When I was in the Lou last week (and caught the Flames game), I went to Maggie O'Brien's and had a very enlightening conversation with the manager. He stated that the Blues are absolutely vital to the downtown business (he stated more-so than the Rams) especially the restaurants. At Maggies, they usually get a decent crowd the night before a game, good lunch traffic the day of, and absolutely great crowds for several hours the night of a game. Including playoffs, he said they usually get about 100 days of enhanced business a year from the Blues.

I challenged him a bit on the Rams statement, and he explained the logic. While the Rams draw about the same for their season as the Blues, he said the dates are far fewer, but he followed that up with a couple of points. Sporting events only provide restaurants with one or two meal crowds, and at capacity, that may be a thousand people. He gets those crowds 41+ times a year with the Blues, while only 10 times a year with the Rams. Also, he said Sunday morning is a terrible time for games, as he gets a good crowd on Saturday night (but he usually does), but only an OK crowd before the game, and Sunday afternoons are dead for the most part.

Good to hear. So the NHL is more vital to this city than the NFL. But you'd never know that based on what the media says!

Yeah, but how are the Blue's benefiting Butler Chevrolet?