As a gaggle, we decided this morning to take a tour of the new Busch Stadium. We got to the stadium not long before the tour, and were able to park just outside the third base entrance, facing the statue of Stan the Man — great parking!
The tour was pretty inexpensive, which was a nice thing given that there were eight of us going through it! The tour starts out in the outfield seating area just above the bleachers, and travels through the Redbird Club seating and the Cardinals Club dining area. We even got to go to the broadcast booth and see the view that our announcers have of the field. That’s one heck of a great view!
I think I’ve mentioned it before, but they have the manual scoreboards from the old stadium preserved inside the new one. They are arranged as they when when the last pitch of the last regular season game at the old Busch. There are game scores still in progress, frozen in time, from last season. While part of me thinks that’s pretty cool, there’s something a little morbid about it too. Kinda like someone never changing the room of a deceased family member, those scoreboards harken to a time and a place that are now gone and can’t be recaptured.
Toward the end of the tour, we were allowed on the field — not on the grass! — and got to explore the Cardinals dugout. That was the highlight for me. A few years ago, I got to visit the dugout of the old Busch stadium, so it was someone appropriate to see the new one, too.
In all, that place is phenomenal, with so much history brought from the old stadium, and with a sense that history will be made in the new one. I’ll definitely be taking this tour again!