Tony Ponturo (left), Vice President of Global Media and Sports Marketing, Anheuser-Busch, Inc., and William O. DeWitt Jr. (right), Chairman of the Board, St. Louis Cardinals during a press conference outside Busch Memorial Stadium Wednesday. (Dawn Majors/P-D)

The St. Louis Cardinals and Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. celebrated their past and future Wednesday, sealing a naming rights deal for the team's new stadium and extending one of the most enduring partnerships in professional sports.

They announced the agreement at an event overlooking the construction site. On hand were Cardinals players Albert Pujols and Scott Rolen; Hall of Famers Stan Musial, Red Schoendienst, Bob Gibson, Lou Brock and Ozzie Smith; and hundreds of construction workers who are building the stadium.

The ballpark, scheduled to open in April 2006, will be called Busch Stadium. The name is part of a broader, 20-year marketing deal, which ensures that Anheuser-Busch will have choice signage and will remain the exclusive alcoholic-beverage sponsor for Cardinals radio and TV broadcasts.

The team's rich tradition and famously loyal fans weighed heavily in Anheuser-Busch's decision to keep the Busch name on the stadium, said Tony Ponturo, vice president of global media and sports marketing for the beer giant.

"At the top of anybody's list of the city's assets is baseball," he said. "And there is no team in the major leagues quite like the St. Louis Cardinals."

The team talked with other local and national companies about the naming rights, but Anheuser-Busch was always first choice, said Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. "From the day we began planning for the new ballpark, we wanted to keep the name Busch Stadium."

Maybe it was the euphoria of the moment. Or maybe the heat.

But the announcement that the name will be Busch Stadium, at least through the 2025 season, prompted a little levity from some luminaries.

Gibson, 68, said he was almost moved to make a comeback - "if they would give me a contract for a week or two."

"I guess I could pitch three times. One time for one inning, then two innings, then three innings. And then ... to the hospital," said the right-hander.

Schoendienst, 81, who played and managed in the first two editions of Busch Stadium, said, "I think it's appropriate: From Sportsman's Park to Busch Stadium to Busch Stadium and now to Busch Stadium."

He earlier had tweaked Musial.

"You played in Robinson Field, too, didn't you?" Schoendienst asked Musial.

The Cardinals left Robinson Field in 1920 to move to Sportsman's Park.

Musial said his and Schoendienst's ties with Anheuser-Busch do go back a long way.

"Red and I used to go duck hunting with Gussie (Busch) before they bought the team (in 1953)," Musial said. "Gussie used to love baseball and used to come to spring training.

"This is a great day. There are no better names than Anheuser-Busch and the Cardinals."

Neither DeWitt nor Ponturo would discuss the value of the deal or say how it compared with other recent naming rights agreements.

Given the length and scope, the value might approach $5 million a year, said Dean Bonham, president of the Bonham Group, a sports marketing company in Denver.

"For a 20-year deal, a wild guess would be somewhere around $100 million," said Bonham, whose firm helped broker the 30-year, $70 million naming rights deal announced in May by the Texas Rangers and Ameriquest Mortgage Co.

The Cardinals could not have found a more suitable partner, Bonham said, noting that Anheuser-Busch is a hometown company and ranks among the most powerful players in sports marketing.

"You've got a name association and an image association that goes back half a century," he said.

After Anheuser-Busch bought the Cardinals and Sportsman's Park in 1953, it changed the name of that facility to Busch Stadium. When the current ballpark opened in 1966, it was christened Busch Memorial Stadium.

Anheuser-Busch sold the team to DeWitt and his partners before the 1996 season.

Michael E. Pulitzer and Pulitzer Inc., which owns the Post-Dispatch, are part-owners of the team with a combined stake of about 4 percent.

The brewer and the team have maintained a level of continuity unmatched in Major League Baseball, DeWitt said.

"Our fans carry through generations," he said. "Anheuser-Busch has been here longer than we have. It just speaks to the fact that we have a great relationship."

Tony La Russa, who has been manager the entire time under the current ownership, recalled that he signed on with the Cardinals during the 1995 World Series when the brewery still technically owned the team.

"I was looking for the Clydesdales and all that," joked La Russa. "I'm glad they're maintaining the name."

Whitey Herzog, who played in the first Busch Stadium and managed three National League champions in the second one, said: "I just can't see a stadium being called anything else. I don't go back with Stan the Man and Red and everybody, but I was really hoping that was what the name would be."

Good will was everywhere at Busch Stadium Wednesday, with handshakes all around. This is not something you see every day.

Unlike, say, a baseball stadium in St. Louis being named Busch Stadium.

Reporter Christopher Carey
E-mail: ccarey@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-8291