The St. Louis Blues have a special connection with their fans and the surrounding area. For good or bad, the team has helped the city get recognized.
It used to be that St. Louis was an afterthought of a city. The St. Louis Blues were just one of those teams you saw at least twice a year.
However, as time has gone on, the city has earned itself a decent reputation in the hockey community. St. Louis might never have the pedigree of the “original six” cities, but it has quickly risen up the ranks among hockey cities.
St. Louis put in a strong bid to host the World Junior Championships and were barely beaten out by Buffalo. While nothing was said, it seems likely that the northern city’s proximity to Canada, where the majority of attendees come from, helped their bid.
Then, St. Louis gained a little more fame when the city had several players from the area all drafted in the same year. Former Blues decisions to stay in the area and raise families has contributed to that. You have former NHL players coaching young kids and also their kids adding to the talent of the area as well.
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All of this, as well as other factors, have earned St. Louis a high spot on a national list. WalletHub has listed St. Louis as the seventh best hockey city in the United States. Some might say not including Canada takes away from this, but with so many other cities having high esteem, it is still impressive to get that high.
There were many contributing factors taken into the list. If you’d like to visit the link, I suggest you do to see all the different things. It all boils down to a mathematical equation taking in everything from ticket prices to on-ice performance and even championships.
The fact that the Blues ranked so high given their lack of championship rings and banners speaks to how high they ranked in other areas. In fact, no city above St. Louis has failed to win a title. The gateway city ranked behind Boston, Detroit, Pittsburgh, New York, Chicago and Newark.
It was mainly on the Blues to supply the weight given to the city as St. Louis is mainly without a college team, which did factor in.
The Blues ranked fifth best in terms of team performance for NHL teams. The Blues also ranked fifth for lowest average ticket cost, which helps your average fan attend the games.
As with any of these list articles, you can argue for or against it based on your own perceptions. As they say, perception is reality.
However, it is interesting to see a statistical weight given to things and a mathematical formula that ends up ranking our city so high.
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Does it change the fact that the Blues need to keep making changes and continually improve? Absolutely not. It also does not take away any of the sting any of us have felt over the years by not winning the big one.
Still, with all the negative press St. Louis has gained of late, with football teams leaving and failure to build MLS stadiums, it is nice to get some positive notoriety.