Incredible Busch Stadium streak ends in shameful fashion for Cardinals fans

The St. Louis Cardinals have not been very good this season. In fact, they've been the opposite of good -- what's that word I'm looking for, oh yes -- bad! The Cardinals are a bad baseball team. Not Chicago White Sox bad, but certainly not Milwaukee Brewers good.

John Mozeliak devised a plan for 2023 to compete, and much of that design had to do with increased investment in their starting rotation. However, Sonny Gray hasn't exactly lived up to his high-priced billing, and the Cardinals lineup is now lacking. Don't believe me? Just ask catcher Willson Contreras.

"There's some areas that need to be addressed," Contreras said on Sunday. "I don't know if the front office is going to, but...we didn't come together as an offense at all, during the whole year. There's a lot of holes throughout the lineup as well, from 1 to 9..."

Contreras then called out the front office directly, saying they need to own the NL Central, something they haven't done the last few seasons. Basically, you get my point -- if the Cardinals players don't believe in themselves, why should the fans?

St. Louis Cardinals attendance record is no more

With that in mind, it's also not surprising that fans aren't flocking to Busch Stadium to watch this team play every homestand. There was a time early in the season when it looked like the Cardinals could contend, but that time has since passed. Even in St. Louis, there are better ways to spend a weekend series than watching the Cards lose, again.

Now that the final St. Louis homestand is over -- it ended with a 2-1 win over the Cleveland Guardians -- the numbers are in. The Cardinals did not surpass 3 million fans in 2024. Per Katie Woo, it's the first time that hasn't occurred since the latest iteration of Busch Stadium opened in 2006. 2,869,783 was the official attendance, which is good for seventh in the majors.

That might not sound so bad for a team that's been out of the playoff race since late August, but these are not fans who settle for seventh-best. Rather, the Cardinals pride themselves on having baseball's best fans. Even those supporters have limits, and Mozeliak, Oli Marmol and Bill DeWitt have thoroughly tested them this season.