“I didn’t drop my gloves. They were pulled off me!” – Mike Modano

Arena: American Airlines Center (2001)

Location: Downtown Dallas, Texas

Game Attended: February 23, 2020 vs Chicago

Game Result: 2-1 Stars victory

Seat Location: Officially: Upstairs Corner, Stars Shoot 2x End; Unofficially: Row 4 next to the Chicago bench.

Overall Impression: Another Southern Hockey Town: Great Building, Average Fans

Welcome to Texas! The land of oil, country music, cattle farming, and a whole lot of steak. The land of fun-loving people who love a good time. The land of a team that did NOT win the NFC East in 2019! The land of the Dallas Stars. In a nutshell, Calgary minus all the snow.

After much hype from coworkers and friends, I recruited Boston Drew for a long-weekend getaway in Texas to go see a Stars game and visit our college friend Justin. And despite unseasonably chilly and rainy weather, we still had a great time cheering on the Stars!

American Airlines Center is a really impressive facility located on the edge of Dallas’ Downtown and Design Districts. Opened in 2001, it still feels very modern and has definitely aged gracefully. The red brick exterior and “Victory Plaza” were really nice features. The Plaza included a pre-game country concert and a mini-rink where kids could play some street hockey before the game.

Owing to its name, the arena pays homage to American Airlines, a Dallas institution for decades. In fact, many parts of the arena concourse felt more like an airport terminal than a huge arena. If only American could lower their ticket prices and stop changing my flight schedules all the time…thanks for the four hour delay in Denver next month, AA!

As we circled the concourses before the game, we ran into the Stars mascot, Victor E. Green. Victor is……..he’s…….uhhhh……not really sure here. Apparently he’s an alien? Doesn’t really make any sense to me, but hey, guess I don’t really have room to talk – my beloved Flyers have Gritty!

Inside, the arena was quite large and spacious. Justin even pointed out that the entire building was designed as a hangar, and I have to say, he’s spot on! The Stars also had a pretty cool light show before the game, and the players skated out of a giant neon-lit star that drops from the ceiling.

As for the fans: I expected more energy than I saw for a weekend game against a division rival. There were quite a few Chicago fans in attendance, but I’m not surprised at that – I saw the same trend in Columbus. But there were still quite a few empty seats throughout the building (three of which we moved down to after the first period), which is always disappointing to see. Perhaps the tickets were priced too expensively (we paid $100/seat for the third row upstairs), or perhaps the cool, rainy weather kept some people at home. Whatever the case, I didn’t find the in-game experience to be too thrilling.

And despite Victory Plaza being right outside the building, it didn’t seem like there was that much going on in the neighborhood outside the arena before/after the game. There were a few spots to eat/drink right on the Plaza (we had drinks at Hero before the game and Shooters after), but not much elsewhere. It reminded me of my trip to Pittsburgh – the arena is downtown but it doesn’t seem like it’s in the best spot downtown. Or maybe Downtown Dallas gets quiet on the weekends. Either way – it was an okay neighborhood, but probably just okay.

So all in all, it seemed like American Airlines Center was a nice building and maybe we just caught the fans and neighborhood on an off day. It seems like the underlying trend for Sun Belt hockey teams is that there’s a lot of excitement and activities to draw fans in, but perhaps the fans themselves aren’t the most devoted hockey fans in the world. After all, they do have their second place football team to worry about!

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