Fan attendance at Busch Stadium in St. Louis is not what it used to be. The Cardinals were once a proud franchise that always competed for World Series titles and had the goal of hanging banners year after year. Fans would show up and pack the stadium every night. However, things have changed. Ownership and the front office have been unclear with their messaging, and the product on the field has deteriorated significantly.
As such, fans have grown frustrating, and Busch Stadium is experiencing lighter crowds than ever before. Hall-of-Fame broadcaster Joe Buck, the son of legendary Cardinals broadcaster Jack Buck, took in the series opener with the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday night, which saw the lightest crowd in Busch Stadium history.
Buck took to social media to dig into John Mozeliak and ownership for allowing this to happen and called for big changes.
DURING the game in Stl last night. Wow. Welcome back to the 70s. This is what it used to look like. I was there. Pre-Whitey. Buying shag carpet asap.A major rebuild of roster and trust better be coming. One can only hope. It’s coming right? Buena suerte Chaim! Rooting for you. pic.twitter.com/IVf5Wjdyh4
— Joe Buck (@Buck) August 26, 2025
"Welcome back to the 70s. This is what it used to look like. I was there. Pre-Whitey. Buying shag carpet asap. A major rebuild of roster and trust better be coming," Buck said
Joe Buck calls out Cardinals for lighter crowds
Back in the 1970s, the Cardinals were not a good baseball team and had light crowds. This is about what it was like according to Buck, who grew up in St. Louis as a Cardinals fan. These are historically light crowds in St. Louis, and this is about as bad as it can get as Mozeliak gets ready to step down and hand things over to Chaim Bloom.
The truth is that fans are frustrated with everything that has gone on and are sending a loud and clear message that things need to change. But for a team that prides itself on winning traditions and championships, this is not a good look. Fans are rightfully frustrated and are not showing up to games for good reason.
Fortunately, things are changing, and the Cardinals will have a new front office at the end of the 2025 season. Mozeliak will be gone, but as Buck alluded to, the hope should be that Bloom can fix the problems and help bring fans back to Busch Stadium in future seasons.
The inconsistent messaging of Mozeliak and ownership has turned fans off and produced historically low crowds, and that is almost unheard of for an organization such as the Cardinals. We'll see how things shake out for the rest of the season and what Bloom will do to address these problems.