The Cardinals' true No. 1 priority? You.

As the Cardinals continue to prep for the start of the 2026 season, club president Bill DeWitt III is emphasizing that fan safety remains top of the list when it comes to the organization’s off-the-field focus.

"It's literally our number one priority. Without it, you don’t have anything," he shared in a recent interview with Cardinals Insider.

Along with other downtown St. Louis sports teams and stakeholders, the Cardinals played a key role in helping get a bill passed by the Missouri state legislature last year which created an entertainment district downtown, allowing for additional security personnel to support entertainment events in the area and access to state funding to help facilitate that process. The stakeholders are still in the early stages of working through the best method for implementation, but the first order of business is securing final legislation approvals at the city level.

In the meantime, the Cardinals have continued to maintain stringent safety protocols when it comes to areas they currently control, from inside Busch Stadium to its perimeter security. The club also oversees a well-lit, well-maintained 1300-plus space parking lot across the street from the stadium, which is patrolled by security on gamedays and offers fans a place to park their vehicles in close proximity to the ballpark. Fans can even prepurchase a discounted pass to the lot when purchasing their tickets to the game, ensuring them to a secure spot to park when they arrive downtown. The Cardinals treat the lot like an extension of the stadium, says Vice President of Stadium Operations Matt Gifford, and the club has made a significant investment over the years in both ascetics and security so that fans can feel confident both they and their vehicles will remain safe while parking in that lot.

"We try to be a model for the other lot owners around us because we don't control all the parking (downtown)," DeWitt said. "And we want to make sure that everybody else is at that same standard."

In fact, when it comes to the parking experience overall, MLB consistently ranks the Cardinals as some of the best across all 30 teams.

"We get a cumulative survey after every game and monthly on a variety of topics, including parking," Gifford said. "What's been great to find is we are definitely in the top tier of parking experiences when you come to Busch Stadium and when you leave. So that's something that, if you've only been to Busch Stadium, when you compare against the other 29 teams, we actually are one of the best parking operations in all of Major League Baseball."

It all goes back to what the club feels is its top responsibility to fans, along with winning baseball: fostering a safe environment for everyone to enjoy the game.

"We just have felt that, from every layer of safety that we think about, we need to be an advocate for that," DeWitt said. "Whether that's broader downtown safety and security, whether it's perimeter security for us in our perimeter, or whether it's in the ballpark, all those are really important to us."