It was billed as the ending to the 2005 news story that no one this side of Chicago’s north side really wanted to end.  Thousands of Cardinal fans gathered outside Busch Stadium as the 3pm deadline for the demolition of the beloved arena drew near.  Employees skipped work, children were pulled from school, and local TV stations interrupted their regularly scheduled programming.  For lifelong Cardinal fans, it was to be a day of days.

Unfortunately for those that came downtown to witness the event, one small wrecking ball didn’t provide anywhere near the excitement to on-lookers as the implosion of the old Blues Hockey “Checkerdome” Arena in 1999.  In fact, nearly 24 hours after the wrecking ball started its job, Busch Stadium appears mostly intact to the outside observer with only a small portion of those famous arches that ring the top of the Stadium actually missing.

It was cruel really.  Most American cities have rejoiced when their ugly 1960’s cement multipurpose sports stadiums are torn down- but not St. Louis.  For a lot of reasons, Busch Stadium was special to St Louis.  That’s why this anticlimactic, agonizingly slow demolition process is so hard to watch.

However, if you would like to see coverage of the demolition process, KMOV TV 4 has probably the best coverage on the internet.  There is a live webcam trained on the Stadium updated every 10 minutes at:

http://www.kmov.com/stadiumcam/

KMOV has also been flying their “SkyZoom” news helicopter over the stadium every evening so you can see the changes from day to day.  Check it out at http://www.kmov.com/.

If you are looking for that one last piece of Busch Stadium memorabilia, check out: http://www.stlcardinals.com.