Stories of the '86 Season 5: Drama in St. Louis, or, the Heightening of Contradictions

Despite success in ’85 and ’86, Bidwell continued to huff. He wanted his own dome—the dominant architectural Conquest of Nature; “gentlemen, the future would be spent indoors.” Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, and Minnesota had them. The original plan for the Arrowhead/Kaufman complex called for a gigantic dome that covered both facilities. Why couldn’t that happen in St. Louis? 

But The Great Offshoring had begun, and they hollowed out the Gateway to the West like a lot of places. Bidwell tried to pitch the dome to where all the money escaped to—St. Charles thought about it hard—f but they weren't even the Cardinals; they were the Football Cardinals, Grid Cards, or Big Red--if only Mother had changed the name before moving! Second on everyone's mind; before Harris, third or fourth depending on how good Blues and Steamers were doing. 

Still, Bidwell bitched. "But attendance was greatly improved," argued knowledgeable fans and the media—over '85 and '86, the Cards sold out 10 of 16 home games; crowds were over 40,000 the other six. Yes, but those other six, mind you, were either the Indian Summers of early September or the ice storms of early December. A dome would square the circle and make him feel like The Big Boy he truly knew he was—sharing with the Busch family was not fair, you see. Rumors of relocation began humming at Busch Stadium, Bennigan's, and Savings and Loans water coolers: Neil Lomax will be in Birmingham in '87, or Phoenix, or even Tulsa—Oral Roberts was building a Gold Googy dome and Shopping Mall as we speak! Bidwell kept assuring local press that big beautiful dome talks with the government were positive, however, and not to worry. He even had plans to build a big panoramic window one could look through to see the Arch, all in air conditioned comfort.

Fall ‘86 saw emergency municipal elections in St. Louis—nearly the entire city council, mayor, and comptroller had died from Legionnaires disease contracted during a GOP fundraiser at a HoJo in Furgeson; the police Chief and DA died when the Chief's new AMC Fuego stalled on a train track; should've went with the Fiero. It all seemed suspicious to Birchers. The loss of business friendly, reactionary power, the city-center hollowed-out, and general Reaganite contentment and complacency saw the sudden sweep of The Revolutionary Party of All People's by the Black Hammer, best known as the Black Hammer Party, into municipal control (this same thing happened in Cleveland; they got a plurality in Pittsburgh). The multi-racial, broadly populist party wasn't interested in building a dome, though they said they would hear Bill out on some sort of proposal.