The St. Louis Cardinals have not lived up to fans' annually lofty expectations over the past few seasons, and their struggles have clearly affected Busch Stadium's attendance. Normally among the top teams in the league at getting fans in the seats, the Cardinals have plummeted to 18th in ticket sales after missing the playoffs two seasons in a row.
Fans have made it abundantly clear that they will not tolerate a product that doesn't appear to have any effort put into it, and the owners have fired back by saying that it will be harder to put a competitive team on the field without income from fans in the stadium.