Let's Go Blues

If you want to knock St. Louis as a hockey town then you should point to the playoff attendance....or lack there of.....but the local Bar seen and local radio shows have been all over it....I'm not sure that's a 'good' thing since most talking heads in town don't know anything about hockey...but at least they gave them the attention they deserve.

I have Blues licence plates and basically wear Blues clothes everyday. I can't begin to tell you how many people not only stopped me over the last couple weeks to mention the Blues, but that actually knew what was going on and had been following the series. Usually it's just the occasional 'LGB' or "oshie this, oshie that", but no...actual series related banter.

I did find the attendance at the playoff games embarrassing. I know 'after the fact' many have pointed to the latter start times....but it's PLAYOFF HOCKEY...many up.

For what it's worth, many of the unsold seats were of the high dollar society (mostly boxes at the top and 30% of the club seats). That said, if the Blues wont to move high dollar tickets like that they have to convince the local business to invest and that's going to be very hard with post season disappointments, and when things are looking up for the Rams. At best, you're third fiddle in this town, and every small misstep is increasingly detrimental. As JR noted in his weekly chat...Stilman and company are sure to take note of the lack of ticket sales...that has to effect projected income next year which will translate into less available revenue for on ice payroll.

Anyone who has the....whatever....to say a city like St. Louis, who is surrounded by three other NHL teams no less (Two of them Original Six teams), isn't a hockey town has never been to Los Angeles, especially the day they won the Cup or their victory parade. I was down there visiting relatives and a number of people had no idea what was going on or that 'their' team had won the Stanley Cup or what the Stanley Cup is. I had to explain it to them and the general response I was getting was something along the lines of 'Oh wow...is that good?'

Not making this up.

I work at 18th and Chestnut a few blocks from Scottrade. Each day of a home game the Blues walked over 50 tickets to give away because the game wasn't sold out. I'm guessing they did that to a number of businesses in the area. So, a decent number of seats were given away by the Blues as well.

I saw more SRO games this year than I ever remember, so I just can't understand the lack of sell outs. In game 1, there were 6 seats to my left and 4 seats to my right that were completely empty. Late start time maybe is slightly relevant, but it's the playoffs! Makes no sense to me.