Did You Know
The '''Dallas Stars''' are a National Hockey League team based in Dallas, Texas. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). They play their home games at the American Airlines Center. Prior to 1993, the team was known as the Minnesota North Stars.
Franchise history
1967-1993: Minnesota Years
The Minnesota North Stars began play in 1967 as part of the NHL's six-team expansion. Home games were played at the newly-constructed Metropolitan Sports Center (the "Met Center") in Bloomington, Minnesota. Initially successful both on the ice and at the gate, the North Stars fell victim to financial problems after several poor seasons in the mid-1970s.
In 1978, the North Stars were purchased by the owners of the Cleveland Barons (formerly the California Golden Seals), the Gund brothers, George III and Gordon, and the NHL permitted the two failing franchises to merge. The merged team retained the name Minnesota North Stars, but assumed the Barons? place in the Adams Division. The merger brought with it a number of talented players, and the North Stars were revived, making the Stanley Cup Finals in 1981, where they lost in five games to the New York Islanders. However, by the early 1990s, declining attendance and the inability to secure a new downtown revenue-generating arena led ownership to request permission to move the team to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1990. The NHL rejected the request, and instead agreed to award an expansion franchise, the San Jose Sharks, to the Gund brothers. The North Stars were sold to a group of investors that were originally looking to place a team in San Jose, although one of the group's members, Norman Green, would eventually gain control of the team.
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