The Blues last week unveiled a "grass-roots initiative called 'Hockey STL 2020,'" and the team hopes in five years' time "to have 125,000 kids in St. Louis playing ball hockey and 5,000 suiting up for ice hockey for the first time in their lives," according to Jeremy Rutherford of the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. The organization "will commit" $2M to programs that "impact youth hockey in the region, prioritizing more available ice sheets and defraying overall costs." Blues President & CEO of Business Operations Chris Zimmerman said, "We’ll be more active on multiple levels, working to get kids on the ice, working to get kids equipped. I’m sure there will be some situations where we’ll look at supporting other projects that just need maintenance." The announcement of the campaign "comes on the heels of the Blues’ efforts" to bring the Int'l Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship to St. Louis in '18. Part of their pitch to USA Hockey, which will choose the host city, "was increased involvement in area youth hockey." Zimmerman: "We labeled ourselves ‘The Heartland of Hockey’ and we feel like we’re proving that everyday. These efforts will just extend that, and ideally people throughout North America see that" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 11/22).
