It’s rare for a major pro sports team to have no entries in the Field of Schemes “posts by topic” list, given that pretty much every team owner out there has at least hinted at demanding some kind of public money for something at some time. That’s the situation for the Dallas Stars, though — or was until this post, because we just can’t have nice things:
The Stars’ 21-person ownership advisory group met on Wednesday night and zeroed in on Plano as one of the likeliest destinations, Front Office Sports has learned.
The team is eyeing a purchase of land in Plano, but has not signed anything yet. It operates a youth hockey facility there, and has a practice facility in Frisco. Arlington is also in the mix, and has appeal as it’s already home to an MLB and NFL team. Each of those cities is roughly 20 miles from the team’s current home.
Team ownership also hasn’t ruled out staying in Dallas, either in the American Airlines Center or in a new arena.
So, the Stars are moving to Plano, unless they’re moving to Arlington, unless they’re moving to The Colony or Fort Worth, unless they’re building an arena in Dallas or staying in their old Dallas arena while the Mavericks build their own arena maybe. That’s pretty much all the options other than Greensboro, so maybe not really rising to the level of “news,” but you do you, Front Office Sports.
The news, such as it is, is that Stars owner Tom Gaglardi is clearly entering the kicking-tires-to-gin-up-a-bidding-war phase of his arena dreams, especially given that the team CEO followed up with some decidedly on-the-record comments:
“I don’t deny we are in discussions with Plano,” team president and CEO Brad Alberts told FOS when reached by phone Friday. “Have we decided on where our future is? No. We’ve gotta decide, are we staying or are we going to build somewhere. Certainly Plano is part of that, but we haven’t decided. We are going through due diligence to make sure that if we are going to leave, we have the right spot.”
And to the Dallas Morning News:
“We do not have a deal with Plano,” Alberts said. “We don’t have any of that. We are in discussions with them. We’re also in discussions with other cities. Arlington would love us to come to Arlington. They’ve got two of the four already. We’ve got a really good relationship with those two franchises there and the city.
“There’s no favorites at this point. We’re all just doing our work.”
The Stars’ lease expires in 2031, but there’s nothing stopping them from extending it, and in fact team officials have previously suggested that as one option. So beyond vague “discussions,” there’s not much going on here, so hopefully Dallas officials won’t be suckered into bidding against themsel—
Said council member Chad West, chairman of the ad hoc committee on professional sports recruitment and retention: “Dallas needs to [do its] part to ensure we keep our teams in the city.”
Hope you enjoyed that blank space on the topic list while it lasted, because https://www.fieldofschemes.com/category/nhl/dallas-stars/ is almost certainly about to start growing like crazy.
Plano Stars sounds great.
I like the Plano Spheres best. Time for a rebrand anyway.
Well, there’s certainly nothing suspicious about a city having an “ad hoc committee on professional sports recruitment and retention”.
Move along, taxpayers, nothing to see here.