I might go to a Cardinal game this year at Busch. I will have my half-season tickets for the Grizzlies. The economy, the price of a ticket, the teams payroll or the teams success have no bearing on me as a fan. I still catch most Cardinal games on the radio and watch them on Friday nights on TV. I am a baseball lover and enjoy it for the game it is.

I like baseball.. but I can’t see paying the prices they charge for watching a game.. that I can see much better on TV…
People will say .. “but you have to pay the salaries”.. no you don’t.. it’s a game, nobody will die, because they lost.. sports should be one of the lowest paid jobs around…

Having to go into the city keeps me from attending more sporting events than financial reasons. If the Cardinals and Rams were out in the county somewhere they would be sold out every game. TV is the answer for me anyway. The beer is a lot cheaper from my icebox.

Maybe if baseball wasn’t outsourced to other countries and it had more American’s on the field, there would be more loyalty? Just a thought. With as many sports leagues and colleges in the USA, I’m not sure anyone can come up with a logical explanation as to why American’s can not throw or catch a ball (especially for 10’s of Millions of dollars a year) other than it is a continued and orchestrated pattern of destruction of our national psyche and social fabric.

I’m a sports lover, but I think I agree with Sophie! I’ve really never understood why grown men get paid $10,000,000.00 a year to play a game every day. They may THINK they have it rough..but why don’t they try being a tele-marketer or office assistant or a bank officer or a cop or a grocery store clerk for 20 or 30,000 a year for a little while.. then see if $300,000 a year to play a game doesn’t start to sound REAL appealing !!!!

Baseball was never in the running for me as it relates to my discrtioinary money. I only go when I get free tickets. When you look at the costs involved in going I don’t see how it won’t affect the Cardinals at the gate unless they put together a season that has them in first place or just a few games out all season.

To first tom’s comments about the games would be sell outs if the stadiums where in the county. This simply would not be true. 1. The Cardinals draw over 3.2, 3.3 million each year which is amazing in a metro area of 2.8 million, so placement of the stadium would have no affect. 2. The Rams sellout record in St Louis is excellent, there have been a few non sell outs lately but what do you expect with a team that has won 5 games in two years so stadium placement is not an issue. 3. If the stadiums were say in Maryland Heights the attendence at Cards games may be affected negatively because it would be a longer drive for fans in Illinois. Look at the license plates at any Cardinal game, there are a lot of Illinois plates 4. The stadiums downtown have great ingress and egress you have 4 interstates that converge on downtown which makes it easy for fans to get in and out, which can have an effect on fans especially when attending baseball games (81 home games)if it takes too long to get in or out. If you think it’s not a big deal go to KC when the Cards play there and the place is sold out. Their stadium is in the burbs and ingress and egress is a nightmare, the only main road going by the stadium is 70, it takes for every to get in or out.

I’ll probably attend as many games as in the past (6-12), however, I will be significantly limiting my spending on concessions. The ticket price doesn’t bother me as much as the exorbitant prices for parking, beer, soda, sandwiches, nachos, etc. Plus, the service at the place still leaves much to be desired in comparison to other ball parks (especially Miller Park in Milwaukee. ………. go cards.

I can’t agree with “maybe if”. I dont care what country a player is from if he can play the game let me watch him. Tickets, beer and just a hot dog is overpriced and the salaries are crazy. I have not heard of one ball player working on a cure for cancer, or performing brain surgery. Not one will go to a classroom and teach the kids how to read or write. But we as fans are stupid to pay to watch these guys play a game at these prices. We are the fools who want us to sign these guys. Stay away from the ball park for a year and watch the salaries come down except for the moronic Yankees.

The economy won’t keep me from the stadium. As usual, it’s the costs associated with it that are ridiculous. First, there’s only one or two stands in the entire stadium you can get a decent beer from and then it costs you more than what a 6 pack costs at the store. If you drink waterbeer, it’s $9 a pop. Forget bringing the family. It costs a fortune to bring kids when a Coke and a hot dog run you $10 for fifteen cents worth of Coke and a cheap puny Save A Lot hot dog. What’s cotton candy these days, $6 or $7 for about 10 cents worth of sugar? No thanks. I’ll watch the game at home. I get instant replay, I can pause the DVR when I want, and the beer in my fridge is cheaper, better, and doesn’t get warm and flat 2/3 of the way into it.

Snacks and parking will probably change. I may be more likely to snack less at the park or park further away than in years past. But I’ll still go to about 40 or more games.