Chris von der Ahe (1882–1898) baseball card. In 1882, the St. Louis Brown Stockings were purchased by
Chris von der Ahe, a
German immigrant who became a
grocer and saloon owner. He had no background in baseball but saw moneymaking potential in the sport. After the Browns profited $25,000 from playing a season's worth of informal contests, Von der Ahe bought out the team's remaining stockholders for $1,800. In 1882, Von der Ahe joined other owners to form the
American Association of Base Ball Clubs. Von der Ahe was a flamboyant and magnanimous
entrepreneur who gained enormous popularity in St. Louis. He was willing to charge lower admission rates, encouraged play on Sundays, and sold
beer at the
stadium, a practice that the
National League prohibited at the time. But he was reviled by owners, such
Albert Spalding, who bristled at promotional techniques that are today common.
Charlie O. Finley,
Larry MacPhail, and
Bill Veeck eventually employed sideshow attractions such as the "stadium club" and the shoot-the-chute. Von der Ahe was one of the few owners to make a profit during his time. The American Association eventually collapsed due to bankruptcy. In 1899, Von der Ahe himself was forced to sell the Browns due to bankruptcy. Breadon was conservative with his finances, highly demanding of his teams' success on the field, and a maker of bold moves. When he became minority owner, the Cardinals were $150,000 in debt. In 1925, he moved
Branch Rickey from
the dugout to the
front office and promoted
second baseman Rogers Hornsby to
player-manager. Breadon convinced cross-town
American League rival
St. Louis Browns owner
Phil Ball to allow the Cardinals to move into
Sportsman's Park. This allowed him to sell the dilapidated
Robison Field property for a total of $275,000 to
the city and a
trolley company, clear the team's debts, and, with Rickey's oversight, establish an official, contractually-linked
minor league farm system, the predecessor of today's minor league system. The Cardinals used it to circumvent the practice of bidding against the more affluent Major League teams such as the
New York Yankees and
New York Giants for players from minor league teams, which at that time were unaffiliated. It was the first player development system of its kind in professional sport. In 1947, Breadon sold the Cardinals to
Fred Saigh and
Robert Hannegan for $3 million, at the time the largest transaction in baseball history.
Fred Saigh (1947–1953) At the end of the 1947 baseball season, Saigh got wind that longtime Cardinals owner Sam Breadon wanted to sell. Breadon faced two problems. He was ill with prostate cancer, and he had been unable to find land on which to build a planned new ballpark. The Cardinals had rented Sportsman's Park from the city's other major league team, the American League Browns, since 1920. The Cardinals had long since surpassed the Browns as the city's most popular team, and Breadon wanted to build a park of his own. He had set aside $5 million to build a park, and was facing the end of a five-year deadline to build it before having to pay taxes on that money. Saigh persuaded Breadon to sell the Cardinals to him, with the assurance that he wouldn't have to pay taxes on his $5 million fund. To further put him at ease, Saigh brought in Robert Hannegan as a minority partner. Hannegan was a prominent St. Louis businessman, former United States Postmaster General, and confidante of President Harry Truman. The $4 million deal closed in late 1947. Saigh inherited a team in transition. The Cardinals, though then just one year removed from their ninth National League pennant and sixth World Series championship since 1926, had begun to decay as an organization. Five years before, Breadon had forced out legendary general manager Branch Rickey, who had quickly resurfaced with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Meanwhile, the Browns, under new owner Bill Veeck, began a concerted effort to drive the Cardinals out of town. In January 1949, Hannegan, suffering from poor health, sold his share of the team to Saigh. Hannegan died that October of heart disease. As sole owner, Saigh's notable actions included leading other baseball owners to oust (by not renewing his contract) Commissioner of Baseball Happy Chandler in December 1950 and proposing revenue-sharing of local television revenues. However, the tax dodge Saigh used soon came to light, as well as other questionable practices on his part. He served five months at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, leaving in November 1953 when he was given parole for good behavior. In February 1953, under pressure from Commissioner Ford Frick, Saigh put the Cardinals up for sale. However, just before he was due to reach a final agreement with the Houston group, Saigh sold the Cardinals to Anheuser-Busch, the St. Louis-based brewery. Although Anheuser-Busch's offer was far less ($3.75 million) than what out-of-town suitors had on the table, Anheuser-Busch president Gussie Busch persuaded Saigh that civic pride was more important than money. This all but assured that the Cardinals would stay in St. Louis. Shortly afterward, the Cardinals bought Sportsman's Park from the Browns. With their remaining leverage gone, it was the Browns who left town by the end of the season, becoming the Baltimore Orioles.
August "Gussie" Busch Jr. (1953–1989) Anheuser-Busch (1989–1995) DeWitt, Baur and Hanser (1996–present) and
chairman,
Bill DeWitt Jr. As with other periods of the Cardinals' transaction history, doubt loomed as to whether the purchaser would keep the team in St. Louis, due to the city's status as a "small market," which appear to handicap a club's competitiveness. Such was the case when
Sam Breadon sold the Cardinals in 1947:
then-NL President Ford Frick had proposed to Breadon the idea of moving the Cardinals to
Chicago. When AB placed the Cardinals for sale in 1995, they publicly expressed intention to find a buyer who would keep the club in St. Louis. In March 1996, AB sold the team for $147 million to a partnership headed by Southwest Bank's
Drew Baur, Hanser and DeWitt Jr. Baur's group then sold the garages to another investment group, making the net cost of the franchise purchase about $100 million, making the net purchase price about $10 million less than ''
Financial World's'' value of the team at the time $110 million. Current
Cincinnati Reds owner
Bob Castellini and brothers Thomas Williams and W. Joseph Williams Jr. each once owned a stake in the Cardinals dating back to the Baur-DeWitt group's purchase of the team. To allow their purchase of the Reds in 2005, the rest of the group bought out Castellini's and the Williams brothers' shares, totaling an estimated 13%. At that time, the
Forbes valued the Cardinals at about $370 million. However, after reabsorbing that stake into the remainder of the group, they decided to make it available to new investors in 2010. Amid later allegations that the Cardinals owed the city profit shares, DeWitt revealed that their profitability had not reached the threshold to trigger that obligation.
Recent annual financial records As of 2013, according to
Forbes, the Cardinals are the tenth-most valuable franchise of 30 in MLB at $716.2 million, with a revenue of $239 million. They play "in the best single-team baseball market in the country and are among the league's leaders in television ratings and attendance every season." Concurrent with the growth of
Major League Baseball, the Cardinals value has increased significantly since the Baur-DeWitt purchase. In 2000, the franchise was valued at $219 million, a growth rate of 327%. Since 2012, the franchise's value grew 21%. Valuation per
Forbes. 1 Based on current stadium deal (unless new stadium is pending) without deduction for debt, other than stadium debt. (2013: Market $291 mil., Stadium $182 mil., Sport $151 mil., Brand Management $91 mil.) (2012: Market $240 mil., Stadium $157 mil., Sport $119 mil., Brand Management $78 mil.) (2011: Market $206 mil., Stadium $136 mil., Sport $111 mil., Brand Management $65 mil.) 2 Net of stadium revenues used for debt payments. 3 Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. 4 Includes benefits and bonuses. 5 Compares the number of wins per player payroll relative to the rest of MLB. Playoff wins count twice as much as regular season wins. A score of 120 means that the team achieved 20% more victories per dollar of payroll compared with the league average in 2010. ==Principal owners==