Someone Actually Wants to Buy the Dallas Stars. And Keep Them Here.

By Richie Whitt Wed., Mar. 2 2011 at 11:00 AM

Categories: Dallas Stars

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The fear with the Dallas Stars is this: Tom Hicks would so bury the team that no one would buy them and eventually they'd leave Dallas.

It appears, knock on ice-covered wood, that a savior has arisen. Goes by the name of Doug Miller.

Everyone from Mark Cuban to Wayne Gretzky to Mike Modano has kicked the Stars' tires since they went up for sale in April 2009. But it's Miller, an oil and gas man who owns the minor-league Allen Americans, who has -- according to The Hockey News -- made a cash offer of $110 million and agreed to assume debt of another $100 million to acquire the financially strapped franchise.

The lenders who now run the team in the wake of Hicks' financial fizzle haven't received any formal offers anywhere close to Forbes' most recent appraisal of $228 million. The report says the Stars have lost $26 million over the last 12 months. Yikes.

The Stars, who hope to be sold by June 30, would be happy to have Miller as the new owner, seeing that he would certainly keep the team in Dallas.

The 62-year-old is the chairman of the board and CEO of Exco, a Dallas-based oil and gas company, and is a longtime supporter of area hockey. He has funded the Dallas Stars' AAA Midget Major travel team and created the CHL team in Allen in 2009.

Under Miller, the Americans are one of the best, most popular teams in the CHL.

The Stars won a game on the ice last night, beating Phoenix, 3-2. But off the ice, the news was potentially much better.

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Allen Americans, hockey, Tom Hicks

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There has never been a risk of the team moving.
But will you pay $100 a ticket, $70 to park, and $9 per beer to see a team that's going to go 1-15? It's one thing to be a fan, another to put your money where your mouth is. To me, shelling out that kind of dough to see a team that sucks doesn't show your fanaticism near as much as your stupidity. The only thing the owners understand is money. The only way to get them to invest in and improve a team is to hit them in the pocketbook.
Despite his other failings Bettman is determined to keep stick and puck in the Sun Belt. Deal with it. I still don't give a big rat's ass if the cocaine and boob job crowd ever come back. Allen won't move the team any more than the owner of Blackberry could move the Coyotes out of Phoenix back up to Canada, Bettman said no. If he won't let that epic fail of Atlanta move he certainly won't let Dallas leave. BTW there are plenty of natives up there in the seats and watching on the tube. You don't have to be a damnyankee to appreciate stick and puck.
no he doesn't, he has no control over the team anymore. god people just talk out of their asses.
Being from here I absolutely hate the term "winner's town". Dallas is a whiner's town. Meaning if a local team isn't winning, it's fans are whining. I'm not from a winner's town, I'm from Dallas. I root for me team regardless of whether or not it's winning 16, 82, or 164 games a season.
ScottsMerkin, you hit it on the head. If you want fan support in this town, just win. Hell, Dallas was so desperate for a winner, we got on the Sidekicks' bandwagon back in the late 80s. Just as true - if you want lukewarm support and a general chorus of "meh", then spend a few seasons in the middle to lower end of the pack. It's happened, at one time or another, to every pro team in town. It's the Stars turn right now. To think it can't happen to the Cowboys is absurd. The shininess of the Death Star will wear off pretty soon, and then people will start looking a lot differently at shelling out hundreds of dollars for seats/parking/concessions to watch a mediocre team. The Stars are-positioned as well as anyone to make a late-season/post-season run. There's some talent here. A team getting hot at the right time can go a long way in a tournament like the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
razor said that too, he wondered if Lehts would ever get a shutout as a star. At this point, I dont care as long as they win, but giving up 2 that late shouldnt happen
A lot has changed since then man. Since then Jerry has bought the team, they won 3 super bowls, and they moved into the new stadium. I think some people go to the stadium, just to be a part of the atmosphere. I went to every game this year and it was packed every game, even after they were out of it.
I realize Lehtonin is an upgrade over TURDco, but is this em effer ever going to mix in a shutout? If not last night, when???
First of all, I would like to commend you for using the phrase "butt hurt". Secondly, you might want to tap the brakes a bit on the "empty seats" comment. Back when the Pokes were 1-15, Texas Stadium was so empty you could hear crickets chirping in the background. Troy Aikman's own mom wouldn't waste her time going to a game. Many games were blacked out, and Kroger had to buy remaining tickets for some games in order to get them on TV. Dallas is a winner's town and always has been. The Cowboys are no exception to that rule.
Most of the hockey fans in this town are transplanted northerners who grew up with the sport. the thing that hurts hockey the most is the access. With the other sports, you can go anywhere and play them, with hockey, you have to go to the rink.
First off, Im not butt hurt, I know exactly where the stars stand in the local scene. In fact I enjoy bc I can attend a game and sit real close for cheap bc idiots ignore the stars end stub hub has awesome seats for cheap right now. Secondly, I guess everyone wants to forget how terrible the boys were in the late 80's and the empty seats at the old stadium. Go Rangers,
Why are Stars fans so sensitive? I'm sorry man, but things are the way they are. Cowboys are number 1 in this town no matter what. I think you are wrong about there ever being empty seats at cowboys stadium regardless of how many losing seasons they have. People go if they are playing. Period. I wish the Rangers were number 1 here, but I know they aren't and I am not going to be butt hurt about it. The Stars own station barely talks about them, now what does that say?
They were embraced and loved here when they were winning. just like very other team in this front running town. If they win they are supported. Remember when they had the longest sellout streak in DFW going? Yeah head back under your rock buddy. If the boys have 3 losing seasons youll see empty seats out there at jerrahs world too
A couple of things here.... 1 The Stars are the only "southern team" that still has a decent following and had doen consistanly well since they moved here. 2. the league would rather move or contract any of the other southern teams than dallas. 3 just because tom hicks sucks, doesnt mean the franchise sucks 4 hicks doesnt really have a say anymore in who and how much the team sells for, thats pretty much up to Monarch who is toting the note now. Now how about that win last night. What a wonderful game to watch. we are playing better and should get Richards and/or rossman back by Saturday, this team is going good places folks
Dallas has one thing none of those stadiums (maybe Metrodome).... a new arena. That is the reason all those teams left.
I didn't read the story, but I did read the headline and this doesn't make me happy. They need to be sent to a place where they will be embraced and loved. That will never happen here. Hell, they are the last team to win a championship here and they are still the last team on the totem pole.
They said the same thing in Cleveland with the Browns, in LA w/the Raiders, and methinks the Vikings are saying the same thing. Oh yeah, they said the same thing when the Whalers left Hartford.
I don't think the Stars would move. They still have a pretty decent following here, and the problem with moving an NHL team is you have to find a place where they can make money. Just ask the good folks in Phoenix.
You are forgetting that one Thomas Lucifer Hicks owns the team, and will fight tooth and nail against any offer that doesn't meet his version of "fair market value." Since he got forced to sell the Rangers for a loss and Liverpool FC for a loss, and his supply of unicorn bone powder to snort is running low and he'd like a couple new platinum plated centaurs and a Bugatti Veyron made entirely out of black cherry wood, carbon fiber, and the hides of only the finest woolly mammoths, he won't accept any reasonable offers like that.
Stars would NEVER leave Dallas. Why would the NHL allow a team w/ a good stadium to get up & leave. The team isnt ran well. That is why they lost money.
This is not a story about baseball, football, queer Boomers, the person who's name I cant reference, smokin' meats or hiking........meh! Atleast give me a story I can read, like, how Jeff Beck came up with that furious ending on "I'm a Man" or how Robert Johnson was REALLY killed (yuppies and metro's can utilize WIKI to see what I'm talkin about), or maybe a story about whitewater rafting down the Mountain Fork River, when they release the dam?