[5] The stadium served as the home of the St. Louis Cardinals National League baseball team for its entire operating existence, while also serving as home to the National Football League's Cardinals team for 22 seasons, from 1966 through 1987, as well as the St. Louis Rams during part of the 1995 season.

It opened four days after the last baseball game was played at Sportsman's Park (which had been renamed Busch Stadium in 1953, when Anheuser-Busch bought the team).

Otherwise, it was very similar in appearance to other circular multipurpose "cookie-cutter" stadiums built in the 1960s and early 1970s in Atlanta, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh, all of which were essentially open-air copies of the Houston Astrodome.

[12] The baseball Cardinals had played at Sportsman's Park since 1920, originally as tenants of the St. Louis Browns of the American League.

In 1958, Charles Farris, the city's head of development, proposed a new stadium downtown as the core of a plan to revive a 31-block area of the business district.

With support from the local Chamber of Commerce, the Civic Center Redevelopment Corporation was established in September 1959, and it was given power of eminent domain, which was used to condemn several areas that were rundown or had gone to seed years before, including the small Chinatown district, the Grand Theater (a historic opera house that had evolved into a burlesque strip club),[14] and various flophouses and abandoned warehouses.

However, the "Civic Center" part was rarely used, and most people called it simply Busch Memorial Stadium.

[17][18] With artificial turf, the playing conditions at Busch Stadium were among the hottest in baseball,[19] with temperatures well above the local official readings.

[1] Over the years, the grounds became home to bronze statues of Stan Musial, Enos Slaughter, Dizzy Dean, Rogers Hornsby, Red Schoendienst, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, James "Cool Papa" Bell, George Sisler, Jack Buck, and Ozzie Smith.

[citation needed] Following Busch's last 1995 event—the Rams' October 22 game before the opening of the now-Dome at America's Center—the Cardinals retrofitted it into a baseball-only stadium.

A large section of the upper deck outfield seats was closed, replaced with a hand-operated scoreboard and flags commemorating the Cardinals' retired numbers and World Series championships.

It was to consist of boutiques and restaurants, condominium apartments anchored by the new headquarters of Centene Corporation—all to be built in time for the All-Star Game in 2009.

[23] In its opening year, Busch Stadium hosted the All-Star Game, a 2–1 National League victory in 10 innings, mostly remembered for the humidity and 105 °F (41 °C) temperatures.

The 1968 and 2004 World Series were clinched in Busch Stadium by visitors: the Detroit Tigers in the seventh game and the Boston Red Sox in a four-game sweep, respectively.

Consequently, its design (as well as the Astroturf surface) was favorable to the Cardinals' style of play for most of the time from the 1960s through the 1990s, which emphasized good baserunning and extra-base hits.

Part of the top deck in center field was permanently closed, and in 1997, flags were put in place to honor the team's retired numbers and pennants.

Between the Cardinals' 1987 departure and the Rams' 1995 arrival, the stadium hosted two NFL pre-season games: one between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots in 1989, and one between the New York Jets and the Kansas City Chiefs in 1991.

It served as the temporary home venue for Trinidad and Tobago in a 1985 CONCACAF Championship match against the United States, who won 2–1 in front of 15,823 fans.

[30] The annual Bronze Boot Game between the Saint Louis Billikens and the SIU Edwardsville Cougars was played at Busch Stadium from 1972 until 1985.