This series is about more than the Avalanche vs. Stars on the ice.
A series victory would help the winning franchise in its fight to remain in the forefront of a crowded sports marketplace.
Especially if it’s the Stars.
It has as much to do with perception as reality.
Local television ratings for Stars games are considerably lower than three years ago, and Dallas home games no longer are automatic sellouts. This season, the Stars announced sellouts for 17 of their 41 regular-season dates at the American Airlines Center.
That’s slippage. It isn’t abandonment.
Dallas, like Denver, has experienced a rink construction explosion and burgeoning youth hockey participation. Dallas, like Denver, is the home of many non-natives, many of whom were fans of other teams in their youth. Moreover, the Stars and Avalanche have nothing to apologize for creating “new” fans.
Beyond that, why is hockey the only sport in which even slightly slipping attendance is advanced as proof for the markets not being true to the sport, or knowledgeable about it? When the Nuggets and Mavericks were drawing tiny crowds, did anyone ever say, “See, they’re not good basketball towns.”?
What’s startling about the Stars’ slippage in Dallas, however slight, is that this is not happening with a rotten team. Despite the Stars’ 0-2 start in this series, they have played winning hockey this season.
In some areas, then, the Avalanche already has done a better job of creating benefit-of-the-doubt loyalty among its fan base than the Stars.
Since the glory years, when the Stars won the Stanley Cup in 1999 and got to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2000, the Mavericks have been transformed from one of the worst teams in the NBA into a highly entertaining product. Their flamboyant owner, Mark Cuban, plays to the crowds and cameras. The baseball Rangers are a losing operation, trying to cope with bad arm-slotting or some such malarkey.
Sound a bit familiar?
The Stars missed the playoffs al- together in 2002, and there was a time lag on the actual impact. The lockout hurt, not so much because of resentment in a state with limited pro-union sentiment, but because of the out-of- sight, out-of-mind realities.
Even the decision-makers in the Dallas news media have bought into the idea that the dark season and a few empty seats represent serious corrosion of the fan base, cutting back on Stars coverage.
Operating under the same Kroenke Sports ownership umbrella as the Nuggets, the Avalanche organization deserves considerable credit for doing what it could to minimize the lockout’s toll. Also, the hockey wing of the Kroenke organization probably hasn’t gotten enough credit for its community involvement and charitable work.
The Avalanche’s on-ice product, among the league’s upper echelons since the franchise arrived in Denver in 1995, is at a crossroads. General manager Pierre Lacroix’s moves haven’t been blindly endorsed, because hockey fans and even hockey-oriented media generally aren’t sycophantic. But there is general recognition that Lacroix has been the primary force in creating hockey passion in Colorado, and for that, he deserves to get some breathing room – though not complete immunity from scrutiny.
Hockey franchises often have to confront unfair perceptions parroted by both general sports fans and lazy members of the media. (Parroting? In a media room at, say, a golf tournament, one writer says, “The only fans who care about hockey are the ones at the arena. Nobody else does.” All nod. “The NHL is irrelevant.” All nod. Ergo, it must be true, and writers remind themselves to use the lines on the next scream-fest television appearance.)
Whether it’s fair or otherwise, the “losing” market in this series – Dallas or Denver – will be perceived to be losing its affection for the sport, rather than simply for a franchise perceived to have slipped.
In the NHL, that’s part of the battle.
Terry Frei can be reached at 303-820-
1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com.
