If there’s one thing Midwesterners dislike, it’s being referred to as flyover country in any context. We get it a lot with two key areas of American culture: politics and sports. People talk about how major sports leagues want big, coastal markets for the ratings all of the time, and discount the possibility that anyone within non-coastal markets care to watch, or that maybe those non-coastal markets have fans who have transplanted elsewhere.
St. Louis has long been one of the most consistent markets for the NHL on NBC, and have given the Blues banner ratings throughout the playoffs.