New Busch Stadium Not Worth It?

At the risk of pushing the panic button too soon, I’d like to express my extreme disappointment with the St. Louis Cardinals ownership this winter. Knowing that General Manager Walt Jocketty is not done working and signing… I write this article tentatively, knowing that many, many things could still happen before the Redbirds report to Florida next February for Spring Training.

Those of us here in St. Louis, over the past month, have watched as the old Busch stadium has been torn down (arch by arch) in favor of a brand spankin’ new stadium right next door. This stadium looks like it will be beautiful… perfect view of the arch… even the nosebleed seats appear to be right over the field… state of the art everything… luxury boxes galore.

Speaking of luxury boxes… we’ve been told by ownership that these luxury boxes and other facets of the new stadium will bring in much more money than the old Busch ever could. They told us fans that a new ballpark was needed in order to bring in more revenue... in order to increase payroll... in order to put a better product on the field... in order to win championships. The average fan, including me, assumed that payroll would be significantly higher this year over last year. To the tune of eight to ten million dollars.

How wrong we were. Ownership announced its intention to keep payroll at the same level as last year: $92 Million. Now, that is the sixth highest payroll in the majors, so I shouldn’t be complaining too much… but when the ownership bulldozes a plan through to build a new stadium in order to significantly raise payroll… and then decides NOT to significantly raise payroll… it makes the average fan scratch their head. Because most people around here really liked old Busch stadium… and never really understood why it needed to be replaced… other than the ‘increased revenue’ story we continually got from the ownership.

So here’s the new story we are getting from ownership: “The city, county, and state didn’t help fund this stadium as much as we thought they would… so about 77% of the funding is coming straight from our pockets. We have to pay our players and employees… AND we have a mortgage payment now.”

Wouldn’t it be safe to say, then, that if the Cards had stayed in old Busch stadium, they would actually be able to increase payroll more this year then what it currently is? I mean, without a mortgage payment sucking millions from ownership… isn’t it feasible to assume that they could bump payroll up, even just a few million more, if they had stayed in old Busch Stadium? And you can’t tell me that they didn’t know this BEFORE they started construction on the new stadium. In my opinion, once they realized that they were going to be saddled with a bunch of debt… they should have held off on the new stadium until they got better funding or chucked the whole idea out the door.

So we are left with having ten of our players on last year's team becoming free agents this winter and not signing even one of them back. NOT EVEN ONE. That means TEN of our roster of TWENTY-FIVE players will be leaving. More than a third. I don’t think that’s great for chemistry. The Cards will miss two or three of these players… mostly because there are not any great free agents remaining that are considerably better. (Nor are there any that the organization is willing to pay anyway!) So, we are letting guys go in order to save money… but not replacing them with any legitimate major league level starting ballplayers.

Do I think the Cards can still win their division with the current team? Yes. The Cubs have gotten better, but they are only as good as the health of their pitching… and the Cubs pretty much can count on Prior and Wood going down for any length of time each year… Zambrano will soon join them because Baker runs him out for 130 to 140 pitches each game. Derrick Lee had his career year last year, Juan Pierre has speed and nothing else, Aramis is on the DL for at least a fourth of the year every year. They are still looking for outfielders. (I hear Sammy Sosa is available…) The Astros cut Roger Clemens loose. They still have a pretty good staff… but they will still have trouble scoring runs… I don’t think they are better than us over 162 games. The Brewers will be better than people think. Reds and Pirates are rebuilding… Reds have no pitching, Pirates have very little hitting. I think we still can win our division.

Do I think the Cards can win the World Series with the current team? Probably not. But I think if we had been willing to commit a couple million dollars more per year and made two or three significant signings… and a trade or two… we could be in a great position to win it all this year. Unfortunately… those couple of million dollars more per year are paying off the new stadium that was supposed to bring in a couple of million dollars more per year. Which leaves me, an average fan, scratching his head and trying not to panic…

P.S. Approximately 70 days till Spring Training starts…