The story early on in the 2025 MLB season among St. Louis Cardinals fans has been the team's shockingly low attendance. Cardinals fans are known to pack Busch Stadium, but that has not been the case so far this season.
They've averaged just over 29,000 fans per home game thus far, good for 12th in the majors according to ESPN. Considering the fact that they've ranked among the top of the league for the better part of two decades, this attendance drop has been recognizable.
It's so recognizable, in fact, to the point where Willson Contreras called them out after Sunday's game.
"Don't stop believing in this team because we have everything in this clubhouse to compete."
— Grace Ybarra (@gnybarra) April 13, 2025
Willson Contreras shared a message for Cardinals fans, saying the team needs their support at Busch Stadium.@MatrixMidwest | #stlcards pic.twitter.com/dNDbWQGI7h
“We play for them!” the veteran said, h/t the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “I don’t know why they’re not here. I know they have their reasons. But you guys give us energy. One thing that I’m going to say this is — don’t stop believing us in this team because we have everything ... We need to compete."
For whatever reason, Contreras has no idea why Cardinals fans aren't eager to show up to games. That explanation is not a hard one to figure out, however.
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Willson Contreras has no right to blame Cardinals fans for poor attendance
Let's look at what's gone on in St. Louis over the last couple of seasons. The 2023 campaign saw the team finish with its worst record since 1995 by going 71-91. John Mozeliak vowed that things would change in 2024, and they did, but the Cardinals still missed the playoffs for a second straight year.
Now, with the team clearly not ready to compete for a World Series right now, Mozeliak made it abundantly clear that the organization was going to be entering a "reset." This meant prioritizing youth and not necessarily going all out on wins.
Over the course of the offseason, Mozeliak did virtually nothing to help jumpstart that reset. Some of that was not his fault as Nolan Arenado pretty clearly was not eager to leave St. Louis, but Mozeliak could've easily turned around and traded others who do not have no-trade clauses like Ryan Helsley and Erick Fedde, for starters.
Not only did Mozeliak fail to make any substantial moves to help the organization reset, but he didn't really do anything in free agency either. The only MLB free agent they signed was Phil Maton, who didn't ink a deal until very close to Opening Day.
So let me get this straight. Mozeliak made it clear that the team wasn't going to go all-out for a World Series title, failed to make any major trades in the offseason to make the team younger, and didn't sign anyone to make them much better either. They essentially were stagnant all winter, and Contreras wants Cardinals fans to flock to the stadium. What for?
It's not even as if the Cardinals have done much to convince the fan base to come to games this season. Their win on Sunday brought them their second series win in five tries. They're now 7-8 on the season, good for fourth place in the NL Central. They haven't been awful, but it's not as if they look like a team capable of making the postseason, let alone having success in October.
Cardinals fans know this isn't a World Series team. They also know it isn't a team full of electric young talent. Contreras acting as if these things don't matter and that fans should be doing whatever they can to attend games in April is naive. The organization has to give them a reason to show up. They've yet to do so.
At this point, it's on owner William Dewitt Jr. to start spending. It's on Mozeliak to give fans a reason to show up. It's on Contreras (who is hitting .158 with one home run this season) and his teammates to produce. If they start winning, there's no reason to doubt that these fans will show up as they always have. Until changes are made or the team suddenly starts winning at a clip they haven't in a couple of years now despite a lack of changes, it's hard to blame fans for scaling back their investment into going to games in person.