Dallas Stars Not Ranked In 2017 FanSided Fandom 250
By Josh Clark
FanSided released its annual “Fandom 250” list and the Dallas Stars fan base did not make the cut. Whether you agree or disagree, here are the facts.
It’s not easy being a hockey team from Texas. The Dallas Stars know that, and so do their fans.
It’s difficult trying to muster up a significant following of a hockey team in the deep south. This struggle doesn’t get any easier when the team has made the playoffs twice in the past decade and is seemingly just now returning to prominence around the league.
There are a lot of barriers and stereotypes that “Stars nation” must overcome when proving themselves to the NHL as a dominant and passionate fanbase. They know it, the league knows it, and as we recently saw, FanSided knows it, too.
Just recently, FanSided released its second annual Fandom 250 list. It is a list that compiles the 250 best fan bases across professional sports, college sports, athletes, brands, movies, TV, celebrities, music artists, and just about anything else that can have a significant fan following.
Dallas Stars
So while 250 initially seems like a hard list to miss, it’s actually a pretty exclusive one. And, as you have probably already guessed, the Dallas Stars didn’t make the cut for the second year in a row.
A total of eight NHL teams made the list, including the Detroit Red Wings (238), New York Rangers (224), Nashville Predators (198), Edmonton Oilers (175), Montreal Canadiens (120), Chicago Blackhawks (77), Toronto Maple Leafs (68), and Pittsburgh Penguins (14). Sidney Crosby is the only NHL player to make the list as a sports figure.
The Stars are one of the 23 NHL teams left on the outside. In a sport that has yet to be fully embraced my the American sporting market and has yet to extend its reach across the entire U.S., it’s lack of presence in the Fandom 250 is understandable. The NHL is still growing and gaining more following with each year, but it isn’t “there” just yet.
But even once it does get there, the Dallas Stars are still a ways away from being one of the more popular teams around.
This is a team that moved to Big D from Minnesota in 1993, successfully giving birth to hockey in Texas. And now they are celebrating their 25th anniversary in The Lone Star State after a successful run so far.
The Stars, however, have not seen an unreal amount of team success as say the Red Wings or Canadiens. Instead, Dallas only has one Stanley Cup championship in their 25-year span and is still in search of number two.
With that being said, the team as a whole has taken a step back in the recent past. Their playoff success is extremely limited over the past decade, their attendance has taken a dip, and the Stars endured a five-year period where things, including the team, coaching, management, and following all just looked ugly.
And while the Dallas Stars are in the middle of a potential “rebirth,” there is still a lot of work to be done. It all starts with more consistency in the playoffs and more than one Stanley Cup. The first one was nice, but it’s almost been 20 years since that last victory.
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So, yeah, the Stars are not in the Fandom 250 and it kind of makes sense. The Dallas Stars have a good amount of work to be done before they want to be considered on the same level as things like Ohio State, the Dallas Cowboys, Disney, and Harry Potter.
But in the end, that’s what makes the potential for the future even more exciting. It isn’t easy being or rooting for a hockey team in Texas.