Copyright 2006, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
by Diane Toroian Keaggy
The Cardinals are taking the heat for a slumping baseball season. But could the Redbirds be to blame for another slump as well?
Some local attractions and hotels wonder whether a ticket squeeze at the new, smaller Busch Stadium has discouraged tourists from visiting Cardinal Nation this summer.
Certainly, steep gasoline prices, sweltering heat, severe storms and road construction have tattered St. Louis' welcome mat. But those factors can't entirely explain an 8 percent dip in summer attendance at the St. Louis Zoo, president Jeffrey Bonner said.
Last year, 29 percent of the Zoo's out-of-town visitors attended a Cardinals game; this year, the number has dived to 14 percent.
"That tells us fewer people are coming because Cardinal tickets are harder to get hold of," Bonner said. "Put it like this: In the past, our trainers would joke they would not start the sea lion show until the Cub fans took off their hats. This year, they're not bothering."
David Ziegler, regional manager for Drury Hotels' downtown properties, said: "We have not seen the weekend baseball traffic we usually see. The perception is that you can't get Cardinals tickets, that they all went to local people. I think that has kept some people away."
The downtown Hilton also reports fewer baseball bookings, especially in the spring.
"I talked to guests who would come in for one night game instead of two," general manager Doug Johaningmeyer said. "This last home stand, it seemed like tickets were starting to loosen up. But people were hearing tickets weren't available, and it scared them off."
The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, home of the Gateway Arch, has taken a huge hit this year, with visitors down 18 percent for the first seven months, compared with the same period in 2005. A truncated Fair St. Louis helps explain July's dip, but not double-digit declines in May and June.
"Maybe it's gas or the weather," deputy superintendent Frank Mares said. "It could be both or neither."
But National Park Service spokesman David Barna said researchers never have found a connection between gasoline prices and park attendance. Overall, park visitation nationwide is steady this year.
The Arch "looks like an anomaly," Barna said.
High gasoline prices usually boost tourism in St. Louis, said Nancy Milton, a spokeswoman for the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission. That's because families in Iowa, Arkansas and other nearby locales decide to stick close to home for vacation rather than fill up the SUV and drive to the Grand Canyon or the nation's capital, she said.
Though some hotel operators noted light baseball traffic, Milton said St. Louis hotels booked 4.5 percent more rooms during the first six months of the year compared with the first half of 2005.
Across the river from the Arch, the Casino Queen is offering hotel packages that come with two baseball tickets.
"Almost every time the Cardinals play at home, our hotel is sold out," Casino Queen spokesman Ron O'Connor said. "That is due in a large part to the promotions."
But O'Connor knows first-hand that some far-flung Cardinals fans are skipping their annual trips here.
"I have a friend in Tulsa who brings a group of friends but did not (this year) because they had the understanding no tickets are available," he said.
Of course, that's not true. Single tickets are available for most remaining home games. Visitors can buy box seats via the Prime Seat Club, which costs $35 to join, plus the ticket price and a 20 percent premium.
Cardinals ticket chief Joe Strohm has not crunched visitor data yet for this season, but he says this season is different from last year in a few significant ways. The team has hosted only seven weekend series May through August, compared with nine last year. Also, the Cardinals played four fewer home games this July.
"That's significant, because that's when a lot of people travel," Strohm said.
The new Busch Stadium also holds about 3,000 fewer fans than the old ballpark.
Six Flags St. Louis spokeswoman Elizabeth Gotway reported business has been "soft" this summer, a trend at amusement parks nationwide. The theme park in Eureka does not disclose specific visitor figures.
A spokeswoman for Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. declined to comment on attendance at the company's popular brewery tours.
But don't string up Chris Carpenter just yet. Not all St. Louis attractions are slumping.
The City Museum and St. Louis Science Center are enjoying attendance bumps, though a majority of those institutions' visitors are local. Half of Cahokia Mounds' visitors hail from outside Missouri and Illinois, and its numbers have remained steady.
At the Missouri Botanical Garden, which opened a Children's Garden in May and has the popular Dale Chihuly "Glass in the Garden" on exhibit, there's been a 37 percent spike in visitors this year.
