The St. Louis Blues are finally about to break ground on their new practice facility. It is further proof that the sport has grown by leaps and bounds in the area.
The St. Louis Blues have long been seen as the only show in town. Despite several minor league teams and junior teams calling the area home, the city has only had a taste for the big time when it comes to the ice.
That is slowly starting to change after 50-plus years being associated with the sport. Having several prominent players stick around after their careers has definitely helped.
Like any city, St. Louis has had it’s love of hockey tested at times. St. Charles has had, at least, two minor league franchises crash and burn due to lack of support.
St. Louis has also had a few junior hockey teams come through. The most recent team, the St. Louis Bandits, were hugely successful, winning three-straight championships and never missing the playoffs. Despite this, the lack of promotion and a declining attendance resulted in the team folding.
In spite of these failures, St. Louis has continued to grow as a hockey town. That came to a head when there were five St. Louis products selected in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft.
The top name of that group was Matthew Tkachuk. While Tkachuk was not born in St. Louis, he spent his formative years in the city as his dad played for the Blues.
Former players have played a huge role. While everyone raves about the Cardinals and St. Louis being a baseball town, there are as many, if not more, former Blues that stay in the area and call St. Louis home.
Those former players end up being youth coaches or helping out with younger hockey programs, forming an early love for the sport that carries through, no matter if they stop playing after peewees or make it to the pros.
Now, we are seeing the fruits of their labors in concrete form. The Blues and the city of Maryland Heights will break ground on a new, state of the art facility on August 16, 2018. There is also a new ice facility being built in Chesterfield, which will open sometime in 2019.
These two rinks replace the one that was torn down just off of I-64 in Chesterfield and the aging Ice Zone in the St. Louis Outlet Mall.
It was necessary for these kinds of rinks to be built to keep the sport progressing. The Hardees Iceplex, once known as the US Ice Sports Complex, was a solid venue in its time, but it began to age rather quickly.
These new rinks will have aesthetic value as well as practical. They will have multiple rinks, which means more ice time and, hopefully for the families using them, potentially lower costs.
It will get the Blues into a more professional venue instead of practicing at a mall. The people at the Outlet Mall do a great job, but the venue is just in decline overall.
These places will also encourage the spreading of the sport for colleges. Maryville University is having a hockey team for the first time in 2018-19. They will call Affton home for the first season, but eventually move into the Chesterfield complex.
The facility in Maryland Heights will also host collegiate events – most assume Lindenwood University, but that has not been confirmed. There is also the possibility of a USHL team coming back to the area.
All of this points to the continued growth of the sport in St. Louis. St. Louis might never been seen as a hockey hotbed from afar, but as long as they keep making these strides, it is good for all involved.
St. Louis just fell short of hosting the World Junior Championships a few years ago. New facilities, capable of hosting such events, and the potential of new hotels, restaurants and entertainment places also mean there could be more hockey in store.
The success of the Blues can trickle down, and has, to these other teams and programs and now they will have great places to play. While the work to start a program such as Maryville rests on the shoulders of those at the university, it is hard to argue that it would be possible without the support of the team at the highest level getting more and more people involved in the sport.
While there have been plenty of bumps along the way, the city and surrounding areas are proving they are ready to invest or have invested in the sport of hockey. Now, it’s up to everyone to keep that support going by attending events, using these facilities and continuing to show the rest of the country that St. Louis is a hockey town.