JesusNEVERexisted wrote:The Rams sold out every single game they played in St. Louis from 1995 until an 0-8 start in 2007. The fan base continues to show up despite recently witnessing the worst five-year stretch in the history of the NFL, a stretch in which the team won seven home games in five years.
Not really.
FOX2 and some sponsors, bought up thousands of unsold tickets so the games could be televised. They did this a lot.
JesusNEVERexisted wrote:I have lived in St.Louis since the Big Red were here.
So have I.
JesusNEVERexisted wrote:I was here when they the Rams were in their glory days from 99-2004
So was I.
JesusNEVERexisted wrote:and they clearly had more of the city transfixed and glued to them than the Cardinals even had in their world series years.
Nope. Wrong.
Just because you feel that way, doesn't make it true.
JesusNEVERexisted wrote:Plus I have been in St.Louis my whole life
You already said that.
JesusNEVERexisted wrote:and met dozens of people who don't even like baseball.
Ohhh.... dozens? Wow. Say it isn't so.
JesusNEVERexisted wrote:The NFL is clearly a far bigger sport so naturally they'll have a bigger following when the Rams are good.
St. Louis is a baseball town. How many times does this need to be said before it sinks in? Opening day is an honest to God religion here. The playoff atmosphere is crazy...you can smell it. EVERYONE downtown is wearing red on playoff game days.
JesusNEVERexisted wrote:Another crucial fact even many St.Louisans don't know. There was a study done on fans at Busch and a staggering 1/4 to 1/3 of the fans were from out of the area and out of state! There are about 8 states that make up Cardinal nation. Many license plates of Cards fans are out of state.
Everyone knows that.
Cardinal nation stretches far and wide because at one time, the Cardinals were the farthest west team and KMOX could reach half of the country.
JesusNEVERexisted wrote:Don't forget baseball ratings have collapsed since the 70s and 80s and even Jack Buck admitted a few years ago the games are too slow and take too long. Even Sports Illustrated said baseball has become a regional sport. I also heard a local sports commentator say the Rams playoff games got higher ratings than even Cardinal world series games! He was talking about the LOCAL market!
I don't have the ratings in front of me. But St. Louis had never had a great football team. Except for a few decent years, the Cardinals were losers year in and year out...never came close to winning a super bowl. That Rams team came out of nowhere and dominated with an exciting brand of football like the NFL had never seen before. It was a cinderella story...and a great one. So if the Rams had better ratings than the Cardinals over that five year span, I wouldn't be that suprised. But it took an amazing football team that put up amazing numbers and played an exciting style of football to do that. It's quite possible that this town was swept off their feet by the Rams. But once the Rams came crashing back down to earth, who regained the top spot in town? Yup. The Cardinals.
You can't single out a 5 year span and use that to supercede the 100+ years of dominance the baseball Cardinals have had here and say St. Louis is a football town and not a baseball town.
What about the years before and since?
What about now?
JesusNEVERexisted wrote:]Unless someone did a study or took a poll back then there is really no way to decide this.
Yes there is.
Any honest person who lives in or around St. Louis can tell you it is a baseball town first. And maybe a few years the Rams were the darlings of the town, but it took an unbelievable team doing unreal things to accomplish that...and when that went away, the interest in the Rams faded quick.
JesusNEVERexisted wrote:However if that ratings claim can be corroborated then there is no doubt the Rams were bigger!
And? So what? The Steamers were bigger than the Blues for a couple years back in the 80's. They outdrew the Blues in the stands and more folks watched on tv.
And what happened in that case smart guy?