Dallas Stars: Hosting Events Outside of DFW Good to Grow the Fanbase

This past weekend, the Dallas Stars hosted training camp in Boise. Next weekend, they’ll play a pre-season game in Tulsa against the Panthers. Decisions like these help with expanding the sport and making new fans.

The Dallas Stars could’ve decided to host the training camp in Austin again or not to travel to a new arena for a pre-season game, but they chose to change things up instead.

It may be disappointing at first to fans who are in Dallas and were used to an easy drive to training camp, especially when it was in Fort Worth a few years ago, but it’s good for the team overall.

If people in Dallas want to be fans, it’s easy to attend games, practices, and other events. Tickets aren’t too expensive on most nights, and the Stars often do promotions, especially for players in their hockey system through the Dr. Pepper StarCenters around town.

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For fans in Austin, the Texas Stars are closely linked to the NHL club, with many of the high-level prospects playing for the AHL club and call-ups happening often. People who watch the Texas Stars regularly usually have someone they can latch onto that’s playing in Dallas because they’ve seen them play in Austin.

ECHL team fans don’t connect to their NHL affiliate as well, because outside of goaltenders, the players in the ECHL simply don’t make their way up to the NHL very often.

The Allen Americans are the ECHL affiliate of the Sharks and they’re right here in DFW, but many of their fans are Stars fans instead of Sharks fans because of the proximity. That’s not to say you won’t see Sharks jerseys at the Allen Event Center, but there’s also plenty of Stars jerseys to be spotted on game nights as well.

If someone’s living in Boise and supporting the Steelheads, it’s a long way from Dallas and they’re just not going to feel the same pull, especially since the NHL affiliations so rarely matter. The Stars decided to change things this year, and that’s a great thing for fans in Boise. Anyone in DFW who isn’t happy about the decision should think about how great it must feel to be a Steelheads fan as the Stars go out of their way to bring the action right to them.

There’s no NHL teams anywhere near Boise. It’s about a 10-hour drive to Vancouver or San Jose. Even if (or when) a team gets added in Seattle, that’s still almost 8 hours. Not only that, there’s no Big 4 sports at all anywhere near them. Having an NHL club come right to their doorstep to host camp, meaning they brought all of their stars with them, is bound to improve their feelings towards the team and the league.

Tulsa isn’t nearly as deprived of major league sports, though they don’t have a Big 4 team either. However, they’re another good market for the Stars to go after because they’re close enough that it’s practical to make a trip down to see a game. The Stars going in for a pre-season game certainly doesn’t mean there’ll be droves of fans making their way down 75 for weekend games, but it’ll help bring in the market.

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Even though most people won’t suddenly become diehard fans after going to training camp or a pre-season game, new fans are always a good thing. It will probably work incredibly well on kids in particular, who get to see real NHL players up close and personal right in their own town. Those kids may then be more interested in the sport as a whole, and potentially pursue playing hockey as well.

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