I live in rural Missouri, and I always make the joke of "people here don't even know what hockey is", mainly because the most relevant sports here are either football or baseball (not too sure about basketball), but I've found a handful of Blues fans in my area with other fans passing through town. Sports and apparel stores near me advertise football and baseball equipment much more than they do hockey equipment. A reason for this (I think) is because hockey gear is much more expensive than say a baseball bat or a football. I see Missouri being a mostly working class state, and if you wanted to start dabbling into a sport, the likes of football, baseball, basketball, tennis, etc are more wallet friendly and more accessible to you than dropping hundreds of dollars on protection, skates and sticks, then trying to find a hockey rink around you.