How does bloom rebuild revenues and enterprise value and protect the fan base if we aren’t competing until a new CBA?

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He has a huge challenge ahead of him IMO.

Can only speak for myself.

While I will continue to follow The Cards religiously. It will be from afar strictly. I will not put a plum nickel into the team as long as a DeWitt, any DeWitt, has a majority stake in running or owning the team.

Any and all of the Goodwill that Sr had garnered has been misspent and a long time ago.

TBS, his greatest mistake and or sin has been his foisting of his farly strewn from the tree, apple of a son upon us. What a P[ositively] O[bnoxious] S[impleton] he has proven himself to be. I could forgive him for raising a half wit, it happens all too often. But allowing the half wit to take Center Stage and Gaslight one of the most supportive and forgiving fanbases in all of sports is a Sin Too Great to give him a pass on.

Sell The Team!!!

Yeah, the DeWitts are worthy of apathy at this point if not revulsion. And I have no faith they will spend more before attendance gets better. They are raising ticket prices for 2026. So fans are supposed to shell out more for a product that was boring and bad this year.

Cranny keeps telling us how shrewd of a businessman BDW Jr. is. Maybe once upon a time, but how is expecting customers to pay more for a substandard product shrewd today? Cardinals fans clearly sent a message this year that they expect better. Will they get it? I'm guessing many will wait and see. This is the Show Me State.

[Dazepster]

He has a huge challenge ahead of him IMO.

Can only speak for myself.

While I will continue to follow The Cards religiously. It will be from afar strictly. I will not put a plum nickel into the team as long as a DeWitt, any DeWitt, has a majority stake in running or owning the team.

Any and all of the Goodwill that Sr had garnered has been misspent and a long time ago.

TBS, his greatest mistake and or sin has been his foisting of his farly strewn from the tree, apple of a son upon us. What a P[ositively] O[bnoxious] S[impleton] he has proven himself to be. I could forgive him for raising a half wit, it happens all too often. But allowing the half wit to take Center Stage and Gaslight one of the most supportive and forgiving fanbases in all of sports is a Sin Too Great to give him a pass on.

Sell The Team!!!

It's not only BDW's team, Daze. There are other owners involved.

Duly noted.

They cannot be happy with their diminishing returns..maybe one should step forward and advocate for a change in Managing Partner.

I am willing to guess that you are not any more enamored with The Lesser Bill than the bulk of us. You may know him personally and actually like him, yet I am confident that you would agree he has no business being the Face or as a Spokesman for the team. Hide him at all costs.

[Cranny]

He has a huge challenge ahead of him IMO.

Can only speak for myself.

While I will continue to follow The Cards religiously. It will be from afar strictly. I will not put a plum nickel into the team as long as a DeWitt, any DeWitt, has a majority stake in running or owning the team.

Any and all of the Goodwill that Sr had garnered has been misspent and a long time ago.

TBS, his greatest mistake and or sin has been his foisting of his farly strewn from the tree, apple of a son upon us. What a P[ositively] O[bnoxious] S[impleton] he has proven himself to be. I could forgive him for raising a half wit, it happens all too often. But allowing the half wit to take Center Stage and Gaslight one of the most supportive and forgiving fanbases in all of sports is a Sin Too Great to give him a pass on.

Sell The Team!!!

It's not only BDW's team, Daze. There are other owners involved.

Duly noted.

They cannot be happy with their diminishing returns..maybe one should step forward and advocate for a change in Managing Partner.

I am willing to guess that you are not any more enamored with The Lesser Bill than the bulk of us. You may know him personally and actually like him, yet I am confident that you would agree he has no business being the Face or as a Spokesman for the team. Hide him at all costs.

I don't know him, Daze, but I know people who do. You're right - hide him at all costs.

[BrockFloodMaris]

So far Moe and BTW, have hemorrhaged 1 million fans from our annual run rate. If we keep losing this could grow to 1.4 or 1.6m many of them might never come back which could prevent us from ever having enough revenue to spend on the free agents or extend the keepers that we need to actually win once we decide we are ready.

Fans aren’t going to buy MLB tickets just because we upgrade our scouting and minors development. Or even just because Mo is gone. It doesn’t help that we refuse to promote exciting prospects in 2025 like JJW just so we can play 40 man roster games when 12 of his draft class have already made the Bigs. Keeping the unpopular Marmol doesn’t help either, and doesn’t save a material amount of money. Trading Willson or Gray for junk (salary relief and then not replacing them on The MLB roster) isn’t going to help - marginal ballpark fans actually like watching former Allstars who win 14+ games or hit 20 HRs and don’t like watching bullpen games. They aren’t what’s keeping fans away.

We are t ever going to win 90 (or much less 100) games with a minimum wage roster of draftees and prospects we downgraded thru trades for, not matter how good our development system gets. (And even if we did - They wouldn’t win in the playoffs because they would have zero experience playing in October and that experience is the most valuable and underrated factor that determines winners). To win We need to supplement heavily with the right veterans and be willing to spend. But if Bloom doesn’t maintain the fan base in the short term, where will that spending ever come from?

Instead he needs to come up with a hybrid path forward and stop all thoughts of tanking. Spend enough on some level of star power at areas of need (we can certainly afford some upgrades now if we don’t wait too long), maybe more popular, experienced and well known coaching staff. And try to win enough to get into the playoffs.

We don’t have to win a pennant in year 1, but we do need to start accumulating October experience and earn some valuable revenue from those extra ticket sales. Momentum is a real thing when if comes to revenue and cash management - the more you win the more you earn and can afford to win more, but it has to all start with a willingness to invest sooner rather than later and not wait until it’s too late to be able to spend. And we can do all this without sacrificing anything significant in our new minor league process.

Good questions! Lots of them really. Those problems were not created overnight and won’t be solved overnight. The answers that you’re looking for won’t fit on a bumper sticker. The short answer is to truly rebuild the organization from the inside out. The MLB roster is just one piece to the puzzle. The Dewitts and Chaim Bloom will need to establish a great communications rapport with the local and national press, along with the fans. Rebuilding that trust will be tough. The fans came to not trust Mo and his jibber jabber.

[JuanAgosto]

Im not sure he does. The era of 3 million + fans a year may be over. Younger people do not follow baseball that much. And those with kids may find cheaper avenues for their entertainment dollars. Throw in the fans who used to attend several games a year who now choose to stay home and watch/listen (due to aging, budgeting, or convenience). And finally, those who are sick of paying good money for a mediocre to bad product. Im just not sure attendance will ever reach its heyday point again.

[Midrange Jay]

Im not sure he does. The era of 3 million + fans a year may be over. Younger people do not follow baseball that much. And those with kids may find cheaper avenues for their entertainment dollars. Throw in the fans who used to attend several games a year who now choose to stay home and watch/listen (due to aging, budgeting, or convenience). And finally, those who are sick of paying good money for a mediocre to bad product. Im just not sure attendance will ever reach its heyday point again.

6 teams finished with over 3 million this year. 14 finished with over 2.5 million.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/attendance/_/sort/homeTotal

[Goldfan]

Im not sure he does. The era of 3 million + fans a year may be over. Younger people do not follow baseball that much. And those with kids may find cheaper avenues for their entertainment dollars. Throw in the fans who used to attend several games a year who now choose to stay home and watch/listen (due to aging, budgeting, or convenience). And finally, those who are sick of paying good money for a mediocre to bad product. Im just not sure attendance will ever reach its heyday point again.

Dewitts certainly chose the wrong time to let this club become an afterthought….this generation may never return to Busch

[JuanAgosto]

Im not sure he does. The era of 3 million + fans a year may be over. Younger people do not follow baseball that much. And those with kids may find cheaper avenues for their entertainment dollars. Throw in the fans who used to attend several games a year who now choose to stay home and watch/listen (due to aging, budgeting, or convenience). And finally, those who are sick of paying good money for a mediocre to bad product. Im just not sure attendance will ever reach its heyday point again.

Dewitts certainly chose the wrong time to let this club become an afterthought….this generation may never return to Busch

I agree

[JuanAgosto]

Im not sure he does. The era of 3 million + fans a year may be over. Younger people do not follow baseball that much. And those with kids may find cheaper avenues for their entertainment dollars. Throw in the fans who used to attend several games a year who now choose to stay home and watch/listen (due to aging, budgeting, or convenience). And finally, those who are sick of paying good money for a mediocre to bad product. Im just not sure attendance will ever reach its heyday point again.

6 teams finished with over 3 million this year. 14 finished with over 2.5 million.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/attendance/_/sort/homeTotal

Those that went over 3 million are bigger than StL and saw better baseball.

[Carp4Cy]

If II & III continue to go beggar thy fans in ‘26, they will getexactly what they richly deserve attendancewise.

Expenses need to match or be less than revenues. Just like with any business.

Yet, the Cardinals were more profitable when they spent more on players. Losing a million fans really decreases revenues, no?

They spent on Goldy and Arenado. How’d that work out?

They had many sell outs.

And how many playoff wins?

That was Oli’s fault.

[fullswing]

More bobble heads!

[Banner29]

Im not sure he does. The era of 3 million + fans a year may be over. Younger people do not follow baseball that much. And those with kids may find cheaper avenues for their entertainment dollars. Throw in the fans who used to attend several games a year who now choose to stay home and watch/listen (due to aging, budgeting, or convenience). And finally, those who are sick of paying good money for a mediocre to bad product. Im just not sure attendance will ever reach its heyday point again.

Dewitts certainly chose the wrong time to let this club become an afterthought….this generation may never return to Busch

It’s been 3 bad, painfully boring years now. You add in another 1 plus a (likely) year lockout and you’re 5 years behind in grabbing the attention from the younger generation added to 5 years of alienating the older one, which we are already seeing the affects from.

It’s not a good situation at all for the front office. They’re gonna have to go bold

[Midrange Jay]

Im not sure he does. The era of 3 million + fans a year may be over. Younger people do not follow baseball that much. And those with kids may find cheaper avenues for their entertainment dollars. Throw in the fans who used to attend several games a year who now choose to stay home and watch/listen (due to aging, budgeting, or convenience). And finally, those who are sick of paying good money for a mediocre to bad product. Im just not sure attendance will ever reach its heyday point again.

6 teams finished with over 3 million this year. 14 finished with over 2.5 million.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/attendance/_/sort/homeTotal

Those that went over 3 million are bigger than StL and saw better baseball.

St. Louis has frequently out performed bigger markets. The key is wining baseball and star players.

[Hazelwood72]

First we have to figure out why fans stopped attending games. I may be a tiny minority but the DH is the reason I won't watch baseball. For others it could be the change to the tv deal which requires a $20 per month subscription to watch something that used to be part of the basic package.

Two losing seasons in the last three years may be a factor but I don't think that's the biggest factor. We were 5 games over .500 at the all star break and attendance was poor.

For me and many of us, its Mo and Oli's infuriating style and refusal to make some sound/popular decisions - like not signing/trading better pitchers years ago when we should have, standing pat and not improving on marginally decent rosters that had potential, pulling Q too early in game one then leaving Helsley in too long when he couldn't feel the ball. Not bringing up JJW just to play 40 man roster games with JAGs. Putting Taylor Motter on the roster 4 times in a row.

Mo is gone but Oli still isn't.

And I agree on the TV thing. I don't know the answer but Bloom must figure that out - that's his job and its critical that he shore up that revenue stream in a highly marketable (and non-frustrating) manner.

Carp,
I grew up in North County. Moved several times in my career, both away from STL and back again. Been in Texas 30 years now and doubt I’ll return. But family still in STL and always went to Cardinal games (and Blues games) when I visit.

You perfectly captured my position relative to the Cards. I haven’t gone to a game in the last 2 years because I’m totally sick and tired of Mozo the Clown and Oily Oli’s schtick. (And CRANNY’s, too).

I really don’t hold out any hope that Oily iPad will manage any better without Mozo chirping in his ear than without Mozo’s “helpful input”, so I don’t plan to buy tickets in advance for 2026.

To CRANNY, if Oli and the team perform better, I will send my fervent mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa to you. I sincerely hope we turn it around and look forward to confessing my error.

Cheers to all,
HW72

Now, c’mon Blues, (bleep). The season has started. Play better hock-EE!!!!

[JuanAgosto]

Im not sure he does. The era of 3 million + fans a year may be over. Younger people do not follow baseball that much. And those with kids may find cheaper avenues for their entertainment dollars. Throw in the fans who used to attend several games a year who now choose to stay home and watch/listen (due to aging, budgeting, or convenience). And finally, those who are sick of paying good money for a mediocre to bad product. Im just not sure attendance will ever reach its heyday point again.

6 teams finished with over 3 million this year. 14 finished with over 2.5 million.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/attendance/_/sort/homeTotal

Those that went over 3 million are bigger than StL and saw better baseball.

St. Louis has frequently out performed bigger markets. The key is wining baseball and star players.

It has. But baseball has always been king in StL. Im not sure the younger generations care.

[Spock]

I suggest the Cardinals sign 2 or 3 big name old pitchers to one year contracts
The Fan base will come out to support them— SpockOut no