St. Louis Blues: Credit Where Credit Is Due, St. Louis Fans Some Of The Best
By Todd Panula
Our city has been put through the wringer over the last year or so. However, the fans of the St. Louis Blues, and all sports really, continue to prove they are some of the best.
While some of my articles have focused on the insanity that creeps into the fan base from time to time, credit where credit is due. St. Louis Blues fans, and St. Louis fans overall, are some of the best in the entire country.
Our names were dragged through the mud with the departure of the St. Louis Rams and former Missourian, Stan Kroenke, taking every opportunity to bash the city in an effort to legitimize his business decision to the public. Sure, it was probably the right decision from a business aspect due to all the ancillary money that comes with the Los Angeles market. However, there was no need to bash a fan base that had supported your putrid squad for over 20 years and only given a handful of winning seasons.
Now, where does this come from since the Rams are long gone? Well, not to take the focus away from hockey for long, but LA fans proved their worth (or lack thereof) by not showing enough support for a Rams Legends game and ultimately getting it cancelled. Far be it from yours truly to take part in the I told you so parade, but I’m taking part in the I told you so parade.
However, keeping the focus on this city and its fans, it further proves that our community knows how to take care of its own. Blues fans spread across the board. While Cardinals fans are some of the best too, there are plenty who are Cardinals fans and nothing else. Blues fans tend to cover it all.
There are lots of Blues fans who supported the Rams for years. Blues fans love the Cardinals, even if some of us get a little tired of the constant baseball barrage. There are even a large number of Blues fans who also support local soccer, such as Saint Louis FC.
All of these teams get good attendance too. Yes, Missouri is the Show-Me State and if you don’t put a winner on the field, you aren’t going to have sell outs. Props to the Chicago Cubs for having fans willing to do that, but there is a line where you have to send a message that not winning isn’t acceptable.
St. Louis fans seem to find that balance very well. Despite a season and a half of middling success, mixed with poor performances, Saint Louis FC averages around 4,500 fans a game in a stadium that only holds 5,000 plus change. The Cardinals regularly average over 3 million fans per season and even when they were in the middle of the pack in the late 80’s, they did well at the box office.
The St. Louis Blues had some struggles here and there, but when the team is at least competitive, the fans go through the turnstiles. No one can blame them for not showing up in droves when the team was selling off pieces in an effort to sell the club in the early 2000’s. Even then, the arena wasn’t empty.
The same was true for the Rams. No, they weren’t packing 70,000 in there but they still averaged more fans than Los Angeles when the teams were averaging the same amount of wins.
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Again, this isn’t an attempt to stick it to LA fans. There were plenty who stayed loyal to their team even after the move and kudos to them. However, there is simply a different culture here. You give us any reason to hope and we will support you through thick and thin.
St. Louis just doesn’t get much credit due to our market. People are more than willing to believe the tripe Kroenke was handing out because they think anything not within an hour of a coast is loaded with a bunch of country bumpkins.
Philly fans are known for their hatred. New York fans are known for demanding greatness even out of mediocre teams. LA fans are known for showing up late and having celebrities at their games.
St. Louis fans are loyal to a fault. Outside of the wackos that don’t understand how trades work or the people that leave games early to “beat the traffic”, the sports fans in this area are some of the best.
The Blues haven’t won a title in their history. They haven’t come close since their first three years of existence. They’ve only come within sniffing distance of the finals a handful of times too. Yet, this is one of the most beloved teams in the entire area.
Fans showed up 10,000 strong for a flag football game at the Dome. Several hundred people showed up at Blues Prospect Camp to see players that hardly anyone knew.
The national media or people that live in so called higher profile cities can think what they want. There is a reason, though, that players from the Blues tend to return here to live even if they did not finish their careers here.
They are treated with respect as former athletes and as human beings. They aren’t constantly bombarded with people whining about that missed goal or dropped fly ball or strike out in the seventh inning of some game 20 years ago.
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That’s because the fans around here are some of the best. As with any fan base, there are oddballs and kooks. You get your typical sports radio listener who wants to call in and whine about how they would do so much better. However, the vast majority of fans around here are just great fans.
They want to see their teams do well and they bleed for those franchises. Blues fans really do bleed blue and that’s why they form such a connection to those that played. Players always say whatever city they are in has the best fans, but they aren’t BS’ing when they say it here.