The St. Louis Blues formation was not a forgone conclusion. There was a city out east that was hoping the Blues would never be so that they could enter the league.
When it comes to official birthdays, there is no true definition of when the St. Louis Blues were formed. You could go with their first official game, which was October 11, 1967.
You could go with the day the league held the expansion draft. Or, you could just as easily go with April 5, 1966.
The reason that day could be considered the birthday of the Blues is that is the day they officially became the 12th team of the NHL. That is the day they kept Baltimore from becoming a franchise in the NHL as well.
Technically, the city of St. Louis was awarded a franchise with the other five on February 9, 1966. However, while the cities of Minneapolis, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Los Angeles were given teams by unanimous decision, St. Louis was awarded a conditional franchise based solely on a qualifying application.
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St. Louis did not present their case in person, somewhat due to the ownership group not being fully formed. So, in the interim, the owner of the Chicago Blackhawks – yes, the team that would be the Blues main rival in future years – lobbied for St. Louis.
Now, before anyone gets the wrong idea, Bill Wirtz was more concerned with pawning off the St. Louis Arena on someone else. So, he lobbied for St. Louis to get a franchise as part of a deal that had the St. Louis ownership group buying the St. Louis Arena from him and his co-owner.
"Wirtz had lobbied the other five NHL owners to accept St. Louis’ bid over Baltimore’s application for a reason. Since 1947, Wirtz and James Norris had owned the St. Louis Arena, which had been built in 1929 for the annual National Dairy Show. Sensing an opportunity to unload the neglected and run-down 37 year-old structure, Wirtz agreed to sponsor Salomon’s St. Louis bid in exchange for their purchase of the Arena as the hockey team’s home, for $4 million. In addition, Salomon’s syndicate needed to post a $10,000 application fee and a $2 million expansion franchise fee to the NHL that entitled the Blues to 20 players. – St. Louis Gametime"
With Chicago lobbying on their behalf, Sid Solomon Jr. and Sid Solomon III formed their group. While there were other minor investors the big names were Robert L. Wolfson, St. Louis Cardinals legend Stan Musial and Musial’s business partner Julius “Biggie” Garagnani. They formed a 16 member investment group that made the initial formal application for the franchise.
Of course, by now we all know that the Blues made their April 5 deadline. They formed the team over the next 18 months, picking Lynn Patrick as their first coach and Glenn Hall as their first Expansion Draft pick.
However, what was more interesting is the fact that Baltimore never got an NHL franchise. Buffalo and Vancouver, who made their case for that initial expansion, kept trying and eventually got their own teams down the road.
Oddly, Los Angeles had five different groups pitching ownership for an NHL team. Despite that, a second team in the Los Angeles vicinity would not come around until the 1990’s and even then it was in Anaheim.
However, Baltimore never really got back into the fight. Their best chance was when the league expanded again in 1970.
The city submitted an application, but pulled it back at the last minute. Apparently the $6 million expansion fee was too high.
Baltimore’s fate was sealed when the Washington Capitals came into existence for the 1974-75 season. They served roughly the same market, so the league would have no need to get to Baltimore.
So, unintentionally or not, the Blues essentially kept Baltimore out of the league. It made sense to go to Minnesota since they’re the state of hockey. The league was determined to get into the Los Angeles and San Francisco markets, even though Oakland would fail quite early on.
Philadelphia proved to be a wise choice. Pittsburgh was the only one other than St. Louis that Baltimore could have replaced.
Those of us in St. Louis are grateful for whatever backroom dealings provided a team for our city. That all allowed April 5 to be a great day for St. Louis, even if not for Baltimore.