At least the arches gave old Busch a little more personality than the other “ashtray” stadiums.
I remember when Royals (Kaufmann) Stadium was first built, I took an engineer from the New York area there who had grown up in Philly and whose baseball experiences were all the old northeast stadiums.
He was blown away — the cleanliness, the fountains, the nicely dressed and behaved fans — “its like a fricking country club” he said. He couldn’t get over it.
The twin stadiums for the Royals and Chiefs (Truman Sports Complex), were the first in a modern wave of stadium architecture. Kivett and Meyers Architects, soon merged with engineering giant HNTB began a whole new era of stadium design. Eight guys spun off and opened HOK Sports (now Populous) and also a Sports venue office for Ellerbe Beckett Architects.
Sports venue architecture’s biggest shift came from Kansas City and a lot of it is still designed there.
I suppose. I'm not an STL native so I never liked it much - though my kids (who were born here) are very nostalgic about it. I grew up around D.C. and used to go to Senators games at RFK - another monstrosity.