Cardinals Making Significant, Non-Roster Changes

The St. Louis Cardinals have been one of the better teams in the National League so far this season.

Right now, the Cardinals have a 27-23 record and are in second place in the National League. There are just five teams in the National League right now with more wins than St. Louis: the Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Francisco Giants.

The Cardinals have been fantastic throughout the month of May and have won eight of their last 12 games heading into a Friday night showdown with the Arizona Diamondbacks. While this is the case, you wouldn't know it being in the ballpark at Busch Stadium. The last two years have had a significant impact on the fanbase. The 2023 season was rough. St. Louis took a step in the right direction last year and did invest in the team -- like signing Sonny Gray -- but the club still missed the playoffs and finished just above .500.

This past offseason, the club was very clear that it wanted to "reset" the organization but there really wasn't much to show for that decision. The Cardinals are winning baseball games, but the fans still haven't started showing up to the ballpark like years passed.

The Athletic's Katie Woo shared a great column about this very fact. She noted that the team is making changes to the way the business side of the team is done in an attempt to improve the fan experience at the games.

“More than anything, we’re recommitting to our purpose on the business side, which is to grow our brand, to find ways to authentically connect with our fans and provide them with a world-class entertainment experience,” senior vice president of business operations Anuk Karunaratne told Woo. “If we can do those things and do them well, I think we’ll have fulfilled the part of the promise that we’re responsible for.

“There’s always the piece of how does the team play? This year, that’s different than past years — Mozeliak and ownership have talked about the plan to get back to where we want to be on the baseball side of things. But in the interim, whatever the final attendance numbers this year are, we are still going to have millions of people coming through our gates, and we owe it to those people to give them a top experience.”

Woo noted that things the team have already tried are $5 Friday nights and concerts at the ballpark. What else should be done?