How the Stars ended up in Finland, future games in Mexico, and what's up with the Bally Sports TV deal?
Catching up with the Stars president Brad Alberts on some pressing business decisions.
One of the NHL’s worst-kept secrets was officially announced Tuesday.
The Dallas Stars are headed to Finland next season and will play the Florida Panthers on Nov. 1 and 2 in Tampere as part of the NHL Global Series.
The New Jersey Devils will also play the Buffalo Sabres in Prague on Oct. 4 and 5 to open the NHL regular season.
On Tuesday morning, I caught up with Stars president and CEO Brad Alberts for a conversation on how the Stars ended up going to Finland and some other NHL-business related things, including the looming decision with the Stars local TV deal.
The Stars have been working on playing an international game for a long time, dating back to the beginning of Alberts’ tenure in his current role.
In fact, the Stars were committed and scheduled to play a preseason game in China before the start of the 2020-21 NHL season. But those plans were understandably derailed by COVID-19 — oddly, today is the four year anniversary of the NHL shutting down for COVID.
From there the Stars and the league were in ongoing conversations about when and how the Stars could be part of the NHL Global Series, especially after the league was thrilled with how the 2020 NHL Winter Classic played out in the Cotton Bowl.
According to Alberts, the Stars were given a choice last season on whether they wanted to go to Europe in 2023 and play in the Global Series in Sweden, or if they wanted to wait until 2024 and go to Finland.
For the Stars, Alberts, said it was a pretty easy decision considering the Finnish history of the franchise, and the current makeup of the roster with Miro Heiskanen, Roope Hintz, Esa Lindell, and Jani Hakanpää.
For Hintz, it’ll be a home game in Tampere, and Alberts joked that Hintz has already requested more than 75 tickets for the game.
It should be noted, not every team wants to play in the NHL Global Series. In fact, I know there are some traditional teams that have scoffed at the idea and told the NHL, “no.” The Detroit Red Wings played in the Global Series this season, and Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said it was something that he probably wouldn’t have wanted in a year his team was truly contending.
For the Stars, Alberts sees this type of game as a chance to continue growing the Stars global brand.
“I’ve always wanted to be part of the NHL’s biggest events, we have to think big,” Alberts said. “I don’t just want to be another NHL team. I want us to be an established global brand, and for us, this is a chance to keep that growth in Europe. And this is a continuation of the strides we’ve made in the past 10 years to be more than just another NHL franchise.”
And the Stars do have a strong European following. In Finland, having been there, I can tell you they are probably in the collection of four or five most popular teams — the Anaheim Ducks are still No. 1 because of Teemu Selänne’s cult hero status.
Saying, “yes,” to events like this also win long-term favor with the NHL front office. There is a reason teams that typically play as a visitor in an outdoor game later get one at home.
This also doesn’t hurt the Stars push to play a game in Mexico.
In another poorly kept secret, the Stars want to be Mexico’s national team and have pushed to be involved in games whenever the Global Series goes there.
The Arizona Coyotes and Los Angeles Kings have also pushed to get into the Mexican market, while the Vegas Golden Knights have a full-time Spanish language broadcast.
“We’ve had those discussions, as you know, and we remain committed to wanting to playing a game in Mexico if the league decides to do that,” Alberts said. “Ultimately we want to be Mexico’s team. And we are cultivating the Latino and Hispanic fanbase here in Texas. So that’s a very important international spot for us, right now it’s just up to the league to make decision to go and host those games, because we are very interested.
What about the TV deal?
In addition to navigating international growth, one of the biggest things Alberts and the Stars are navigating right now is the local TV deal.
Bally Sports Southwest, the Stars current regional sports network (RSN) and rights holder, has been in turmoil. The parent company, Diamond Sports, declared Bankruptcy about a year ago, and the Stars, like every NHL team, have been scrambling behind the scenes to find solutions.
The Stars, as many have reported, have been exploring direct-to-the-consumer options and over-the-air solutions — similar to what the Golden Knights have done with their TV deal.
More on the Vegas situation here:
But the key thing to remember with this, specifically for the Star, is that this is a $20 to $30 million problem to figure out.
Alberts won’t give me the exact number on the value of the TV deal with Bally Sports, but it’s well accepted/known that it falls in that range for NHL teams.
“Things seem to be getting closer, at some point the situation with Diamond and it’s bankruptcy has to come to an end,” Alberts said. “They can’t be in bankruptcy forever. It’s either going to be a viable television business or it’s not. And it’s no big secret, it’s either the current RSN situation, or it’s some combination of over-the-air situation or direct-to-consumer play, and all the teams are looking at that.”
Alberts calls it a two-pronged issue.
The Stars, he admits, need to be more accessible on TV and to consumers. But economically speaking, how do you make up that many millions of dollars that the RSN model accounted for?
“It’s a huge part of how we run the business and how we pay players,” Alberts said. “There is by no means a defined answer, if there was, everyone would have done it already. This is by far the biggest and most complicated business problem I’ve ever faced in my career.”
The Stars also effectively have to work and find ways to stick the landing in a market where the Texas Rangers and Dallas Mavericks are also dealing with the same issues. As Alberts put it, the Rangers might have the most RSN power, because without summer programing, do you really have a TV network?
Alberts also wants solutions sooner than later.
He wouldn’t put an exact timeline on it, but hinted that there could be movement one way or the other later this month potentially, or it could push into the next 60 days.
“That deadline is starting to come soon,” Alberts said. “I don’t want to do what we did last year where we waited all summer and up until training camp there were questions about the TV deal and what are we gonna do if they aren’t around? That wasn’t enjoyable at all. So I don’t want to do that again. Everybody is trying to give Diamond time to see what that situation looks like before we make a decision, like they can’t be in bankruptcy forever, so then we’ll all have to decide and that decision you better be ready for, because it’s coming pretty quick.”
As someone with no clue on how these things work, could the Stars team up with the Rangers and Mavs to essentially make their own broadcast situation?
A huge F off to Bally's. The sooner they fade into oblivion won't be soon enough.