Fallen Stars

Make no mistake, DFW is where football is and always will be top dog but how many people know that the last professional team to win a championship in this area was the Dallas Stars. It was 1999 when the Stars made their Stanley Cup run. Every game was sold out and it seemed like almost everywhere you turned you saw both adults and children wearing Stars jerseys and people rollerblading on their neighborhood sidewalks or in public parks. Hockey would never replace football as the top sport in this area but at that time it was the best alternative sports fans had to the Cowboys who were struggling. These days rollerbladers are badly outnumbered by cyclers and joggers in public parks and Stars jerseys are only seen at games in the American Airlines Center which no longer sell out. I heard Dallas Morning News Sports Writer Jean Jacques Taylor on a radio show say that he had yet to write any article on the Stars this year and had not gotten any emails or letters asking him why.
The reason for the decline of interest in Hockey and the Dallas Stars is mostly due to the 2004-2005 strike. Any time a sport goes on strike for a year it is impossible to regain interest or enthusiasm for it in a short period. Even the most diehard fans (which I was one of) moved on to other interests like basketball and baseball and found it fairly easy to live without Hockey since it is still very new to this area. The other reason is that outside of Mike Modano and Jere Lehtinen there are no remaining players from the Stanley Cup Championship team and the team they have now does not look to be a team that can make the playoffs.
For the Stars to regain the popularity they had in the late 90's they will need to find skilled players with charisma. They need another player like Mike Modano who has both great skills and a personality that is very accessible to the media. Even better, if the Stars can draft the next Sydney Crosby they can go a long way in regaining their popularity because the athletes who are the best in their sport always generate a massive amount of attention. Outside of this, the Stars Marketing department is going to need to be creative in finding ways how to sell the Stars and regenerate interest in Hockey. It will be time consuming but worth the wait. Another year of the Stanley Cup being paraded around the metroplex would be a great thing to see again.