St. Louis finishes tied for dead last nationally in NBA Finals TV ratings, 16th for NHL (2024)

It was a celebration of St. Louis on the national stage as two buddies who went to high school together at Chaminade played key roles on teams that in recent days won their league’s championship — Jayson Tatum in the NBA with the Boston Celtics and Matthew Tkachuk in the NHL with the Florida Panthers.

They have been the subject of much local media attention as their quest for the dynamic double intensified this month, and at the national level, ESPN went as far as posting a custom-made graphic saluting them and their STL heritage on its social media platforms after Tkachuk completed the mission when the Panthers won the Stanley Cup on Monday night.

So it figures that St. Louisans would have had extra interest as their sagas unfolded, which certainly would have been shown through television ratings. But that was not the case, as the local viewership level for the Stanley Cup Final was lackluster and the number for the NBA Finals was a dud — abysmal actually is a more apt term.

According to Nielsen, the Gateway City finished tied for 16th place nationally in round numbers for hockey’s title series among the 56 major markets in which it tracks viewership electronically, although technically Philadelphia finished a hair higher (2.41-2.38). But that outcome in St. Louis was far superior to the town’s performance with the NBA Finals — it finished in a tie for last place.

Nielsen reports that just 2.7% of the St. Louis and Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida, markets tuned in on average to the telecasts of the five games on ABC (KDNL, Channel 30 locally). The Stanley Cup Final, which went seven games, also was on ABC/KDNL and averaged a 2.4 rating locally.

Florida markets that closely follow the Panthers accounted for the top two spots in those hockey ratings, West Palm Beach (6.9) and Miami-Fort Lauderdale (6.2). ABC didn’t benefit from the presence of the other team in the Final, the Edmonton Oilers, because Nielsen does not include Canadian cities in its tabulations.

With the NBA, the top markets predictably were the ones of the participating teams — a 17.1 rating in Boston, a 12.7 figure in Dallas-Fort Worth.

There have been rumblings off and on through the years about the NBA returning to St. Louis, which hasn’t had a team in the league since the Hawks left for Atlanta in 1968.

Adding to the intrigue are recent comments from David Steward, the founder and current chairman of St. Louis-based mega corporation World Wide Technology. It’s billed as the country’s largest Black-owned company (in excess of $20 billion in annual revenue and more than 10,000 employees), and he recently told KSDK (Channel 5) sports director Frank Cusumano that he’s interested in the possibility of pursuing a franchise in the league.

“Maybe one day,” he said.

“The possibilities of us having a team here in St. Louis — maybe bring back the Hawks,” he added while chuckling loudly.

But there is a big red flag flying now with that local TV ratings fiasco, which contributed to the fourth consecutive season of decaling ratings in St. Louis for the Finals (excluding the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021 when the games were played outside their normal schedule).

The Stanley Cup Final, meanwhile, had an uptick in St. Louis ratings from the 1.8 figure last year. Nonetheless, excluding the pandemic years and the one in which the Blues won the Cup, the NBA has beaten the NHL in St. Louis TV ratings for the title rounds in all the other most recent 15 seasons. That’s despite the NBA having no team in the market for more than half a century and the Blues existing throughout that period.

Rickwood review

While the ratings locally were lackluster to awful for the hockey and basketball title rounds despite the local connections, St. Louis soared in viewership for last week's special Cardinals-Giants game that served as a salute to the Negro Leagues and honored Hall of Famer Willie Mays, who died two days earlier.

The game on Thursday was televised nationally by Fox and the Gateway City drew the best rating in the country, as Nielsen says 9.4% of the market tuned in to local affiliate KTVI (Channel 2) for the coverage.

The game was played in Birmingham, Ala., on Rickwood Field, the country's oldest active ballpark, and the Cardinals won 6-5.

It was their highest-rated game in St. Louis to date this season, passing the 8.2 figure a Saturday night home game against the Chicago Cubs in late May drew that also was on Fox/KTVI. No. 3 on the list is the home opener, on April 4, which generated a 7.6 rating of on Bally Sports Midwest.