How popular are the Stars in Dallas?

[Salsa Shark]

Pretty accurate. Personally, I'd bump the Horns up to #2 or at least tied with the Mavs, but's that's about all I'd change. I want to believe the Stars are more popular than OU, but probably not.

Football is the biggest sport here in TX, always has been and always will be. The Cowboys have had success that most of us are old enough to remember, and usually have a decent team. UT has a storied history. TCU just made it to a National Championship. There's high school stadiums here bigger than college stadiums in northern states. So football will just always be #1. The Dallas Cowboys are the most valuable sports franchise in the world at $8 billion.

Baseball has a long history in TX and as "America's Pastime", it has always enjoyed immense popularity. The Rangers are terrible, but have had some recent success. They just got a new air conditioned stadium and you can easily get pretty cheap seats to Rangers games. Again, college and high school baseball are both incredibly popular here.

Basketball has been pretty popular in Texas for decades. All three Texas teams (Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio) have had maintained success over the past 20+ years and have won championships. Luka Doncic is arguably the best player in the league and looks like he will have an incredible HOF career. Like football and baseball, college and high school basketball is a huge draw. There's courts everywhere.

Hockey is totally different. Yes the Stars have had some recent success, but were terrible before that. Hockey teams at the collegiate and especially high school level are extremely rare. You're more likely to see lacrosse. That's just a function of the cost of entry of the sport and few rinks. I love hockey and think that the ticket prices aren't bad for what the product is, but it's not as cheap as going to Rangers or Mavs games. I don't know how much of a bump the team has seen due to recent playoff runs, but I'd surmise that the gap between the Big 3 and hockey here is enormous.

Dallas Stars fans are plentiful enough to fill the seats every game. In a metroplex of a million people, you can only sell 20k tickets, so there's definitely enough fans. I'd say that on average, they seem pretty dedicated. I'd be curious to see what percentage of seats are held by season ticket holders and how that compares league wide. Perhaps if they won a Cup, the following season could see them close the gap a little bit, but I doubt that would be enough. In order for the Stars to move up in the rankings here, every other team would need to be complete garbage at the exact same time that the Stars had a dynasty.

I think all of this is probably true for every NHL city. Going back to 1999 just to include the Stars, here's the list of Cup winners. In any of these cases were they ever the most popular team in the city? Were they even second?

Colorado Avalanche
Tampa Bay Lightning
St. Louis Blues
Washington Capitals
Pittsburgh Penguins
Chicago Blackhawks
Los Angeles Kings
Boston Bruins
Detroit Red Wings
Anaheim Ducks
Carolina Hurricanes
New Jersey Devils
Dallas Stars

Looking at that list, I'm not sure if any of those teams were ever higher than #3.

Redwings? Tigers were woeful during the 90s and early 00s. Lions always stink but NFL is king. Pistons maybe eclipsed them in the Rip Hamilton Ben Watson era? not sure.

 

[chirrrs]

1) Makes me want a team in Houston even more for the rivalry
2) The Rangers playing in Arlington and not Dallas sucks. What a missed opportunity. The Rangers should be at the state fair grounds outside downtown dallas and not in some suburb.

I used to have to drive from the far east side of Dallas county all the way to Ft. Worth on I-30 for work every day. Any time a Rangers game or Stars/Mavs game would start around the time I was commuting home was always a nightmare once I started getting close to Arlington. It was especially bad when both happened the same evening. I can't imagine what that would be like if the Rangers were even closer. You'd probably just have to avoid I-30 altogether and take the long way around the metroplex.

 

[triggrman]

I imagine it's sort of like the junior leagues in Canada. The NFL, NBA, and MLB don't really have minor leagues...other than college.

I'd agree on NFL and NBA but college baseball isn't the feeder for MLB like those 2, although popularity is growing.

In Tennessee, UT is more popular than the Titans, hockey takes a back seat to both.

Redwings? Tigers were woeful during the 90s and early 00s. Lions always stink but NFL is king. Pistons maybe eclipsed them in the Rip Hamilton Ben Watson era? not sure.

I'd guess UofM is right there with NFL most years, ahead in some years.

 

[MrHeiskanen]

Now let me throw out this for discussion. Say Houston gets a team, how does that affect the popularity of hockey in Dallas?

I don't think it affects Dallas too much, plus you are losing out of town fans who go to 1-2 games a year. Stars fan base is more Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, IMO.

 

[glovesave_35]

If I had to bet, any other major team from Dallas are miles ahead in popularity - Mavericks, Cowboys, Rangers

Stars are probably on the same level as FC Dallas.

Behind the first three in general, but hell no to the latter. That is almost fighting words level talk!

Honestly, it is Cowboys way up at the top, and then the other three major teams jockey for position based on current status as a winner.

 

[cowboy82nd]

What is it specifically about the Sooners tho?

Texas Longhorns biggest rival. Also, a lot of players on the Sooners teams' come from Texas.

 

[chirrrs]

Redwings? Tigers were woeful during the 90s and early 00s. Lions always stink but NFL is king. Pistons maybe eclipsed them in the Rip Hamilton Ben Watson era? not sure.

I tried to think of each of those teams on that list and still had a hard time. In the case of the Red Wings, even during their heyday, they were competing with the Lions, a really good Wolverines football team with a 30 year bowl streak including 5 wins in 6 years from 97-02, and who knows if the Tigers were still popular enough to edge them out. Same goes for the Pistons. Detroit certainly has one of the best arguments, especially with all the success that the Wings had, but even that one's not guaranteed, which is crazy to think about. I think the NHL is just that far behind the other leagues in terms of popularity everywhere in the US, which is fine by me. The Stars are still my favorite sports team by far.

 

[McShogun99]

If I had to bet, any other major team from Dallas are miles ahead in popularity - Mavericks, Cowboys, Rangers

Stars are probably on the same level as FC Dallas.

How dare you insult FC Dallas by comparing them to the Stars.

 

[ViD]

How dare you insult FC Dallas by comparing them to the Stars.

Well, in terms of popularity, I wouldn’t bet that the Jackets are currently more popular than the Columbus Crew, so the MLS is really catching up. Especially in southern cities like Dallas.

 

[Melrose Munch]

I used to have to drive from the far east side of Dallas county all the way to Ft. Worth on I-30 for work every day. Any time a Rangers game or Stars/Mavs game would start around the time I was commuting home was always a nightmare once I started getting close to Arlington. It was especially bad when both happened the same evening. I can't imagine what that would be like if the Rangers were even closer. You'd probably just have to avoid I-30 altogether and take the long way around the metroplex.

Damn traffic is that bad huh. I just wish Dallas had a ballpark like Houston.

Anyway, people forget Dallas was a large market team and one of the reasons why we had the lockout with all the spending, to give people an idea. Great market imo. 8 million people so plenty of fans.

 

[chirrrs]

For what it's worth, the Stars have been playing a preseason game at the BOK Center in Tulsa, OK at the "Tulsa Classic" for a few years now. This year was the first time I didn't go since unlike every other year when the game was held over the weekend, this year's edition was held on a Tuesday night. The other years where I did make the trip, a lot of Stars fans turned out. No telling how many were Okies and how many made the drive from Texas. I actually liked the experience. That was where I got to see Hintz and Gurianov for the first time playing in person and I was just blown away. Hopefully they go back to playing that game on the weekends.

 

[Esq]

I love it when non-Americans try to wrap their head around how popular collegiate football/basketball are in the USA. The frenzy over a big college football rivalry game in the South or Midwest is really something.

 

[TrillMike]

Now let me throw out this for discussion. Say Houston gets a team, how does that affect the popularity of hockey in Dallas?

I don't think people outside of Texas realize that Houston is almost 300 miles south of Dallas. I live in Dallas proper. Google Maps is telling me it will take 4-6 hours to get to the Toyota Center in Houston right now.

Having a team down there would not affect the popularity of hockey in Dallas. Honestly, reviving the old Houston Aeros would probably make it more popular.

 

[MrHeiskanen]

As a Flames fan, I watched last night's game and watch a fair amount of Dallas games (or try to, yawn). I find it disturbing that the Stars are as boring to watch as they are. I think that's the biggest malady. Seguin MIA for so many years. Robertson can be fairly dynamic but also lacks a bit of jam at times- like in last nights 2 min 5 on 3 advantage; no one was making anything happen including JR. For a top team in the league as per points, they're a fairly disappointing product to watch compared to most of the other top teams. IMO.

If they could ice excitement and energy like the Hurricanes or Devils or Lightning or the Oilers or Colorado or Buffalo I'd bet the fanbase would go wild. A true bona-fide superstar there like a Kucherov or McDavid would be crazy to see.

I didn't like Benn sitting on the bench during his 1000 game tribute. Should have stood and acknowledged the ovation.

I think the Stars are fortunate they have the fanbase they do.

You think the fan base would go wild if we missed the playoffs for 100 years like Buffalo? You wild.

 

[Straight Fire]

You think the fan base would go wild if we missed the playoffs for 100 years like Buffalo? You wild.

This year they're one of the most exciting teams . . . Last year maybe. Prior years for quite awhile, not.

 

[chirrrs]

I love it when non-Americans try to wrap their head around how popular collegiate football/basketball are in the USA. The frenzy over a big college football rivalry game in the South or Midwest is really something.

I don't know if the absolute mania of college football in the South (or March Madness for that matter) is on the level of soccer in other countries or not, but barring World Cup, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that it is. There's measurable losses in corporate office productivity during those times. Not so much waking up and drinking at the pub in the morning, but it might be close otherwise. Then again, lots of Southerners can drink with the best of them.

Covid and a layoff this past year screwed it up for me recently, but I plan on taking some roadtrips this upcoming season to see Texas/LSU/Bama/Ole Miss play one another outside of Texas.

 

[MrHeiskanen]

This year they're one of the most exciting teams . . . Last year maybe. Prior years for quite awhile, not.

Exciting and not in a playoff position.. no thanks. People want to watch teams win not score lots of goals.

 

[Straight Fire]

Exciting and not in a playoff position.. no thanks. People want to watch teams win not score lots of goals.

I think a good mix is optimum.

Hey I don't hate you guys, I must be just unlucky in the games I watch. They just end up being regularly pretty boring.

I forgot to mention Hintz in my earlier posts. He also is a bright light many games.

 

[MBTendy]

This year they're one of the most exciting teams . . . Last year maybe. Prior years for quite awhile, not.

I would have generally agreed with your long post analogy on the Stars being a boring team, cause even has a fan of the Stars they were boring to watch. I mean it got them in the playoffs, they won several rounds including a trip to the finals, but yes still somewhat uneventful at times. I can imagine for non Stars fans … i mean i heard it from my buddies all the time on how boring they were.

This year is vastly different though. Odd that you called them boring after last nights game too, even though it was a 3-2 game, it did not lack excitement.

I mean the Stars are ranked 9th in GF, 13 in SOG, and 6th in PP. Not the type of rankings you’d see for a boring team

 

[Zrhutch]

If you’re looking at the Stars popularity as it measures up to other local teams, they rank lower. Taking college out of it I’d say they rank third after the Cowboys being the Cowboys at one, and the Mavs having one of the best athletes in the world at two. I’d say right now they rank at or a little above the Rangers popularity, but that could change at any given moment if the Rangers end up popping off this year. This isn’t to say that the Stars aren’t “unpopular” or anything like that. They draw well and have for years.

Living here, I can tell you that the DFW sports hierarchy largely depends on how good the team is, unless you’re the Cowboys. If the Stars are ass one year, attendance will assuredly tank. Same with the Mavs or Rangers, which is currently evident in Arlington.

 

[AlexModvechkin8]

College sports in flyover states are insanely popular, more so than professional teams in many cases. And in some cases there aren’t many other options like in Iowa, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, West Virginia, etc. Football is king across much of the US and it now owns four days and nights of the week.

And what’s kind of ironic is states with the lowest scores in public education often have the most rabid college fanbases. You don’t see cities on the coasts that have rabid college football fans with the except of USC (Southern California), but only when they’re good because LA is about as fair weather for every sport except the Lakers as you can find.

There’s also the simple truth that money is a finite resource and families/fans in the states can have connections to pro or college teams that span decades and generations whereas hockey is relatively new in many of those markets with much lower participation in youth hockey so hockey teams either need to take money away from other sports to grow their wallet share or attract new fans that weren’t paying for sports before.

 

[NJ DevLolz]

College sports are huge all across the US and probably ahead of the NHL in all cities. I'm not a college fan so I don't get it but that's the reality.

In the NE, hardly anyone cares about college sports aside from Penn State. Thank god that’s the case

 

[ElGuapo]

College sports are huge all across the US and probably ahead of the NHL in all cities. I'm not a college fan so I don't get it but that's the reality.

I get it more than I get supporting pro sports. I can understand not getting it outside of the US where there's not the college sports culture. With a university there's an actual deep tie to the area (and there can be alumni bases in the hundreds of thousands if not millions for big schools, the kind of connection a pro sports fan can't have). Athletes on the teams are mostly from the area as well. Pro teams can up and move somewhere else.

The actual product of college football IMO is a lot more entertaining than NFL football.

My two favorite sports are football and hockey. Hockey there's not really any teams in Texas for me to care about outside of the Stars (although when there was a minor league team in my town I cared more about them than the Stars). But I have almost no interest in pro sports outside of hockey because there are college teams to support in the other sports I'm interested in. Actually I care more about my area high school football team than any other sports team. I'd much rather them win a state title than see my team win a college NC, Super Bowl, Stanley Cup. I would never have had the opportunity to win a college NC or Super Bowl as a player, but even if I did, winning a high school state title would have been more meaningful to me. In Texas a kid will dream of playing for their high school team over college or pro.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Probably a distant fourth, but Dallas is such a big market that even a distant fourth can be a nice moneymaker. And behind college and high school football in Texas, too.

But, to be fair, the NHL is fourth in most US markets.

And as a joke, I pointed this out in a Hawks/Stars GDT I made earlier this season, with a kid’s Texas counting book that my son received from his great aunt in Texas.

Book and page in question. My son loved this book ages 0-3.

 

[AlexModvechkin8]

Pretty accurate. Personally, I'd bump the Horns up to #2 or at least tied with the Mavs, but's that's about all I'd change. I want to believe the Stars are more popular than OU, but probably not.

Football is the biggest sport here in TX, always has been and always will be. The Cowboys have had success that most of us are old enough to remember, and usually have a decent team. UT has a storied history. TCU just made it to a National Championship. There's high school stadiums here bigger than college stadiums in northern states. So football will just always be #1. The Dallas Cowboys are the most valuable sports franchise in the world at $8 billion.

Baseball has a long history in TX and as "America's Pastime", it has always enjoyed immense popularity. The Rangers are terrible, but have had some recent success. They just got a new air conditioned stadium and you can easily get pretty cheap seats to Rangers games. Again, college and high school baseball are both incredibly popular here.

Basketball has been pretty popular in Texas for decades. All three Texas teams (Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio) have had maintained success over the past 20+ years and have won championships. Luka Doncic is arguably the best player in the league and looks like he will have an incredible HOF career. Like football and baseball, college and high school basketball is a huge draw. There's courts everywhere.

Hockey is totally different. Yes the Stars have had some recent success, but were terrible before that. Hockey teams at the collegiate and especially high school level are extremely rare. You're more likely to see lacrosse. That's just a function of the cost of entry of the sport and few rinks. I love hockey and think that the ticket prices aren't bad for what the product is, but it's not as cheap as going to Rangers or Mavs games. I don't know how much of a bump the team has seen due to recent playoff runs, but I'd surmise that the gap between the Big 3 and hockey here is enormous.

Dallas Stars fans are plentiful enough to fill the seats every game. In a metroplex of a million people, you can only sell 20k tickets, so there's definitely enough fans. I'd say that on average, they seem pretty dedicated. I'd be curious to see what percentage of seats are held by season ticket holders and how that compares league wide. Perhaps if they won a Cup, the following season could see them close the gap a little bit, but I doubt that would be enough. In order for the Stars to move up in the rankings here, every other team would need to be complete garbage at the exact same time that the Stars had a dynasty.

I think all of this is probably true for every NHL city. Going back to 1999 just to include the Stars, here's the list of Cup winners. In any of these cases were they ever the most popular team in the city? Were they even second?

Colorado Avalanche
Tampa Bay Lightning
St. Louis Blues
Washington Capitals
Pittsburgh Penguins
Chicago Blackhawks
Los Angeles Kings
Boston Bruins
Detroit Red Wings
Anaheim Ducks
Carolina Hurricanes
New Jersey Devils
Dallas Stars

Looking at that list, I'm not sure if any of those teams were ever higher than #3.

The Caps were probably second in popularity when they won. The Caps and Nats tend to swap places but each have a dedicated following. I think there was more buzz around the city during the Caps run than when the Nats won the World Series the next year. The Redskins/WFT/Commanders are still king because of how good they used to be and the reach they have across multiple generations and if they become good again with a new owner and a new stadium they’ll have a rabid fanbase again.

The Wizards are largely irrelevant as they’ve been mediocre for decades and as the dynamic of the city has changed considerably — DC used to be known as Chocolate City… now, not so much with all of the gentrification. Georgetown basketball used to be a thing but they’re beyond awful now. DC United has a very small following.