Cardinals, Anheuser-Busch agree to marketing extension

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The St. Louis Cardinals have been playing in Busch Stadium for seven decades, and that won’t change anytime soon.

The team and Anheuser-Busch announced Wednesday that they have agreed to a five-year marketing agreement extension that will run through 2030. In addition to stadium naming rights, the maker of Budweiser, Bud Light and other beers maintains exclusive rights to all alcoholic beverage advertising on Cardinals radio and TV broadcasts, stadium signage rights and other marketing benefits.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

“Anheuser-Busch and the Cardinals are part of the fabric of St. Louis, and this continued investment in our shared hometown is an exciting next chapter in our decades long story,” Matt Davis, vice president of partnerships for Anheuser-Busch, said in a news release.

Cardinals President Bill DeWitt III, in the release, said the partnership with the brewery “is such an important part of our identity as an organization.”

St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch purchased the Cardinals and Sportsman’s Park in 1953, renaming the ballpark Bush Stadium. The Cardinals moved into a new downtown ballpark in 1966 that was named “Busch Memorial Stadium.”

The brewery sold the baseball team to a group led by Bill DeWitt Jr. in 1995, but the Busch name remained on the ballpark and its replacement, which opened in 2006. The Busch family sold Anheuser-Busch to Belgium-based InBev in 2008.

The marketing extension also includes Ballpark Village, a mixed-use commercial and residential area next to Busch Stadium.