By Casey Eskridge
Here's one for you sports or hockey fans. I recently spoke to Buffalo Sabers fan who attended the Stanley Cup finals between the Sabers and the Dallas Stars years ago. She said it had been easier and cheaper to fly from New York to Texas, and get a ticket for the games held in Dallas than to go to a game in Buffalo. On top of that, she said there were probably more Buffalo fans than Stars fans at the games in Dallas.
Besides the fact that she went to the game, I can't say if any of her story is really true. I do know that it took a while for hockey to catch on in Texas and I have to admit it seems a bit out of place so far south. With the Austin Ice Bats doing well, the groundwork is being set for another Central Texas hockey team in Cedar Park.
DETAILS ON THE $43M HOCKEY COMPLEX
Last Thursday the Cedar Park City Council approved a memorandum of understanding with Hicks Sports Marketing Group, a company headed by the owner of the Dallas Stars and Texas Rangers. Although the agreement is preliminary, it calls for the city to fund more than $43 million of a $55 million entertainment center that would be home to a Dallas Stars affiliate hockey team.
- The contract would also allow Hicks to develop 17 acres of the city-owned land surrounding the center for retail, commercial, and/or residential purposes.
- Although the primary purpose of the entertainment center would be for the American Hockey League team, in the office season it would be a general venue for concerts and the like.
- The complex would be located off the new 183-A between New Hope Drive and Crystal Falls Parkway.
Cedar Park plans to raise the money for the development with certificates of obligation, bonds that aren't subject to voter approval. A binding agreement will have to be finalized by the middle of December.
With the way Cedar Park and Leander are growing, I have no doubt that this kind of development can succeed. Another Central Texas hockey team? Well, the Stars have won the Stanley Cup . . .
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