St. Louis Blues Snubbed By FanSided's Fandom 250
FanSided released a compilation of the top fanbases. The St. Louis Blues were not made a part of it.
The St. Louis Blues have one of the most loyal and passionate fanbases in the entire NHL. Once again, recognition from a national standpoint eludes us.
Our parent company, FanSided, released a long coming and painstakingly put together look at some of the top fans across the country and the world. Fandom 250 covered everything from music to film, television to the web, sports to books.
Unfortunately, our own little section of the world got ignored. The St. Louis Blues and ourselves, the fans, got the cold shoulder again.
Really, the entire NHL got overlooked a bit on this list. Out of 250 fanbases, you would think one of the more popular sports in North America and around the world (well, countries that have cold weather anyway) would be more represented.
The NHL only had six entries. Seems a bit small for the sport we all follow and love.
Sure, the NHL is not the most popular sport in the United States, but it has an extremely passionate following even if it doesn’t have the numbers some others do. The same can be said of the Blues.
St. Louis is not a huge market. You can pick and choose whether you want to call us small market or mid-sized.
The bottom line is we don’t have the population of say New York or Chicago or Los Angeles. That said, we don’t have the issues that pop up in those cities either.
Blues games aren’t limited to the elite due to high ticket prices like the United Center. Blues fans are usually in their seats by the time the puck drops, unlike those in LA who get there whenever.
Yes, there are the typical non-conference games in the middle of the week that don’t get the building packed to the gills. Still, the Blues get solid attendance every night.
May 23, 2016; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Blues fans cheer in support after a goal scored by St. Louis Blues right wing Troy Brouwer (36) against the San Jose Sharks in the first period in game five of the Western Conference Final of the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scottrade Center. The Sharks won 6-3. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports
It took an all-time low point in the mid-2000’s to get the arena to look cavernous in terms of empty seats. Outside of that, people have always shown up whether the Blues were legitimate contenders or not.
That said, it’s a bit odd to see some of the choices on the list instead of our own little corner of the block. Sticking with the NHL, the Boston Bruins were the first hockey choice at 207.
There’s nothing wrong with the Bruins being on that list. Their an original team with plenty of history and Boston typically sticks with their teams very well.
The Chicago Blackhawks are way too high from my own opinion. At 78, there is too much recent history being taken into account.
I’m not going to pretend I’m not biased. I don’t like the team and many of their fans – the ones with the balls to attend away games I should say – are usually the worst.
It’s cliche to call Blackhawks fans bandwagoners, but there has been a significant uptick in “fans” since 2010 or so. There really are people who buy the jerseys and say they are fans but could not name you the starting goaltender. That may be true of any fanbase, but we get to see it more with our neighbors to the north due to the rivalry.
Then, the top pick for the NHL is the Pittsburgh Penguins. Really? Reading the article, I suppose it is difficult to flat-out refute any points made.
There’s really nothing wrong with Pittsburgh fans. I just don’t consider them the best in the NHL.
Even if you are fine with the order of the NHL teams within the list, there is the list itself. Blues fans aren’t better or more passionate than those of Westworld? The show has not even been in existence for a full year.
Blues fans can’t get more respect than those of Mad Max? Twighlight? Sure, the films/books have the numbers but my goodness, hockey is so much better than a franchise that all but ruined vampires (in an odd twist of fate, that last statement got me to 666 words, which seems a bad omen).
In the end, should we have expected any less? St. Louis doesn’t get love from the NHL. We all jokingly talk about paid off refs and television coverage slanted the other direction, but there is not merit to some of those issues.
The Blues get overlooked no matter how good they are.
Vladimir Tarasenko is one of the league’s rising stars. He is currently gracing the cover of the league’s own video game, which is second only to FIFA in popularity.
The Blues were only a couple wins from competing in the Stanley Cup Finals. St. Louis will be hosting the league’s showcase game in the Winter Classic.
All of that was not enough to gain a spot in a list of 250 top fans. That’s OK though.
We all know how great we are. If the rest of the world continues to ignore it, that’s their issue.
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