list of st louis blues owners

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. He has covered the team since the 2005-06 season, including a dozen years at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In 200910, despite not having a playoff year, the Blues had an average attendance of 18,883 (98.6% total capacity), selling out 34 of its 40 home games, which placed them seventh in the NHL in attendance. The Blues have a rivalry with the Chicago Blackhawks, with whom they have shared a division since 1970. Overview. Hockey-crazy Stillman is the latest to try his luck where so many others have failed. 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. The Enterprise Center was electric and buzzing with excitement with anticipation of the win. The group spent $2 million to buy the franchise, $4 million to purchase the 38-year-old Arena on Oakland Avenue from Chicago's Bill Wirtz and $2.5 million more to renovate the building. 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. They also provided the capital to build the Kiel Center (now the Enterprise Center), which opened in 1994. Among the first things Ornest did during his three-year tenure was change the name of the building back to the "Arena." Ten days before the deadline NHL President John Ziegler set for dissolving the franchise, Los Angeles-based entrepreneur Harry Ornest stepped up with the only formal bid. The team slipped under .500 the following season and managed just 65 points in 1982-83. John Davidson, received the award in 2009 for his contributions in television broadcasting. Following their playoff exit, Ralston authorized the deal to Hunter's renamed company Coliseum Holdings, Ltd. for $12 million on April 21. [44] Beginning in 2018, the win song has been the aforementioned song recorded by The Urge. However, as the season was put on pause due to the pandemic, no team would play the full 82 games. A few months later, in December 1996, both Keenan and executive Jack Quinn were fired. Aside from Stillman, the ownership group includes Jerald Kent, Donn Lux, James Cooper, Jo Ann Taylor Kindle, Steve Maritz, Edward Potter, Andrew Taylor, David Steward, Jim Kavanaugh, John Danforth,. The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis. Despite posting the second-best regular-season record in the entire league in 199091, the Blues were upset in the second round of the playoffs to the Minnesota North Stars, a defeat that was symbolic of St. Louis' playoff struggles. It has an urban feeling, with little of the rural atmosphere that distinguishes country-blues. 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. The mistake was that play resumed before the chorus was over and the music had to stop. They play their home games at the 19,150-seat Enterprise Center in downtown St. Louis, which has been their arena since moving from St. Louis Arena in 1994. During this period, the NHL rebuffed attempts at further expansion. While there were a number of interested parties, none had enough cash to meet Ralston's asking price. On May 21, the Blues advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 1970, defeating the San Jose Sharks in a six-game Western Conference Finals series. [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. But with former Blues goaltender and nationally renowned broadcaster John Davidson at the point, they turned the worm. 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. 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". The arena quickly became one of the loudest buildings in the NHL, a reputation it maintained throughout its tenure as the Blues' home. [46] All of these traditions carried over to the Kiel Center (now known as Enterprise Center) in 1994. After spending the first half of the 200809 season at or near the bottom of the Western Conference standings, the Blues began to turn things around behind the solid goaltending of Chris Mason. However, they only won three games on the road during the first two months of the season. [11] The Board of Governors rejected the offer and "terminated" the team on June 13, one day before Ralston's supposed deadline. This setupKelly as commentator, with either Kyle, Bob Plager, or Noel Picard (whose heavy French-Canadian . Prior to that, he worked at the New York . In 201516, the Blues finished in second place in the Central Division to the Dallas Stars. That included Federko, Gassoff, Hull, MacInnis, Bob and Barclay Plager, Pronger and Sutter, along with Kelly, the Blues' legendary broadcaster. In 19992000, the team notched a franchise-record 114 points during the regular season, earning the Presidents' Trophy for the League's best record. 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. On November 14, 2005, the Blues announced that SCP Worldwide had officially withdrawn from negotiations to buy the team. St Louis Blues Players. But things began to turn around as Francis drafted players like Bernie Federko, Brian Sutter, Wayne Babych and Perry Turnbull. 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". I really respect the fact that he puts the needs of the many ahead of the needs of the few. The arena was previously known as Scottrade Center, the Savvis Center, and before that as the Kiel Center. The Blues have a tradition of live organ music. During this time, Doug Gilmour, drafted by St. Louis in 1982, emerged as a star. 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. Following the Black Hawks' championship in 1961, the team became much more successful at the box office in Chicago, thus St. Louis was no longer useful as a secondary market. New Blues ownership group Tom Stillman, chairman and CEO of Summit Distributing Donn Lux, Luxco chairman and CEO Jo Ann Taylor Kindle, president of the Enterprise Holdings Foundation Steve. March 3, 2023 by Marcus Ashpaugh. In the hiatus preceding the NHL's Return to Play, several Blues players contracted COVID-19, which was cited by the coaching staff as one of the reasons why their play faltered in the playoffs. 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. It wasn't. post; account; . However, in an ironic twist the Cards purchased a controlling interest in KTRS in 2005, and once again preferred to air preseason baseball over regular-season hockey. [24] Up until that point, the Blues were the oldest franchise to never win the Stanley Cup; they were also the last of the five surviving 1967 expansion teams to win the Cup for the first time. The Blues missed the playoffs during the first four full seasons of new ownership. The Blues will receive 27-year-old forward Jakub Vrana . Jeff Gordon writes: Controlling the Blues is a great honor for diehard fan Tom Stillman. tickets - by owner. He was replaced by assistant coach Scotty Bowman, who thereafter led the team to a winning record for the rest of the season. Ultimately, it was the Blues who prevailed by winning in seven games each over the Philadelphia Flyers and Minnesota North Stars to reach the 1968 Stanley Cup Finals. Blues current owner Tom Stillman (left) and Carol Salomon, the former wife of original owner Sid Salomon III. The elder Salomon was not enthralled with the idea of owning a hockey team initially, but his son persuaded him to take the plunge. He had 70 or more goals in three consecutive seasons, including 1990-91 when he scored 86 and the team finished with 105 points. The Blues play in the 19,150 (not counting standing room) capacity Enterprise Center, where they have played since 1994. The Blues had remained in strong form throughout the season, finishing first in the Western Conference and second in the NHL. Under Bowman, the Blues dominated the West for the next two seasons, becoming the only expansion team to compile a winning record, and they captured division titles by wide margins each year. It has been called the "Fan Salute" by some. st louis blues - $75 (Saint Louis) wednesday 2023-03-01. number available: 4 venue: enterprise center. Additionally, fans complained they could not hear the station at night (it had to readjust its coverage due to a glut of clear channels on adjacent frequencies). The Blues are still looking for their first Stanley Cup. Caron was reinstated as interim general manager for the rest of the season, and general manager Larry Pleau was hired on June 9, 1997. On September 29, 2005, it was announced that the Lauries had signed an agreement to sell the Blues to SCP Worldwide, a consulting and investment group headed by former Madison Square Garden president Dave Checketts. Instead, a Return to Play tournament was organized, starting in August 2020. The deferred contracts came due just as the Blues' performance began to slip. Originally, the St. Louis Blues aired their games on KPLR-TV and KMOX radio, with team patron Gus Kyle calling games alongside St Louis broadcasting legend Jack Buck. The Blues then fired 60 percent of their employees. In March 2011, Checketts announced he was putting the team and the Scottrade Center lease up for sale, projecting a deal would be struck before the 2011-12 season started. And within two years, Hull also was gone, left unsigned to continue a Hall of Fame career with Stanley Cup championships in Dallas and Detroit. David Backes was also announced as the new team captain. Wal-Mart heir Nancy Walton Laurie and her husband Bill purchased the Blues in 1999. The 2016 offseason saw big changes for the Blues, as team captain David Backes left the team to sign with the Boston Bruins, and goaltender Brian Elliott was traded to the Calgary Flames, while veteran forward Troy Brouwer also signed with Calgary as a free agent. A look at the ownership lineage: Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. From 1967 to 1984, the Blues jerseys featured a lighter shade of blue along with contrasting shoulder yoke and stripes.