In 1982, the St. Louis Cardinals moved their Triple-A team of the American Association, the Redbirds, from Springfield, Illinois, to Louisville, Kentucky. From the time the Redbirds arrived until the 1999 season, they played their home games at Cardinal Stadium (formally called Fairgrounds Stadium), located at the Kentucky Exposition Center, which seated over 30,000 people, (with the largest quoted as 34,330). During their inaugural 1982 season, the Redbirds broke the minor league attendance record by drawing 868,418 fans. In 1983, the Redbirds were the first minor league team to draw over one million fans in a single season (1,052,438). The Redbirds' success during the 1980s led to some speculation that Louisville could be a potential market for Major League Baseball expansion; however this did not come to pass.