ST. LOUIS—Even if there's a sense of uncertainty surrounding how the St. Louis Cardinas will perform on the field and in the standings this season, fans will notice a series of changes to the game day experience at Busch Stadium as they take it all in starting Thursday. 

Last fall, club executives said 2025 would be focused on rebuilding the infrastructure of its player development system which has fallen behind peers after being the envy of the game not long ago. Instead of spending money on free agents, young players like Jordan Walker, Lars Nootbaar and Nolan Gorman would get everyday opportunities to prove themselves after battling injury or inconsistent performances, or both over the past three seasons. 

Payroll would go down, in part because of reductions in television broadcast revenue and the anticipation that after barely finishing over .500 last season and in last place in the NL Central in 2023, attendance would be lower in 2025.

Some of that on-field transition to younger players was stalled because veterans like pitcher Sonny Gray, first baseman Willson Contreras, and most notably, third baseman Nolan Arenado, have ‘no trade’ clauses. The first two decided they wanted to stay, while the latter has rejected one proposed offseason trade.

If the club appears to be somewhat stuck in transition, the team has made several tweaks aimed at appealing to younger fans to keep them more connected to the action and keeping fans of all ages at the ballpark longer.

Among the tweaks:

• Team Fredbird will be in Ford Plaza until the top of the third inning to greet fans.
• 'DJ Deks’ who has appeared at Blues games and at Ballpark Village for Cardinals postgame entertainment, will be on the Budweiser Terrace from the time gates open until the end of the first inning.
• QR codes in the ballpark will let fans contribute to photo walls, and with the help of AI, transform fan pictures to match a given theme for the day.

The team will also lean into its outfield video boards to try and educate fans about the analytics behind what’s happening on the field with new graphics and 3D animations.

“It brings a little conversation piece, if you’re sitting there watching the game with somebody who doesn’t know as much about baseball this is a visual way for them to learn about it,” said Katie Brandenberg, the team’s Director of Fan Entertainment. “We want to get more young kids involved and invested in baseball. If they’re seeing something that looks cool rather than just watching it happen and then they can see like why this is important or where this guy’s probably gonna hit it things like that I think it keeps kids a little bit more energized,” she said.

Fan attendance has an impact on the team’s charitable foundation as well. While the annual Winter Warmup is a major fundraiser for the team’s efforts in the community, including youth field construction and renovation projects, youth softball and baseball teams and other programs.

“They’ve always been there for us, for the foundation, support it and a lot of times as the team goes, comes or goes, doing well, doing bad, you would think that sort of that support ebbs and flows and it can a little bit, but not like people think,” said Michael Hall, the VP of Community Relations and the Executive Director of Cardinals Care. “Our fans have been great. They’ve supported throughout the good times and the bad.”

Other 2025 additions:

‘Cardinal Conversations’

The team will take advantage of its alumni base to give fans a chance to hear Ozzie Smith, Ted Simmons, David Freese, David Eckstein and others during a mixture of pregame and postgame conversations over the course of eight games this season. Fans will get a chance for pictures and an autographed item along with a ticket to the game.

"It’s good for the younger generation that maybe didn’t see Ozzie (Smith) doing his backflip on opening day, hear his stories about his backflip, his plays, his home run against the Dodgers, stuff like that,” said Tom Parchomski/ Director of Corporate Partnership & Alumni. “It’s also good to bring in guys like Eckstein, Freese and Lankford for people to understand them too.”

Postgame concert series

The Cardinals will welcome Cole Swindell and Flo Rida on June 20, and July 25, respectively, for postgame concerts that will take place 30 minutes after the last pitch. The roughly 60 minute concerts are not nearly as involved as the big stadium shows the venue has hosted previously. A ticket to the game is a ticket to the concert, with VIP tickets for those who want to be on the field.

Sports wagering

On Monday the team announced a partnership with bet365 that will make the company the team’s mobile sports betting partner. The Cardinals were part of a coalition which one statewide approval to legalize sports wagering in November. State regulators have yet to formalize the rules governing sports betting, a process that could delay the start until near the end of the season. Beyond encouraging fans to download the company's mobile app, the team has not said how it plans to integrate sports wagering information into the gameday experience.