Stars have a shot to upend Mavs - should they take it?

Bob Sturm and Ralph Strangis break down the opportunity the Mavericks have given the Stars to own local winter sports - but it comes with risk.

Editor’s Note: Bob Sturm, (aka Sports Sturm, The Hardline, The Ticket in DFW) and Ralph Strangis (the quasi-retired former voice of the Dallas Stars) are close friends, and love sparring and trading thoughts on S P O R T S. Bob’s been around. Ralph has been inside. This is the first in a series of collaborative posts.

You can also follow Ralph’s work at his new adventure Ralph Stack, here.

Bob: Ralph, you and I have been watching this thing - this DFW winter sports landscape – for a long time. Heck, you literally came to town with the Stars equipment from the Twin Cities. I have always been interested in the “Game of Thrones” in this city for who gets to eat after the Cowboys are full from a “DFW sports fan attention span” basis. Who gets to run the city?

Here’s what I want to unleash you on. Are we finally at a spot where the Dallas Stars can make the winter sports casual sports fan a hockey loyalist?

We know the Rangers have the summer if they are decent and they sort of live in the background if they stink. But, people love baseball and that will always have its audience. But, the winters? Well, that window between the Cowboys telling us this isn’t their year (which happened in September last season) and the end of the best playoff run has always been between the Stars and Mavericks. The NBA is usually up here (as I hold my hand up by my head) and the NHL is down here (down by my waist) in terms of national attention. It really still isn’t close. The 10th most famous basketball player is still way more famous than Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby and the 100th best contract in the NBA pays its guy (Bruce Brown – quick, what team does he play for?) way more at $22.5m AAV than the best NHL contract $14m.

Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, PJ Washington, and Daniel Gafford all make more per year - easily – than any Dallas Stars player. Heck, Naji Marshall (I bet you don’t even know that name is pretty much making what Tyler Seguin is making). In summary, basketball dwarfs hockey at all times in nearly all cities south of our Northern border. This is not really even a debate worth having.

However, I went to my first post-Luka Dallas Mavericks game on Saturday Night and it felt like we were trying to carry on without mom on the first Christmas Morning after our parent’s divorce.

It was all missing. Nothing felt normal and nothing felt right. Meanwhile, the night before and the night after, the Dallas Stars clobbered two teams that had won Stanley Cups - the LA Kings and the St Louis Blues – since Dirk had raised his trophy in 2011. The Stars are really good. The Mavericks feel like a team that just committed franchise suicide.

So my friend Ralph - is this finally the time?

I know many are just not into hockey, so I am not talking about them. I also know some have vowed to be Lakers fans, but I bet that feeling is temporary for most. I am talking about the one who just wants to love a local sports team that can make them dream and make them happy again. Is this the Stars best chance to wrestle away a huge part of the market share? Is it a reasonable idea in this city to grab the center stage of the winter-spring sports window? Or am I ignoring the reality that hockey is still hockey and nobody even knows what Wyatt Johnston looks like?

In other words, should the Dallas Stars seize the day and aggressively attack the opportunity and do something crazy at the deadline to go all-in as the Mavericks hold a funeral that never ends? Let’s chat about it. In fact, I will shut up and see if you cook!

Ralph: Bob - All of what you’re saying is true. The NBA is an objectively stronger league in all major metrics, as you outlined above. One of the reasons for this - and a recurring problem for the NHL who can’t catch up with any of the other three - is the NHL has been very slow to make the same fundamental changes to their product as the others. That’s a big and chronic part of it - but let’s set that aside for a moment and focus on what you’re proffering in this local market scenario.

The Cowboys are the Cowboys. Leave them over there. Baseball is baseball, and you’re right - a good or great season there occupies only the shoulder seasons of the Stars and Mavericks. They don’t factor in what we’re talking about.

You’re correct that the “winter teams” in DFW are in direct competition with each other. I can tell you frankly (from my time with the Stars organization) that while we said the right things publicly, and had a very cordial relationship with the other AAC anchor tenant, (the Mavericks) it was a competition. We wanted the spring to ourselves. We were happier - and things were better for us the years they were out and we were playing. My guess is they approached this the same way.

Even so - the Mark Cuban Mavericks - and the Hicks or Gagliardi Stars - worked together. Had common interests. Were respectful of each other. I used to do Suite Visits during the playoffs with Donnie Nelson. I emceed events that featured both teams. We all got along. The partnership among the teams and the Arena Operating Company was strong.

I’m not sure that it’s like that now. I hear rumblings…

And Bob - I think it’s exactly the time for the Stars to pounce - and I got ideas for how they do it. It starts by publicly treating the Mavericks as a hostile tenant - because this Mavericks group is.

I want the Stars to bury them.

Bob: Oh wow, that sounds pretty spicy. A hostile tenant? So, that doesn’t sound at all like keeping your eyes on your own paper. That sounds like buying billboards and taking shots at your cross-hallway neighbors. So, let me keep this part short and ask for you to elaborate a bit. Also, let me ask whether that could backfire? Tell me your plan, because it doesn’t sound like you just thought of this!