Business owners singing 'Gloria' after Blues' title win

Virtually every sports bar in Cape Girardeau was packed Wednesday night as hockey fans watched and cheered the St. Louis Blues as they captured the Stanley Cup for the first time in the team’s 52-year history.

Meanwhile, local stores selling Blues apparel say they can’t keep up with demand for Blues merchandise and even tattoo shops say they’ve seen an uptick in customers wanting tattoos of the Blues logo and the Stanley Cup.

Wednesday night’s Game 7 between the Blues and the Boston Bruins was reportedly the most watched televised game in National Hockey League history as millions of fans and non-fans alike tuned in to see whether the Blues, in last place in early January, could capture the NHL championship.

“It was definitely one of the busiest Wednesday nights since we opened back in January,” said Cortney Farrow, one of the managers at Dogwood Social House on South Plaza Way. She said hockey fans were shoulder-to-shoulder there watching the game on Dogwood’s giant screen television.

“All the seats were filled, and it was standing room only,” she said. “We definitely sold lots of beer that night.”

Emily Weiss, right, sells a St. Louis Blues Stanley Cup T-shirt to Macie Smith directly from a shipping box minutes after it was received Friday at Pro Image Sports at West Park Mall in Cape Girardeau.Jay Wolz

Around the corner at Rosati’s Pizza in the Town Plaza Shopping Center, server Ali Harper said the Wednesday night crowd was “amazing,” and restaurant owner Jason Niswonger estimated beer sales were eight to 10 times higher during and after the game than on a normal night.

At Wings, Etc. on William Street, server Kimberly White said “it was pretty crazy here” as fans celebrated the Blues’ win by singing “Gloria” at the top of their lungs. A pop hit released in 1982 by Laura Branigan, “Gloria” became the Blues’ unofficial victory song as the team made its Stanley Cup run.

“I even have a friend who just got a calico cat and named her ‘Gloria,’” White added.

At Buffalo Wild Wings on Siemers Drive, assistant manager Jeremie Hubbard said extra servers and cooks had to be scheduled to handle Wednesday night’s crowd of nearly 400.

“It was wall-to-wall in here,” Hubbard said, adding all 64 of Buffalo Wild Wings’ televisions were tuned to the hockey game. He said the Blues’ playoff run, which began more than a month ago, has been great for business, but Wednesday night was definitely the best night of all.

“We were playing ‘Gloria’ on our speakers after the game,” he said. “People were standing on chairs singing.”

At Hotshots Sports Bar and Grill on Main Street, bar manager Ashley Bollinger said it was “one of the busiest Wednesday nights we’ve ever had. It was nuts.”

Nearby at The Library, owner Cathy Thompson said “we were packed both inside and out on our deck.” After the game, fans celebrated and sang “Gloria” for the next couple of hours and kept celebrating until closing time at 1:30 a.m. Thursday.

“They wanted to keep going, but we had to close,” she said.

Jared Weiss, owner of Pro Image Sports in West Park Mall, said he’s selling Blues championship shirts and other Blues logo apparel as fast as the merchandise is shipped in.

“It’s been crazy, much better than expected,” he said.

On Friday afternoon, Weiss and his wife, Emily, were selling Blues championship shirts directly from shipping boxes on the floor of the store just minutes after they had been received.

In addition to his Cape Girardeau store, Weiss owns three other Pro Image Sports stores in St. Louis.

“Up there, we sold out of Stanley Cup merchandise by 2 o’clock Thursday,” he said, adding in comparison to Pro Image Sports sales in other cities where teams have won the Stanley Cup in recent years, such as Chicago and Pittsburgh, “the St. Louis market has far exceeded other hockey markets.”

As for Blues sweaters with player names, Weiss said the most popular throughout the playoffs have been Blues center Ryan O’Reilly and rookie goaltender Jordan Binnington.

For most fans, wearing a Blues sweater or championship T-shirt is enough. Others are taking it a step further by having the Blues logo or the Stanley Cup tattooed on their bodies.

“We’ve done some ‘blue note,’ logos and we’re scheduled to do a Stanley Cup today,” Mack Jamieson told the Southeast Missourian on Friday. Jamieson is an apprentice artist at A Different Drummer Tattoo Studio, 905 Broadway.

At Fleshhound Tattoo Studio, 716 Broadway, tattoo artist Andy Estes also reported increased interest in Blues-theme tattoos.

“We had one guy who had us add a full-color Blues logo on his arm a couple of weeks ago (after the Blues made it to the Stanley Cup Finals),” he said. “He wanted it regardless of if they won or lost the series.”

Justin McCollum, a tattoo artist at 4 Aces Tattoos, 208 Independence St., said several customers are scheduled to have “blue note” tattoos and one is also having a script “Gloria” added to his calf.

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