Busch II

[Tavish]

I meant to post this a few weeks ago but never got around to it. I was out in StL during the Yankee-Cardinal series (only had the time to catch the RJ v Mulder slaughtering) and I got my first up close look at the progress on the new stadium.

I was wondering if there was any contingency plans for the Cards if the stadium wasn't done in time. From the looks of things it was hard to imagine it making the Opening Day deadline. It wouldn't be so bad if they just had to finish off construction, but adding in the demo of Busch I had me concerned.

[j_d_mcnugent]

they are ahead of schedule at the moment although they will have to wait until the end of the season to demo the current stadium. i dont know that there is a contingency plan but it seems pretty unlikely that they would need one. they say crews are prepared to do continuous shifts until its done but they dont figure it will come to that. right now the plan is to open the season partially constructed (capacity at about 36,000) and then a month or two into the season it should be completely done. i cant imagine the playing surface not being ready for the season. if anything would be behind schedule its the outfield seating and they would just play the games with a smaller capacity until its done.

[Pogotheostrich]

I heard the same as JD. The stadium isn't going to be ready to hold capacity when the season starts. 2-3 months in it will be ready to hold full capacity. As far as a contingency I don't think there is one since no other venue would hold close to that many people.

[Tavish]

In case anyone is reading who has no idea what I was talking about, here's a crappy cell phone picture I took on the trip. This is taken from inside the current Busch Stadium, in what would be the left field bleachers.