The move proved both ill-conceived and ill-timed, as the renamed St. Louis Eagles continued to lose money. Among the first things Ornest did during his three-year tenure was change the name of the building back to the "Arena." The mainstream appeal moved a conglomerate of corporate leaders to buy out Shanahan and build the Kiel Center (now the Scottrade Center), opening the downtown doors in 1994. [30] In 201011, the team sold out every home game. With Dorothy Lamour, Lloyd Nolan, Tito Guzar, Jerome Cowan. After missing the playoffs for the first time in 197374, the Blues ended up in the Smythe Division after a League realignment. KXOK backed out of the contract after just 2 years, and the Blues immediately went back to KMOX, who held the rights until 2000. The Blues then fired 60 percent of their employees. Declining revenue reached a critical stage by the end of the 1976-77 season, and the Blues reduced their management staff to three.
NHL Board of Governors OKs sale of St. Louis Blues Checks were back in the Checkerdome. Blues Chairman Tom Stillman confirmed . The emotional win two days earlier notwitstanding, the Blues lost Game 7 of the playoffs in Calgary, falling short of the Cup finals. However, had the league not found a new owner by August 6, it would dissolve the team and hold a dispersal draft for the players. [47], The team also has a long tradition of fan-produced programs, sold outside the arena and providing an often biting, sarcastic, humor-filled alternative to team- and League-produced periodicals. 20 Years Ago, Blur's 'Song 2' Became an Unlikely Sports Anthem", "PLAY GLORIA! This was partly due to the pressures of the World Hockey Association (WHA), but mostly the result of financial decisions made when the Salomons first acquired the franchise. [23] On June 12, 2019, the Blues defeated the Bruins 41 in Game 7 to win their first Stanley Cup. List of former Blues players set to return to St. Louis before the end of the season . The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis, Missouri. During that time, Salomon gained a reputation throughout the NHL as the top players' owner. Before the 199798 season, the Blues introduced a new alternate white jersey. After hockey resumed in 2005, a few months after GNR's final issue, a new publication, St. Louis Game Time, was formed by several former GNR staffers.[49]. Behind the solid goaltending of Brian Elliott and scoring heroics of Andy McDonald, the Blues defeated the Sharks in five games, advancing to the conference semifinals.
To this day, in terms of contention, the Salomon group remains the most successful of the Blues owners. The navy blue third jersey was kept without any alterations, before it was retired prior the 201617 season. The Blues were one of the six teams added to the NHL in the 1967 expansion, along with the Minnesota North Stars, Los Angeles Kings, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and California Seals. Looking at losses of more than $10 million over six seasons, the pet food giant put the Blues up for sale and in January 1983, announced it had a buyer in Saskatoon-based Batoni-Hunter Enterprises, Ltd. Batoni's president, Bill Hunter, said his group was ready to break ground on a $43 million building, which could be ready for the Saskatoon Blues in time for the 1983-84 season. He was 78. In fact, they made it to the conference finals only two times in their streak (1986 and 2001). The Blues would go on to be upset by the North Stars in six games, thus failing to advance past the first round for the first time in franchise history. A Broadway musical comedy star tires of the same old grind and flees the city. The franchise was founded in 1967 as one of the six teams from the 1967 NHL expansion and is named after the W. C. Handy song "Saint Louis Blues". However, for the third straight year, they lost in the first round and in six games. On March 24, 2006, the Lauries completed the sale of the Blues and the lease to the Savvis Center to SCP and TowerBrook Capital Partners, L.P., a private equity firm. #19 St Louis Blues Team Value 1 $880M Calculated December 2022 Owner (s) Tom Stillman Championships 1 Year Purchased 2012 Price Paid $180M Revenue 2 $180M Operating Income 3 $56M Debt/Value 4. In 201516, the Blues finished in second place in the Central Division to the Dallas Stars. St. Louis has embraced team's victory anthem", "The history behind the NHL's ubiquitous sound for scoring: the goal horn", "A Look at Five St. Louis Blues' Superfans", "Celebrate 20 years of fan-run papers on Friday", "How did 'Country Roads' become a Blues home-game staple? The team did not even participate in the 1983 NHL draft, forfeiting all of its picks. The Blues had remained in strong form throughout the season, finishing first in the Western Conference and second in the NHL. They faced the third-seeded Vancouver Canucks in the first round, but despite the team's tremendous run to end the season, the Blues would ultimately lose the series in a quick four-game sweep. I really respect the fact that he puts the needs of the many ahead of the needs of the few. [22] This resurgence included an eleven-game winning streak between February and March, in large part thanks to the emergence of the eventual Calder Trophy nominee, rookie goaltender Jordan Binnington. The Blues also dealt away Paul Stastny to the Winnipeg Jets at the trade deadline for their 1st round pick as they won only 23 games of their remaining 51, but they still had a chance to get into the playoffs on the last day of their season against the Colorado Avalanche.
St. Louis CITY SC owner Carolyn Kindle says bumpy road helped in prep Trending. Under Arbour, the Blues essentially matched their 1969-70 regular season performance in their fourth season, and were still the best of the expansion teams; however, it was only good enough for second place in the West as St. Louis finished twenty points behind Chicago. St Louis Blues Players. Originally, the Blues aired their games on KPLR-TV and KMOX radio, with team patron Gus Kyle calling games alongside St Louis broadcasting legend Jack Buck. In 1984, the Blues drastically redesigned their look, adding red and darkening the shade of blue. Louis Post-Dispatch, R. Hal Dean, chief executive officer and board chairman of the Ralston Purina Co., gestures as he delivers his state of the company addressSept. 30, 1971, at the annual checker day rally. He was replaced by assistant coach Scotty Bowman, who thereafter led the team to a winning record for the rest of the season. Sid Salomon III convinced his initially wary father to make a bid for the team. Team owner puts St. Louis Blues up for sale 5 is #1 Show Me 5 Sally Sally Jessy Raphael at KSDK Today In St. Louis Be the first to know Making a Difference Mike Bush Fantasy Baseball. Nevertheless, the Black Hawks owners still owned the St. Louis Arena. On March 17, 2012, the Blues became the first team to reach 100 points and clinch a playoff berth in the 201112 season under Hitchcock, qualifying for their first playoffs since 200809. The Black Hawks treated St. Louis as a secondary market, placing minor league affiliates there and even playing a few NHL games in St. Louis during the 1950's while the team still struggled to sell tickets at Chicago Stadium. While the fans were stunned, the players were aware of this. [38] Louie is a blue polar bear and wears a Blues jersey with his name on the back, and the numbers "00". On February 12, 2020, the Blues suffered another loss as defenseman Jay Bouwmeester suddenly collapsed on the bench in a game against the Anaheim Ducks, and would not come back to play again in the season. "We've given them the extreme honor, so it's.
St. Louis Blues (1958) - Full Cast & Crew - IMDb During the 3rd Period, The Blues were winning by a large margin against the visiting Nashville Predators. Although they had finished in third place, St. Louis was regarded as fairly evenly matched with the other three Western qualifiers since only four points separated first and fourth place. Like all NHL teams, the Blues updated their jerseys for the 200708 season with new Rbk Edge jerseys. After Dan Kelly's death, Ken Wilson became St. Louis Blues' lead television play-by-play announcer alongside former Blues' players Joe Micheletti and Bruce Affleck. None of the previous owners has brought a Stanley Cup championship to St. Louis. Brandon Saad and Robert Thomas both recorded a goal and an assist, helping the Blues earn a 5-2 win over the Predators at home 04:56 January 19, 2023 ST. LOUIS -- Brandon Saad and Robert. The Blues were swept by the eventual Stanley Cup champions, the Los Angeles Kings, in the following round. Ultimately, Keenan's playoff resume with St. Louis included a first-round exit in 1995 and a second-round exit in 1996, and he was fired on December 19, 1996. However, the station was never financially competitive in the market.
KSDK history: Mike Bush, Art Holliday start traditions | ksdk.com - FOX61 Former St. Louis Blues owner Mike Shanahan dies at 78 - USA TODAY But with former Blues goaltender and nationally renowned broadcaster John Davidson at the point, they turned the worm. Louis Post-Dispatch, Ruth and Harry Ornest, holding court during their reign with the St. Louis Blues, on July 12, 1985. Ornest immediately reverted the name of the team's home venue to the St. Louis Arena. In the meantime, the franchise was on the brink of financial collapse. No sooner had the season ended than Demers departed for Detroit. In 1985, Ornest, wanting more broadcast revenue, put the radio rights up for bid. The Salomons sold the Blues to Ralston on July 27, 1977. Here is a list of the team's owners since its inception: -Sidney Salomon Jr. -Ralph Sauer -Harry Ornest -Michael Shanahan -Dave Checketts -Tom Stillman. The team's first owners were insurance tycoon Sid Salomon Jr., his son, Sid Salomon III, and Robert L. Wolfson, who were granted the franchise in 1966. These are the top-ten point-scorers, goal scorers, and assist leaders in franchise regular-season history. The mistake was that play resumed before the chorus was over and the music had to stop. However, they were stunned by the San Jose Sharks in the first round of the 2000 playoffs in seven games. However, as the season was put on pause due to the pandemic, no team would play the full 82 games. Minority Owners [ edit] However, despite the music stopping, the loyal Blues fans in attendance continued to sing loudly. Two months later, they traded Doug Weight, a 38-year-old four-time All-Star center, to the Anaheim Ducks as part of a package to acquire 30-year-old center Andy McDonald. In 1980-81, with Berenson behind the bench, the Blues had a 107-point season and put hockey back on the St. Louis radar. Attendance had gone from a peak of 18,601 a game in 1972-73 to 10,130. A few weeks later, SCP withdrew and a month later, the Blues announced they had signed an exclusive letter of intent to negotiate with General Sports and Entertainment, LLC. Over the next few years, the franchise became one of the most colorful and controversial in the NHL. Wal-Mart heir Nancy Walton Laurie and her husband Bill purchased the Blues in 1999. 0. Despite a healthy 24-point jump from the previous season, the strain of playing in a conference where seven teams finished with more than 100 points kept them out of the playoffs for the second year in a row. [45], The Blues were one of the last teams to add a goal horn, doing so during the 199293 season at the St. Louis Arena. The sale price for the team and building lease was reported to be $100 million. [13] After that season, Ornest sold the team to a group led by St. Louis businessman Michael Shanahan. At the beginning of the 200607 season, the Blues looked to be competitive in the Central Division. Their situation was not helped by the decision to keep the Eagles in the Canadian Division to keep the divisions balanced, which left the team with unaffordable travel expenses to games in Toronto and Montreal. Initially, the front of the jersey featured the team name above the crest logo, but was removed in 1987. Attendance plummeted, from 18,560 a game in 2003-04 to 12,520 in 2006-07. A third-round loss to Colorado in 2000-01 was especially deflating. From 1979 to 1981, the radio and television broadcasts were separated for the first time since the inaugural season, with Kelly doing the radio broadcasts and Eli Gold hired to do the television. san jose sharks vs . [1] During the 2007 off-season, the Blues signed free agent Paul Kariya to a three-year contract worth $18million, re-signed defenseman Barret Jackman to a one-year contract, lost their captain Dallas Drake to the Detroit Red Wings, and traded prospect Carl Soderberg to the Bruins in exchange for yet more depth in the goal crease, Hannu Toivonen. [28], In the 201920 season, the Blues suffered an early blow as forward Vladimir Tarasenko suffered a season-ending injury on October 24. They also requested that the court allow them to give up the team and bar the NHL from interfering with the sale of the team. In response, the Blues moved back to KMOX starting in the 200607 season. Pronger, Doug Weight and Mike Sillinger were all sent packing. St. Louis soon began to attract the interest as a potential NHL market, eventually leading the owners of the moribund Ottawa Senators to relocate there for the 1934-35 season. [14] Davidson also installed a strong development program under head scout Jarmo Kekalainen, using the team's raft of high draft picks in 2006 and 2007 to select highly touted prospects such as T. J. Oshie, Erik Johnson and David Perron. March 3, 2023 by Marcus Ashpaugh. With silver-jacketed organist Norm Kramer pumping out "When the Blues Go Marching In," hockey became a happening in St. Louis. [36] A second "Reverse Retro" uniform was released in the 202223 season, this time based on the prototype uniforms the team first leaked in 1966 before eventually releasing the more iconic "blue note" uniforms. Sid Salomon III convinced his initially wary father to make a bid for the team. On April 12, the Blues clinched the sixth seed in the West with a 10 win against the Colorado Avalanche. Center David Backes has been named a finalist for the Frank Selke Trophy as the league's top two-way player. Rivers also fills in on color commentary whenever Pang is on a national TV assignment for the NHL on TNT. Blues current owner Tom Stillman (left) and Carol Salomon, the former wife of original owner Sid Salomon III. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . [Brian O'Reilly (Ryan's dad)] I want to thank all of St Louis especially Doug Armstrong. Photo by UPI, St. Louis Blues chairman Mike Shanahan at a game in January of 1987, agonizing from the owner's box. [32], When Adidas became the uniform provider before the 201718 season, the Blues kept most of the same template, with the exception of the home jersey numbers changing from gold to white. The St. Louis Blues are one of the more successful NHL teams in terms of attendance. The Blues chairman/owner . Most NHL teams during the mid-1980s had over 60 players under contract. It also replaced red with navy blue as an accent color. Weight was again traded in December 2007 to the Anaheim Ducks, along with a minor league player, in exchange for Andy McDonald. Blues owners. Ornest ran the Blues very cheaply, though the players did not mind. Boyer also plays the latter song on the organ after Blues goals, with fans replacing the word "Saints" with "Blues. The logo used on the Blues' jerseys from 1987 to 1998. The players, used to being treated like mere commodities, felt the only way they could pay him back was to give their best on the ice every night.[6].
Blues owner Tom Stillman, 10 years in: On the road to a Stanley Cup and Despite years of mediocrity and the stigma of never being able to "take the next step," the Blues were a playoff presence every year from 1980 to 2004 the third-longest streak in North American professional sports history (all three of which being held by NHL teams). These distractions would greatly affect their performance as they squeezed into the playoffs with a 254015 record in the 1983 season, good enough for 65 points. The Blues are currently the only team in the four major North American sports (ice hockey, basketball, baseball, and American football) to be owned by a private equity firm. On July 27, 1983, ten days before the deadline, the NHL approved a bid from businessman Harry Ornest and a group of St. Louis-based investors for the team and the arena. Veteran player Al Arbour hastily stepped in to coach the team. The Blues will receive 27-year-old forward Jakub Vrana . The jersey brought back the contrasting shoulder yoke and returned to the lighter blue of previous eras. Blues Director of Entertainment, Jason Pippi, commented that they played Country Roads by John Denver, "was a bit of an mistake because people love to sing along to that song". [58] Gretzky had previously played for the Blues in 1996, although the Blues did not retire his number prior to its league-wide retirement. Management vowed to build through the draft and implored fans to bank on the future of prospects like T.J. Oshie, David Perron and Patrik Berglund. Although the St. Louis Arena was not originally designed with hockey in mind, it met NHL standards of the era for size and had good sight lines for the game. Coming off their defeat of the Presidents' Trophy winning Canucks, the Kings ousted the Blues in four games.
List of former Blues players set to return to St. Louis before the end List Of St Louis Blues Owners. In late September, 2005, the Lauries signed an agreement to sell the team to SCP Worldwide, a consulting and investment group led by Dave Checketts, former president of New York's Madison Square Garden. [34] A corresponding vintage white version was unveiled for the 2022 NHL Winter Classic. The Salomons might have been the most generous employers in sports history. Ralston renamed the arena the "Checkerdome." However, they never made an appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals. In between seasons and during trade deadlines, the Blues became a must-see attraction. That was the highlight of the Ornest years; the bottom fell out soon after. They were again eliminated by Los Angeles, however, this time in six games in the first round of the playoffs, despite taking an initial 20 series lead. The Blues compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. As part of the expansion, the NHL had agreed to put all of the expansion teams in the new Western Division, an arrangement which was intended to ensure all of the new teams all had an equal chance of reaching the playoffs. 5 to the rafters", "Blues retire Pronger's number on 'very special' night in St. Louis", "Perfect setting: Gretzky's number retired before All-Star Game", "Brian Elliott, Blues Stats National Hockey League.com Players", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=St._Louis_Blues&oldid=1141928547, Most points in a season: Brett Hull, 131 (199091), Lowest GAA in a season (min 30 GP): Brian Elliott, 1.56 (201112), Best SV% in a season (min 30 GP): Brian Elliott, .940 (201112), This page was last edited on 27 February 2023, at 16:20.
Bill Laurie - Wikipedia The team made headlines with free-agent signings and trades that landed stars like Brett Hull, Adam Oates, Brendan Shanahan, Scott Stevens, Grant Fuhr, Phil Housley and Al MacInnis. They would get rewarded as head coach Red Berenson won the Jack Adams Award, Mike Liut finished a close second to Wayne Gretzky in the Hart Trophy voting, and earned the top spot on the NHL All-Star team, Larry Patey finished third in the Frank J. Selke Trophy voting, and Blake Dunlop won the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy. He has covered the team since the 2005-06 season, including a dozen years at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Soon after, Ornest sold the Blues to a group led by Michael Shanahan, head of Engineered Support Systems Inc.
Stillman group acquires full ownership of St. Louis Blues The elder Salomon was not enthralled with the idea of owning a hockey team initially, but his son persuaded him to take the plunge. St. Louis kept chugging along through the late 1980s and early 1990s. The blue jerseys lacked the contrasting yoke until 1979.
St. Louis Blues (1939) - IMDb The Blues are still looking for their first Stanley Cup. The song has since been retired; the last time they played it was during the raising of the Stanley Cup Championship banner ceremony on October 2, 2019. Angry at having to play "second fiddle", the Blues elected to leave for KTRS in 2000. [27] The bill was signed into law by Mike Parson, the Governor of Missouri, with the revised statute becoming effective August 29, 2019. In 57.4% of St. Louis' previous games this season (35/61), the teams combined to score over Saturday's over/under of 6.5 goals. But the memorable season came to an abrupt end at the hands of the surging Los Angles Kings. But a competing carnival owner hatches a scheme to put an end to the show before it begins. They moved on to the next round, where they defeated the Dallas Stars in another seven-game series to advance to their first Western Conference Finals since 2001. They also provided the capital to build the Kiel Center (now the Enterprise Center), which opened in 1994. Jeremy Rutherford is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the St. Louis Blues. Reluctant to give up on the St. Louis market, the NHL blocked the sale. However, Dean took the losses philosophically, having taken over out of a sense of civic responsibility. [15] The team later traded veteran defenseman Bryce Salvador to the New Jersey Devils for enforcer, and St. Louis native, Cam Janssen. Movies. St. Louis Blues - (NHL) Enterprise Center - Operations only, the City of St. Louis is the owner Stifel Theatre - Majority Owner Former assets [ edit] Peoria Rivermen - (AHL) Shareholders [ edit] [3] Majority Owner [ edit] Thomas H. Stillman - Chairman of the Board & CEO, Summit Distributing. This ended up being the Blues' last game in the regular season, as the season would be cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic shortly afterwards. On February 8, 2008, it was announced that, after going much of the season without a captain, defenseman Eric Brewer was chosen as the team's 19th captain. It operated for over 10 years, from 1994 to 2005, when its owner decided not to resume the magazine after the 200405 NHL lockout (one final oversized "goodbye" issue was distributed the first two home games of the 200506 season). Guided by young coach Joel Quenneville, built on the backline presence of MacInnis and Chris Pronger who came in the Shanahan deal the Blues embarked on one of their most rewarding periods. The Blues have a rivalry with the Chicago Blackhawks, with whom they have shared a division since 1970. On June 3, Ralston announced that it had no interest in running the team anymore. From 1967 to 1984, the Blues jerseys featured a lighter shade of blue along with contrasting shoulder yoke and stripes. [13] Despite operating on a shoestring, the Blues remained competitive even though they never finished more than six games over .500 in Ornest's three years as owner. David Backes was also announced as the new team captain. At one point, the Salomons cut the team's staff down to three employees. Bill Laurie, a former point guard at Memphis State University, had long desired to buy and move a National Basketball Association (NBA) team to St. Louis (coming close to achieving this in 1999, with an unsuccessful attempt to purchase the then-Vancouver Grizzlies), and it was thought that this desire caused him to neglect the Blues. Things got worse after Keenan orchestrated a bold trade to acquire Wayne Gretzky late in the 1995-96 season. Doug Wickenheiser's overtime goal in Game 6 to cap a furious comeback remains one of the greatest moments in team history (known locally as the "Monday Night Miracle"), but the Blues lost Game 7, 21. This setupKelly as commentator, with either Kyle, Bob Plager, or Noel Picard (whose heavy French-Canadian . This marked the second-straight year the Blues lost in the first round of the playoffs to the reigning champions in six games after leading the series 20. Still desperate for a championship, the Blues made another controversial move in 1995, hiring Mike Keenan right off the staff directory of the Stanley Cup winning New York Rangers. Buck elected to leave the booth after one season, though, and was replaced by another famed announcer in Dan Kelly. Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game. On January 12, 1983, Batoni-Hunter Enterprises Ltd., led by WHA and Edmonton Oilers founder Bill Hunter, tendered an offer to buy the team. The Blues play in the 19,150 (not counting standing room) capacity Enterprise Center, where they have played since 1994. After his death, Ron Jacober (who had left Channel 5 to be KXOK's sports director in 1985 then left for KMOX in 1987) was hired as the radio play-by-play announcer for the remainder of the season, and John Kelly succeeded in that position. Tom Stillman becomes the eighth owner in Blues franchise history. On February 9, 2019, another tradition was born.
NHL Owners: Who Are They? - The Hockey Writers On December 27, 2005, it was announced that the Blues had signed a letter of intent to exclusively negotiate with General Sports and Entertainment, LLC. John Davidson, received the award in 2009 for his contributions in television broadcasting. His successor, William Stiritz, wanted to refocus on the core pet food business, and his personal sporting interests were in horse racing and not hockey. Blues Jump Blues/Piano Blues St. Louis Blues. In the end, when the legal dodgeball and financial haggling between the league and Ralston Purina settled, when the budget squeezing and penny-pinching was complete, Ornest came out the big winner. He intended to build a $43 million 18,000-seat arena in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in time for the 1983-84 season. Dean was the key figure in Ralston Purina's takeover of the St. Louis Blues after the 1976-77 season. Fan support was sluggish during the first half of the campaign, and the end of the calendar year was capped by an 11-game losing streak.
st louis blues traditions - legal-innovation.com For the first time in five years (that is, since the lockout), the Blues were in the playoffs. post; account; . On May 29, the Blues won a Stanley Cup Finals series game for the first time in franchise history after getting swept in three previous series (19681970), when they defeated the Boston Bruins 32 in overtime. In 19992000, the team notched a franchise-record 114 points during the regular season, earning the Presidents' Trophy for the League's best record.