Why discuss the St. Louis Rams and their move to LA on a blog about the St. Louis Blues? Good question. Though this is a blog about hockey and the Blues, it’s also a place where those from St. Louis gather. Visitors to this site all have one thing in common – love for the Blues – and that’s tied together by the fact the Blues call St. Louis home. With that in mind, it felt appropriate to take some time to reflect on the current situation facing Rams fans.
I was born in St. Louis and I still call St. Louis home today. I was a pretty big football fan in the ’90s, but that interest slowly faded after the turn of the century. I’m not sure what caused the split (the Rams had just won a Super Bowl a few years prior), but I consistently found myself bored during games and flipping the channel. My attention turned to hockey (the pace of the game triumphs over football and baseball) and here we are. The rest is history and the fact I still run this blog which I started in 2009 should tell you where my loyalties are placed. As the Rams made their plan known to pack up and leave town, I couldn’t help but think of things as a Blues fan and how painful that scenario would be had it actually played out for the team I love.
The Blues have been at the center of their fair share of relocation rumors. Remember when the team was a whisker away from calling Saskatoon home in the ’80s? Or more recently when the end of the Dave Checketts era created a rush of rumors before Tom Stillman jumped on board? Thankfully, those moves never happened and the Blues still call St. Louis home. However, the hockey world has moved teams quite regularly (10 in the past 40 years which is the most of the four major leagues) which helps draw an immediate connection to what Rams fans are going through today. It’s still depressing thinking back to what happened with the Atlanta Thrashers and Hartford Whalers.
I’ve said it many times: No sports fan should have to watch their team leave town. In the end, greed and money will always dominate over the fans and there’s simply nothing that can be done about it. Rams fans never stood a chance. No matter how much the city or fans argued or showed their loyalty, the team was as good as gone the second Stan Kroenke purchased land out in LA.
That same situation could have happened with Blues fans. Remarkably, Stillman came in and has seemingly (knock on wood) saved the day. He’s a local owner who believably was a fan prior to ever owning a stake in the team. His group has elevated the team’s payroll to a competitive level. Though the Blues haven’t won the Stanley Cup, they’ve consistently been competitive and that’s about as much as you can ask for as a fan.
This isn’t a post urging disappointed Rams fans to suddenly follow the Blues and hockey. Instead, it’s a call to Blues fans to embrace Stillman and the organization which has transformed into a model you’d hope other teams would follow. Stillman is genuine and that’s a trait which fans should be thrilled to see, especially after how things unfolded with the Rams.
St. Louis is a two-sport town now. There has never been a better time to rally around a local owner.
Let’s Go Blues!
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