Ticket squeeze at Busch Stadium could be hurting city's tourism

ST. LOUIS -- With attendance down at some St. Louis attractions, operators are wondering if the ticket squeeze at the new, smaller Busch Stadium is discouraging tourists from coming here.

Not even higher gasoline prices, heat, thunderstorms and road construction can entirely explain an 8 percent dip in summer attendance at the Saint Louis Zoo, president Jeffrey Bonner said.

Last year, 29 percent of the zoo's out-of-town visitors attended a Cardinals game; this year, the number has dropped to 14 percent.

"That tells us fewer people are coming because Cardinal tickets are harder to get hold of," Bonner told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Park visitation nationwide is steady this year.

The Arch "looks like an anomaly," said National Park Service spokesman David Barna.

High gas prices usually boost tourism in St. Louis by attracting families from neighboring states, said Nancy Milton, a spokeswoman for the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission.

Though some hotel operators noted light baseball traffic, Milton said St. Louis hotels booked 4.5 percent more rooms during the first six months of the year compared with the first half of 2005.

Six Flags St. Louis spokeswoman Elizabeth Gotway reported business has been "soft" this summer, a trend at amusement parks nationwide.

But not all St. Louis attractions are slumping.

The City Museum and St. Louis Science Center are enjoying attendance bumps, though a majority of those institutions' visitors are local.

At the Missouri Botanical Garden, which opened a Children's Garden in May and has the popular Dale Chihuly "Glass in the Garden" exhibit, there's been a 37 percent increase in visitors this year.

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Information from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, www.stltoday.com