St. Louis Blues Tickets

The St. Louis Blues opened their inaugural season in 1967-68 and began their dynamic history with some of the biggest names in hockey at the time. Al Arbour, Red Berensen, Terry Crisp, Doug Harvey, Glenn Hall and Dickie Moore were among the first players selected. Meanwhile behind the bench was the team of Scotty Bowman and Lynn Patrick. Scotty Bowman would later define a legacy of winning. Patrick came from a family with a long history of contributions to the game.

The team flourished early in its career as the best of the expansion teams. The first 3 years found them with a one way ticket to the finals. In a city that had not had an NHL team for over 30 years, the sale of tickets to see the St. Louis Blues would indicate the actual financial potential of the organization. The owners and the players established an immediate familial tie and made it a point to spend Florida vacations together for which all special needs and then some were happily arranged and provided.

Emile Francis arrived in 1977 to help the financially troubled St. Louis Blues. One of Francis' first successes was to convince Ralston Purina to invest his significant access to capital in the organization. Money was a ticket to freedom for a business in the financial state of the Blues in the late 1970's. Francis selected Bernie Federko, Brian Sutter and Mike Liut in the 1976 Amateur Draft; all of whom would eventually prove to be major contributors to the success of the Blues in the 1980's. Both Federko and Sutter still held team records at the turn of the century, which confirmed their superb abilities.

Francis also convinced Purina to repaint the "arena" and renamed it the "Checkerdome." Financial backer Ralston Purina soon lost interest in hockey and attempted to sell the team. The NHL blocked the sale and Purina locked the Checkerdome and the Blues were not allowed to participated in the NHL Entry Draft or sell a single ticket for the coming season.

The team started to rebuild when Harry Ornest purchased the team and installed Ron Caron as general manager with Jacques Demers as the head coach. Between the three of them. The city of St. Louis rallied behind the blue collar hockey club as they had done before, and the goal was to have them do it again. Despite years of evolving talent that has also seen more difficult times, a ticket to a St. Louis Blues game has always been and will continue to be an exciting ticket to witness the spirit of a community as it continues to rally behind one of its own.

The Blues were still among the best in their division but their playoff success began to dwindle in time for their fourth season. In 1971, Sidney Salomon III took over from his father, and took the reins of the team. While he tried to make things better, the Blues started to exist in a constant state of disarray. It was getting more and more difficult to maintain staff and players. Facing the Blues and every other NHL team was the World Hockey Association's status. The WHA had absorbed over 60 NHL players. This series of moves severely diminished the chance of securing the top players.