By Brad Lee
It's not quite 35-cent tacos, but it's something to cheer for.  We didn't read the fine print, apparently.
The Blues announced today that Taco Bell has finally relented to a taco promotion it will give away/sell tacos linked to the Blues scoring five goals in a game. The upside: Blues net five, you get a free taco. The downside: You have to have a ticket stub. And it's only between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. And you only get one. OK, there's a lot of downside. EDIT: And apparently it's not Taco Bell tacos...they're ScotTrade Center tacos...only served AT ScotTrade. So if you don't work downtown, don't bother making the trip for one free taco and then 99-cent tacos thereafter. Sorry for the confusion.
In the good old days, when the Blues scored a fourth goal, chants of "Let's Go Blues!" were replaced with "We Want Tacos!" throughout the DrinkScotch Center. And fairly often, the Blues worked like mad to score that fifth goal and scored for everyone in the St. Louis area 35-cent tacos the next day. After games, players like Keith Tkachuk (who probably enjoyed as many crunchy tacos as any fan in those days) talked about the motivation of coming through for the fans and provide them with a cheap lunch the next day.
Even non-hockey fans knew to ask their puck-loving coworkers if the Blues had unlocked the door to crunchy nirvana. Or they could pass by a Taco Bell and see the drive-thru line backed up out into the street. Taco Bells were swamped with business the next day. Apparently too swamped. It's been reported that promotion got so out of hand that Taco Bell workers would call in sick the morning after five-goal games not wanting to witness the carnage that ocurrs when you sell several thousand more crunchy tacos than normal.  After the lockout, the Taco Ticker in the mezzanine above the Top Shelf was covered and chants of "We Want Tacos!" were met with regularly priced Mexican goodness the following day.
While a free taco with a ticket stub is better than nothing, we'll still miss pulling up to the drive thru and ordering 10 tacos and getting a fair amount of change back from a $5 bill. And don't think for a second that the Blues won't be thinking about delivering on the taco promise come Tuesday night vs. Detroit (we'd even try a 35-cent squid taco).
EDIT: Obviously, we have poor reading comprehension. Taco Bell apparently didn't want any part of the Blues and giving discounts or free tacos. So the Blues did whatever it takes...to come up with the worst promotion. Ever.
Here's a suggestion, Blues franchise: Fix the fucking power play. Then we'll talk about what's for lunch tomorrow. And it certainly won't be ScotTrade Center tacos. We'd rather have Little Caesar's (for the record we WILL NOT eat Little Caesar's). At least they didn't do something stupid like raise beer prices. Hey wait a second...