A section of sidewalk outside Busch Stadium in St. Louis remains cordoned off as officials try to determine what caused a 2-by-4-foot metal panel to break loose from the underside of the ballpark's upper level Monday afternoon and fall between 80 and 100 feet to the ground.
No one was injured, but Mike Bertani, the Cardinals' director of stadium operations, estimated that roughly 150 panels like the one that fell are in place around the building. Bertani speculated that heat-related expansion of concrete may have caused the failure, but was far from conclusive, telling KSDK-TV, "We don't know how it happened or if it was weather related."
City inspectors have visited the site, and the Cardinals have contacted the architect (Populous) and contractor who worked on Busch Stadium, which opened in 2006. The team's next home game is Tuesday.
