to scout out ideas.
"We actually had a consultant come in and tell us about some best practices with respect to, like, the control room and gameday operations," he said. "They're going to travel a little bit more to other ballparks than they have in the past as part of this effort.
However, especially in public-facing additions to the stadium, he added the front office wants to strike a balance between projects which are original to St. Louis and the brand and those already refined in other places.
"We obviously love for ideas to come up internally based on our knowledge of our fans and our market, but there's 29 other teams doing the same thing, plus other sports, so we definitely learn," he said. "You'd love for ideas to always come up in internally, but you also don't want to reinvent the wheel if it's happened somewhere else and they do it well."
DeWitt last year at a St. Louis Business Journal event said the franchise would require a "big infusion of capital" in the next several years to refresh and refurbish the almost two decade-old Busch Stadium.
One change you'll notice this year: catering to the die-hards with more variety.
"So, like a Friday night for example, we're going to really focus on Bud Terrace and have that be live music before the game. Then Sundays will be family day, really cater to that demographic, have the ice cream."
"We're intentionally trying to think about how we can change it up for people who go to a lot of games. In the past you might've thought it was the same play every day. We want to change that up," DeWitt said.