The opening night festivities held by the Blues for their 50th anniversary were completely forgettable. If you recall, they brought back some of the players from the original roster and had them join the current roster in a square around center ice. There were some golden sticks, some youth hockey players and some awkward introductions as each player had their back turned to the camera. Overall, the whole thing bombed and the organization is apparently well aware of it.
Remember – this was for the team’s 50th anniversary. This wasn’t just another opening night. Keeping that in mind, it was embarrassing that the pregame festivities weren’t just bad and boring, but worse than the ones seen in non-anniversary years and worse than ones held by other teams around the league who weren’t celebrating a big anniversary.
Jeremy Rutherford was asked what the organization thought of the opening ceremony and his answer was pretty interesting.
“They were aware of the disappointment and realize that it could have been much better. To be fair, they faced some obstacles getting members of the original team in town, which could have made it really cool. But that said, they realized that it wasn’t executed very well.”
That sounds like a bit of a cop out which doesn’t explain why the ceremony was so uninspiring. Regardless of who was in attendance from the old roster, the ceremony itself should have had more to it. Why is it that other teams around the league are constantly outclassing the Blues when it comes to in-game entertainment?
Most would probably point to money as one of the causes, but that’s another cop out. The Blues showed they were willing to spend on entertainment this summer, but they did it in a puzzling way by hiring a hype guy – Tony Patrico from 105.7 The Point. Patrico and his radio show are great, but is a hype man really what the team needs right now to boost its in-game entertainment?
Whatever the team is paying a hype man isn’t enough to do big arena upgrades to improve the experience, but it shows that the Blues are looking for answers in the wrong places. Having someone who can yell louder isn’t going to cut it.
Opening night was a disappointment. Many previous opening nights were a disappointment as well. The most troubling aspect of this whole conversation is that the Blues are apparently aware of their shortcomings and yet continue to roll out a poor quality product when it comes to the extras.
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