St. Louis Cardinals' home park Busch Stadium to welcome 50 millionth fan, first team in MLB to accomplish this feat

The St. Louis Cardinals are on the cusp of actualizing a feat that has never before been accomplished by any MLB team: hosting an all-time total of 50 million fans in a single ballpark.

Cardinals have played at the Busch Stadium - that is, the "New Busch Stadium" - since its opening in April of 2006. It was built to replace Busch Memorial Stadium, which the franchise called home from 1966 to 2006.

However, many fans still think of the New Busch Stadium as a mere continuation of the Memorial Stadium because it was built almost directly over the old stadium's remains.

Even before the Busch Memorial Stadium was built, St. Louis had another ballpark named Sportsman's Park, which was re-titled to Busch Stadium in 1953.

Funnily enough, the St. Louis Cardinals owner at the time, August Busch Jr., wanted to name the park "Budweiser Stadium" after the popular American beer brand.

But the MLB forbade him from doing so due to rules against naming ballparks after alcoholic beverages. Oh, how things have changed (look no further than MLB stadiums like Coors Park and Miller Field)!

St. Louis Cardinals' Busch Stadium will become fastest ballpark to welcome 50 million fans

An overhead view of St. Louis Cardinals home, Busch Stadium

The newest Busch Stadium appears to be the most popular. Fans attending the contest between the St. Louis Cardinals and Arizona Diamondbacks tonight will become part of history. They will push Busch Stadium past the threshold of being the fastest stadium in MLB history to host 50 million fans.

Evidently, the Cardinals worked efficiently to reach the milestone. It took them only 1,221 games to attract 50 million fans. Keep in mind that those numbers include reduced attendance over the past three years due to the pandemic.

Furthermore, the abbreviated 2020 season due to COVID-19 prevented the Cardinals from hosting their usual number of home games in a season.

St. Louis reporter Corey Miller listed the exact number of fans that Busch Stadium has welcomed before tonight's game against the Diamondbacks: 49,977,443.

Busch Stadium can hold 44,494 total fans, so a sellout crowd will put them well past the 50 million mark.

You can also guess that the Cardinal's 17 game win streak last year boosted their attendance quicker than usual and put them into contention for breaking the record.

On top of that, stars like Nolan Arenado, Tyler O'Neil, and Jack Flaherty keep fans coming back as they're capable of turning games around single-handedly.

You can count on a sellout crowd tonight based on yesterday afternoon's riveting, heated matchup in the ballpark against the New York Mets. The Mets are no longer in town for another bench-clearing brawl, but Cardinals fans will be eager to cheer on their squad as they seek to string a couple of wins together.

The club is 10-7 to start the season and they sit in second place in the National League Central, being three wins behind the Milwaukee Brewers.