Dallas Stars: All Pre-Season Games Should Be Broadcast

Two nights ago, the Dallas Stars hosted their first pre-season game, but it wasn’t broadcast on any TV station or online.

Tonight, the Dallas Stars are heading up to Minnesota for game number two, and it’ll be aired on Fox Sports North.

Both franchises have deals with Fox Sports, so why isn’t Fox Sports Southwest broadcasting the games in Dallas?

While both stations are Fox Sports affiliates, they have different teams in charge and different audiences. The hockey market in Minnesota is obviously very different from the hockey market in Texas, so it makes sense that they’re broadcasting the game tonight.

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However, it’s 2018, and the idea that there’s a sporting event going un-televised or streamed seems absurd. Even if they don’t go for the full production value, there’s no reason it shouldn’t be available somewhere for fans to watch.

Fox Sports Southwest broadcasts a lot of different sporting events, and they have to choose between pre-season hockey and their other options. For example, during tonight’s pre-season game, they’re playing the USC vs. Texas game. Texas football is going to win out on coverage in Texas every time.

The only problem is that it’s not even a live Texas game, it’s a re-run.

The next home game is on Monday, but there’s a Rangers game that night with a UFC fight on their alternate channel. Fair enough, that’s fine, but the other home game on Sept. 30 isn’t being broadcast either in favor of a collection of various half-hour programs, none of which are live sporting events.

It’s fine if they don’t feel a pre-season hockey game in Texas warrants top billing over regular season games of other major sports, but it should at least win out over shows like Destination Polaris.

There’s also the factor of cost and time, because it isn’t free to broadcast sporting events. There are a lot of people involved that need to be compensated, but if Fox Sports doesn’t want to put that level of work in, there are alternatives.

In the past, some teams have gone for interesting pre-season methods, including just streaming the Jumbotron feed online. There’s already a camera crew working the game so that it’s shown in the arena, so it’s not that big of a step to stream that online. That’s similar to what the NBA offers as an option on their International League Pass, where the feed shows in-arena content instead of advertisements during commercial breaks.

Honestly, as an aside, the NHL should offer this option as well with their packages, because some teams have really high quality in-arena entertainment and it would be a great option for people who enjoy watching that.

With players like Miro Heiskanen and Ty Dellandrea playing in their first games, fans of the team want to be able to watch, and it’s bad for the team if they don’t offer some sort of option. This should’ve been fixed league-wide years ago, but hopefully it’ll change for next season.