Talks between the Dallas Stars and the city of Fort Worth about the Stars appearing in Cowtown are still in their nascent stages.
After Stars chief Jim Lites said earlier this week the Stars were interesting in having their training camp at the Fort Worth Convention Center, Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price confirmed she and city staff members met with Lites and his staff six to eight weeks ago over lunch on the topic.
There haven’t been any substantive conversations between the Stars and the city since then, says Kirk Slaughter, Fort Worth’s public events director, whose staff oversees the downtown Convention Center.
Slaughter said Thursday that a city staff member is planning to contact the Stars to see where the team wants to go next.
Based on the lunch conversation, the Stars are interested in the training camp scenario and possibly “playing a game or two in Fort Worth,” Slaughter said. The conversation didn’t get specific enough, but Slaughter said his sense was those games would probably be exhibition or pre-season.
“They’ve got a really good arena to play in over in Dallas” at the American Airlines Center, Slaughter said.
Slaughter says the city has identified some dates in mid-September to present to the Stars.
The Convention Center has regular seating capacity of about 10,500, plus the city can add another 500 to 1,000 seats witi low-rise seating next to its dasherboards, Slaughter said.
It takes the city about three days to build an ice floor, Slaughter said.
Crews bolt a dam to the floor and chill it with a cooling system. Dasherboards and glass partitiions go in next, then crews begin the process of “flooding the floor” and freezing it in layers.
It takes about a day to remove the ice, by turning off the chillers and heating the floor, Slaughter said.
“We’ve gotten pretty good at taking the ice in and out,” he said.
The Convention Center has hosted Fort Worth Brahmas hockey games and has two coming up in March.
- Scott Nishimura, Star-Telegram Fort Worth City Hall reporter
Twitter: @JScottNishimura
Photos: Fort Worth Brahmas at Fort Worth Center, top; Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center, Dallas
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