With the conclusion of the home schedule on Sunday, the Cardinals’ precipitous attendance drop can be more clearly seen, examined and quantified.
After decades as one of baseball’s best-attended teams, St. Louis finishes in a far more pedestrian position, registering several milestone lows not seen in decades.
Below is a look at where Cardinals attendance stands and how far it has fallen.
Lowest per-game average since 1995
The Cardinals finished 2025 with an average attendance of 27,778 tickets sold per game, continuing a two-season decline.
That’s the lowest non-pandemic average since 1995, when fans were expressing their displeasure following the longest work stoppage in league history. The 1994 postseason was canceled and both the 1994 and 1995 seasons were shortened.
Entering the 2024 season, the Cardinals had recorded 10 straight seasons averaging 40,000 or more fans per game, not including pandemic seasons of 2020 and 2021.
A staggering drop
When looked at as a five-game rolling average, the average attendance dipped below 20,000 earlier this month after never having been under 30,000 prior to 2024 since the current Busch Stadium opened in 2006.
It has rarely even been below 35,000 in recent years.
In total, 628,108 fewer tickets were sold for Cardinals games in 2025 than a year ago. It’s down 991,084 from the 2023 total.
The first bottom-half attendance ranking since 1980
After decades spent as a perennial top-10 attendance franchise, the Cardinals’ numbers have dropped precipitously in 2025.
Entering Sunday’s game, St. Louis ranked 19th among MLB teams in attendance per game. Though the final tally won’t be set for another week, St. Louis will finish in the bottom half of teams in attendance for the first time since 1980.
From 1982 through 2024, the Cardinals had only finished outside of the top 10 once, in 1995, when fans were upset over the work stoppage.
Get in the game with our Prep Sports Newsletter
Sent weekly directly to your inbox!
* I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
Ethan Erickson | Post-Dispatch
Digital production editor
Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily!
Your notification has been saved.
There was a problem saving your notification.
{{description}}
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Followed notifications
Please log in to use this feature
Log In
Don’t have an account? Sign Up Today