ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Cardinals have announced changes to the Busch Stadium mask policy, requiring fans to wear face coverings in more places inside and outside of the stadium.
All fans will have to wear a mask when entering or walking around the five indoor ticketed club areas: Cardinals Club, Redbird Club, UMB Champions Club, National Car Rental Club and Perficient Red Jacket Club. Fans can remove their masks in these areas while eating or drinking. Masks also are required inside the Official Team Store and the Cardinals Authentics Shop.
The mask mandate also extends to all indoor public spaces at Ballpark Village.
The Cardinals organization continues to encourage fans who are not yet fully vaccinated to wear masks in the outdoor stands.
The next home game is set for this Friday, July 30 against the Minnesota Twins.
A large country music concert slated for Busch Stadium next month also was suddenly canceled Thursday.
The "Welcome Back STL" concert featuring Zac Brown Band and Sam Hunt was canned due to "unforeseen circumstances," according to the St. Louis Cardinals website.
The announcement comes several days after St. Louis and St. Louis County reinstated a mask mandate for everyone 5 and older, regardless of vaccination status. Masks are required inside public places and on public transit. Masks also are encouraged in outdoor public areas where the vaccination status of everyone isn’t known.
The CDC followed suit Wednesday, changing course on some of its masking guidelines amid a surge of COVID-19 cases related to the delta variant. The agency said even vaccinated people should wear masks indoors in parts of the U.S. with substantial or high amounts of community transmission of COVID-19.
The CDC’s online data tracker features a color-coded interactive map that shows different levels of transmission. Orange reflects substantial community transmission and red indicates high transmission.
More than 2,100 U.S. counties would fall under CDC's new recommendations, the agency's data shows as of Wednesday afternoon. That includes the entire state of Missouri, with the exception of three counties in the far northwest and southeast corners: Clark, Pemiscot and Scotland counties.
The St. Louis Cardinals eased mask guidelines in May when the CDC, city and county loosened restrictions. Vaccinated fans aren’t required to wear a mask inside Busch Stadium. Fans who are not yet fully vaccinated are strongly encouraged to wear masks at all times inside the stadium, including while sitting in the stands, unless actively eating or drinking.
Since Busch Stadium opened to full capacity on June 14, the team has had 17 games with an average of 31,695 fans per game, the Cardinals told 5 On Your Side. There have been two games with crowd that crossed the 40,000 mark: July 17 against the Giants and July 22 against the Cubs.
5 On Your Side will continue to follow updates from the Cardinals Thursday.
Get the latest breaking updates delivered straight to your inbox with the 5 On Your Side Breaking News newsletter. Click here to sign up. And get breaking news alerts sent straight to your phone with the free 5 On Your Side app. Use the links below to download.
5 On Your Side news app
iPhone | Google Play