Dallas Stars Ownership Problem Shows the Investment Status of the NHL in the US

If the NHL thinks that someone is going take the money-losing Phoenix Coyotes off their hands in the near future, they need to start taking drugs to get their heads out of the sand.

Coming up is an encore performance by the Dallas Stars, though it won't be as embarrassing or costly for the league.

The Stars, a former Stanley Cup Champion will probably file for bankruptcy later this week which will lead to the sale of the team.

Unlike the Coyotes however, the Stars will get an owner right away who believes in the Dallas market and will not seek to move the team.

He's Tom Gaglardi, the owner of Moxie's Restaurants and a hotel chain.

Unlike the Jim Balsillie affair, and the Winnipeg/Atlanta deal where prospective owners Dave Thomson and Mark Chipman were put on hold for over a year, this sale will get quick approval by the NHL, so no apparent damage will be done.

But if you look between the lines, this episode shows the low status the NHL has always held in the United States.

First of all Gaglardi is Canadian like Balsillie, Ice Edge, Thomson, and Chipman.  No American investors stepped forward to buy the team.

Second, the team has been available for sale for more than two years and no investors have rushed to the rescue any more than they have for Phoenix.

A move from Dallas would be even more damaging to the NHL than the one from Atlanta.

Dallas is a former Stanley Cup Champion and a franchise transfer would mean that even a championship was not enough to establish hockey roots in Texas.

When it is considered that Jerry Jones can put nearly 100,000 fans into his immense palace for nearly every Dallas Cowboy game no matter how bad they are, it shows how little the Stars are valued by Dallas fans.

The Stars departure would also hurt the chances for the NHL to one day possess an American TV contract on par with the NFL, the NBA, and MLB.

It would also hurt their chances to bring in Houston as an expansion or relocated team.

Dallas has become another embarrassing example for the NHL in their attempts to prove that they are a continent-wide league that merits a rich American television contract.

They are now ranked with Phoenix, Atlanta, and Florida as bad examples of trying to establish hockey where it has no roots.

But for now the Stars are safe.  It will be up to the new ownership to try to re-establish interest in hockey in Dallas.

It remains to be seen how much patience Tom Gaglardi has.

And if the NHL were smart, they would learn from this Dallas lesson and get out of Phoenix quickly, because it's obvious they aren't going to find an owner who believes in the Coyotes.