What kind of town is St. Louis?

I only ask the question because I have received so many different answers from so many different people.

It almost seems to change with the sporting season. It’s amazing to me how energetic some St. Louis fans can be.

Why was St. Louis voted as the No. 1 sports city in America? I think it’s because it’s so hard to tell which sport St. Louis loves the most.

It is a soccer town. I never would have guessed this before I came to school here. I would never guess it because, honestly, I could never picture any town as being a “soccer town.”

However, in a way, it is a soccer town. People truly enjoy soccer in St. Louis. I happened to be down around the soccer field while the junior U.S. team was playing Jamaica, and I was amazed at how many people showed up for the game.

It was not all students either; many of them were St. Louis residents who just wanted to see a good soccer game. I would doubt that there are many cities in the United States that could produce as big a turnout for a game of that caliber.

It is a hockey town. Just take a look at the kind of following the Blues have. Some people even follow the regular season, which is amazing, because the NHL season could possibly be longer than an actual calendar year. People in this town love hockey.

I remember watching the game last year against the San Jose Sharks when the Blues lost the series.

I sat there in amazement as a grown man was brought to tears at seeing his team lose. There are fans in this town who might actually bleed blue.

It is a football town. I always find it incredible how many true Rams fans there are in St. Louis.

I think every long-time St. Louis citizen I have ever met has been a life-long Rams fan. I love asking people if they rooted for the Rams even when they were bad, because most people tell me they were Rams fans even when the football Cardinals were in St. Louis. Amazing.

However, you cannot argue against the numbers. St. Louis rocks the TWA dome as well as any other city.

The true test St. Louis will face, to see if it really is a football town, will be when the Rams begin their losing again. Until then, I am a bit skeptical about St. Louis being a “football town.”

It is a baseball town. St. Louis has enough baseball history to rival any city and any town in America. Names like Musial, Gibson and Brock pop up when you think of St. Louis baseball. Punches may be thrown when someone attempts to tarnish the legacy of the St. Louis Cardinals. At first, I thought St. Louis was not a real baseball city, I figured the amount of passion people put into discussing baseball was limited to McGwire fever.

However, the more time I have spent here, the more I realize that it does not matter if Big Mac is playing; there are people in St. Louis who will always eat, sleep and breath Cardinals baseball.

It is a basketball town. (Well, maybe this one is a stretch.) There is no NBA team here, and the only Division 1 basketball program is not what one would refer to as “elite.”

But, thanks to the residents of the St. Louis area, SLU men’s basketball consistently ranks in the top 20 in the nation. Imagine what kind of turnout the Billikens would have if they were a great team.

I still believe that an NBA team would succeed here; for now, we will rule out St. Louis being a basketball town.

That still leaves us with the question: What kind of town is St. Louis? Well, because the Blues are looking strong in the playoffs, we could say that right now it is a hockey town.

However, I think the safest and most correct answer would be that St. Louis is a sports city. It does not matter who is playing or what sport it is, in St. Louis, it will always have a strong following.

Now, if only we could get some St. Louis residents out to the Billiken baseball games, then we would really prove to the world that we are the No. 1 Sports City in America.