Team Logo.
The St. Louis Blues are a team in the National Hockey League. They compete in the Western Conference (NHL). They are one of the six original expansion teams and they get their name from the song by W. C. Handy.
Near move to Saskatoon in 1983[]
In the early 80's, the Blues, while they were good on the ice, they were struggling financially. Then-owner Ralston Purina lost about 1.8 million dollars a year during the company's 6 year ownership tenure. Chairman R. Hal Dean retired in 1981 after 4 years. William Stritz, his successor, wanted to immediately sell the Blues as he wanted Ralston Purina to focus on their market, pet food, and saw the team as another money-bleeding franchise. Also, he was more of a horse racing enthusiast than an ice hockey fan. An offer that popped up on their list was by Edmonton Oilers owner and rival league WHA co-founder Bill Hunter, who wanted to move the team to Saskatchewan. Also, during this time, the Blues laid off 60% of their front office. Hunter wanted to move the team to a new 18,000 seat arena in Saskatoon. This effort was unsuccessful, as the NHL Board of Governors voted 15-3 in favor of not moving the team, arguing that Saskatoon was too small to house an NHL team.
"Play Gloria"[]
Gloria by Laura Branigan is concidered by many Blues fans as "their unofficial victory song". Play Gloria began when some Blues players were watching the infamous "Double Doink" 2019 NFL Wild Card Game between the Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles at a bar in South Philadelphia named Jacks NYB. The bar's DJ, Matt Cella played Gloria during every commercial break as a Blues player kept chanting "Play Gloria!". The next day, after a win, they played this in the locker room. They continued doing this until the Enterprise Center's DJ caught wind of this and started playing it after every Blues win following their 11-game winning streak. It led to "Play Gloria" to be adopted as a meme, a victory chant, and a tradition within Blues fans and soon, the city as a whole. It was so known in the city that following their 2nd round Game 7 victory against the Dallas Stars, local station KYKY (Y98) played the song for 24 hours straight. They would do this again after their Stanley Cup Finals win over the Boston Bruins to clinch their first Stanley Cup in franchise history. Custom made Blues jerseys with Laura Branigan's name and the number 82 during this time, blew up in sales, with one being displayed on her Twitter page. The song also reappeared on the iTunes singles chart, and reappearing on the Billboard charts. Forbes also described it as a "unlikely championship anthem". When Branigan's manager, Kathy Golik, was questioned how Laura would have reacted to the "Play Gloria" craze had she lived the day to see it (she died in 2004), Golik stated, "She was very sincere, very down to Earth, she would just have been very touched by it all. If she were here, I know she would have participated in a very big way. I know she's there in spirit. To see them win and to hear that song blaring and coming up in the arena and looking around and seeing people singing out as loud as they can, cheering and having a good time, it's indescribable what that's like."[1]