New Sheriff in town

DALLAS - The Dallas Stars have spent the season near the top of the National Hockey League standings yet at the bottom in attendance, with announced crowds averaging 10,000 and change. Actual houses are in the 7000-8000 range nightly.

Forbes magazine reports the team lost $38 million during their last fiscal year and $92 million over the past three seasons. They're pegged to lose another $30 million this season, so it may be difficult to fathom how, for Vancouver businessman Tom Gaglardi, the new owner of the Stars described the transaction as "truly one of the best days of my life."

Gaglardi owns Northlands Properties, a stable that includes Sandman Hotels, Denny's restaurants, Moxie's Classic Grills, Shark Clubs and the Kamloops Blazers of the Western Hockey League. Now he owns a Stars franchise that was once the jewel of Gary Bettman's southern expansion, but today has a financial picture so ugly it could make a freight train take a dirt road, as they say down here.

Truly, only a Canadian would buy a hockey team that is this distressed.

"I'm so honored and humbled to have a franchise in the National Hockey League, and especially one I spent my whole life growing up in Vancouver admiring," said the 43-year-old. "With all the success the Dallas Stars have had, I can't believe that a day has come where I get to be associated with such great tradition in such a great city."

Forbes reports that Gaglardi contributed just $50 million in cash into the $240 million bankruptcy purchase that left many creditors with a fraction of what they were owed. That makes for a tough start in the corporate community for Gaglardi, who has brought former Stars president Jim Lites back for his third run with this team, in hopes of rekindling some of the love from the Dallas' business community.

If the bills are indeed 'big as all hell and half of Texas,' Lites can at least see where the product has emerged from its darkest days.

"If you look at some of the things Joe (GM Nieuwendyk) has done, they were really hard things to do, but they are now in the past," Lites told the Dallas Morning News. "I mean, saying goodbye to Mike Modano was just a really, really hard thing to do, but Joe made that tough decision and the team is better today because a player like Jamie Benn is getting to move forward. Moving on from Marty Turco and Jere Lehtinen, really tough things, but now we have the goaltender of the future (Kari Lehtonen) and a great two-way forward in Loui Eriksson."

Now, they merely have to replace losing with winning, and Gaglardi's seats might get filled.

When the Stars were a dominant team in the late 90's, the landscape here in Texas was perfect for an emerging winner. The Cowboys were making the papers more for being arrested than winning football games. The Mavericks were positively Clipper-esque, and consecutive A.L. West titles in '98 and '99 did not bear a single playoff victory for the Rangers, who were swept in the first round of the playoffs both years.

Meanwhile, in the NHL's pre-salary cap era, the Stars were buying up free agents and jockeying with Patrick Roy's Colorado Avalanche and Steve Yzerman's Detroit Red wings atop the Western Conference. In '98 the Stars lost the Conference Final to Detroit. The next year, with Brett Hull's foot planted firmly in Dominik Hasek's crease, they brought a Stanley Cup parade to Dallas. In 2000, the Stars lost to New Jersey in the Final.

"There was energy put into marketing. We'd built all the satellite rinks around town. We had people in management like Bob Gainey, Les Jackson, Doug Armstrong, Craig Button… The depth was staggering with smart hockey people," said longtime Stars analyst Daryl Reaugh.

But as then-owner Tom Hick's empire began to fail, the defections began. Brett Hull was brought back as a co-GM and he made the disastrous Sean Avery signing. The marketing budget was slashed year after year, and meanwhile, the other teams in Dallas began to win.

The Cowboys have made the playoffs in four of the eight seasons since 2003. The Rangers got a new park, and have played (and lost) in back to back World Series. Mark Cuban bought the Mavericks, and since 2000 they've made the playoffs every year, winning an NBA championship last spring.

And the Stars? "The budget had gone down to the floor, and we haven't made the playoffs (for three straight seasons)," Reaugh said.

Cuban has provided Gaglardi with the template for turning a moribund franchise around. It's all about customer service - appreciating the paying fan in a market where his sports dollar has a lot more landing places than in Toronto or Calgary.

He's got a good team on the ice, and Nieuwendyk has a fantastic payroll situation, with $28 million in cap space for next season.

What was once a fantastic hockey town could be one once again. The bills between now and then however, will be more Ritz Carlton than Sandman for Gaglardi.

Mark Spector is a senior columnist for Sportsnet.ca Follow me on Twitter.com @SportsnetSpec

Mark Spector is the senior columnist on sportsnet.ca