Dave Checketts, the new principle owner of the St. Louis Blues, must have got an advanced scouting report on the St. Louis-area media.
That report must state, “Tell them anything, they’ll believe you. Or at least they won’t question you.”
Checketts said during last week’s press conference that the idea of bringing a National Basketball Association is not on his mind at this time. For the next two days, that’s all you heard on radio and television.
“No NBA team for St. Louis.” Those words were repeated again and again.
Yeah, right. Like Checketts was going to say something different and tip his hand?
Of the 30 days in April, the Savvis Center schedule lists 12 events. You don’t have to be a math major to figure out there are 18 dark days at Savvis. That’s 18 reasons in one month for Checketts to be actively seeking a team for St. Louis.
Of those 12 dates, two are River City Rage indoor football games and two are for St. Louis Steamers indoor soccer games. The combined attendance at these four events probably would not top that of one NBA game in St. Louis.
When Checketts again meets with the press, someone should ask him if he would have made an attempt to bring the homeless New Orleans Hornets to St. Louis in Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath last fall.
No one in St. Louis even made a call to that franchise’s owner. The result is a booming success story for Oklahoma City where all of the Hornets’ games are played to capacity crowds. That city in the middle of nowhere suddenly is a prospective NBA site – not St. Louis.
The media might want to ask Checketts what he knows about the floundering Atlanta Hawks franchise. As the SportsEye has said in the past, St. Louis’ new NBA team will most likely be St. Louis’ old NBA team.
The reasons to bring a NBA franchise to St. Louis far outweigh the reasons not to for Checketts. Even if the St. Louis sports media is too naïve to realize what is going on behind the closed doors of the Savvis Center offices.
