Cardinals vs. Royals: Which parts of Missouri favor which?

[Radical_Car]

Just moved to the Kansas City, Missouri metro area at the beginning of June from Minnesota, I own both a Royals and a Cardinals hat but the Cardinals will be my primary team here in Missouri even though I live in the Kansas City area.

Royals are division rivals with the Minnesota Twins and having lived in Minnesota for almost 30 years since I was born in 1992 it would be kind of sacrilegious for me to adopt the Royals as my primary team.

[4everMissouri]

They're called the Royals because they are the kings of suckage.

[Okey Dokie]

Royals are on year 7 of a rebuilding program. Pathetic, but we still watch every game on TV.

[Floorist]

We listen to the Cardinals. They have been carried by the local radio station here in SW Missouri for at least 60 years.

[RisingAurvandil]

Outside of the KC Metro and northwest Missouri, the Cardinals are certainly the dominant MLB team.

Having lived in the Ozarks prior to St. Louis, I can recall people gravitating towards St. Louis. "Going to the big city" always meant going to StL. People often moved up for work or college. For a long time, I-44 was the only freeway and KMOX tuned-in clear. I don't know if it's historical or cultural, but the area feels like the natural hinterland for StL, considering it is the largest metro adjacent to Ozarks. It makes sense that Cards fans are more numerous.

[sub]

Originally Posted by Radical_Car

Just moved to the Kansas City, Missouri metro area at the beginning of June from Minnesota, I own both a Royals and a Cardinals hat but the Cardinals will be my primary team here in Missouri even though I live in the Kansas City area.

Royals are division rivals with the Minnesota Twins and having lived in Minnesota for almost 30 years since I was born in 1992 it would be kind of sacrilegious for me to adopt the Royals as my primary team.

You’d be better off keeping your Twins gear on. You could be the cool transplant or at least always be mistaken for a tourist that way.
Wearing a Cardinals hat around KC just means you’ll be considered one of “those” people. Might as well don a Yankees hat at that point.

It’s a shame the Royals had that 30 year drought. They were always a great franchise previously.
KC’s fan base would likely be much larger if they hadn’t lost a couple generations of potential fans. Now they’re on the verge of doing it again.

Cardinals fans are more numerous because the team is much older and are less prone to epic droughts.

The Ozarks location and culture argument doesn’t seem to matter much when it comes to Chiefs football.

[Weaubleau]

The Cardinals traditionally had a huge radio network and the Royals, despite their success in the first part of their history did not really make inroads in Missouri among that fan base outside of the KC metro area. Where the Royals picked up fans were Kansas, Nebraska and far western Iowa. Go much east of Higginsville, or south of Harrisonville and it becomes Cardinal fans really quickly. I'm not sure where the Cardinals Royals line is in northern MO, but there are not a large number of people in that area, I suspect once you get much northeast of the KC media market, it would mostly be Cardinals fans, or maybe even *gasp* Cubs fans.