Dallas Stars: Texas Rangers Set Example by Hosting Stars Theme Night

The Texas Rangers are hosting a special Dallas Stars themed game tonight with a promotional hat giveaway. In doing so, they’re setting a great example for ways that teams in the same city or metroplex can support each other.

Before the Rangers play tonight, three Dallas Stars players will throw out the first pitch: Jamie Benn, Ben Bishop, and Stephen Johns.

All three of them were in town already for draft festivities, including Johns’ appearance at the live Puck Soup podcast as well as Bishop and Benn’s attendance at Texas Hockey Day. Johns also just signed a three-year contract extension with the team on Friday.

Players for all of the local Big 4 teams have been seen going out to games and supporting their fellow DFW athletes. A look at personal social media accounts will show plenty of athletes at games on their days off. However, the management teams haven’t been as supportive in that regard.

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For example, the Mavericks and Stars do next to nothing to support each other outside of occasional player appearances at games where they wave briefly at the jumbotron between plays. The same can be said of all of the teams in the metroplex, especially in their attitude towards the Stars and hockey in general. Because of that, it’s refreshing to see the Rangers host a Stars night to show their support, even when the Stars aren’t playing.

At home in the American Airlines Center, there’s discontent. Dallas Maverick’s owner Mark Cuban is planning to move the team into a new arena, though the exact timeline is up in the air due to their lease with the AAC which runs through 2031. Cuban blames the move largely on parking, which is a problem, but there have been rumors that he also doesn’t like sharing with the Stars. The new arena could lead the Stars and Mavericks to go through a “divorce” of sorts, splitting up into two separate arenas.

Arenas shared between NHL and NBA teams are common throughout the country. The Washington Capitals and Wizards have the best example of how to coexist harmoniously with cross-promotional events and even a reward system for attending games, but they’re both owned by Ted Leonsis. It’s in his best interest to encourage fans of one team to also be fans of the other team he owns, but it’s still setting an example for everyone else.

This isn’t a problem that’s unique to Dallas, but it’s more pronounced here than in many other markets. This criticism also doesn’t extend to the majority of the fanbase, who tend to support or at least be respectful of the fans of all the teams in DFW. It’s simply disappointing to see the organizations themselves not do more to foster their relationships with other local teams.

Often, the teams simply ignore each other, which is at least a better alternative to actively tearing each other down. For example, the Cowboys took a jab at the Stars post-lockout in a now-deleted tweet and the Stars responded in kind.

The Cowboys did eventually apologize for the slight, but it still shows the disconnect between the teams in Dallas, at least from the perspective of the organizations themselves.

While social media can hurt, it can also be a good place for teams to start encouraging their fans to check out the other teams in town and drive up interest. Having more fans can only help a team’s bottom line and a better system of support between the teams makes for a better fan experience, leading to a win-win situation for everyone.

There are different ways teams can go about doing this. They can host more theme nights like this, sponsor events together, or possibly even look into ticket package sales. There may be a good market for fans wanting to get out and experience some new sports if there was a package that included a ticket to one game from each team, and they can include FC Dallas as well to help support teams that aren’t part of the Big 4.

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It would be great to see more of this sort of thing, but this is a nice step in the right direction. Any fans who want to encourage the teams to do this more can still attend tonight’s game and give them positive feedback. Feel free to share your ideas for ways teams can help each other to succeed and cross-promote in the comments.