CEDAR PARK, Texas — What once seemed like a pipe dream of building an events center and bringing professional hockey to Cedar Park, Texas is now a reality. At a ribbon cutting ceremony on 14 October 2008, the American Hockey League’s newest team, the Texas Stars, an affiliate of the Dallas Stars, officially opened their Cedar Park marketing center for business.
“This ribbon cutting is one more landmark in our journey to having an events center,” Cedar Park Mayor Bob Lemon said. “This will be a first class entertainment center in addition to being a hockey venue. It will be a tremendous asset to Texas and Cedar Park and will be a first class facility.”
While the office has been opened for a few weeks, this event presented potential season ticket holders with their initial opportunity to formally meet their sales representative and receive a briefing on the layout and amenities of the facility. They were then afforded the opportunity to select their seats. In my estimation, approximately 200 seats were selected in the first 90 minutes of the event.
The large turnout pleased everyone associated with the team. Rick McLaughlin, President of the Texas Stars Hockey Team and General Manager of the Cedar Park Center was kind enough to sit down with me and talk a little bit about the team, the building and the future of the Cedar Park Events Center.
“I’m thrilled with the turnout and I’ve been thrilled with the last several weeks,” McLaughlin said. “We’ve been taking deposits and it’s really going well. Tonight’s turnout is icing on the cake. The line is out the door and wrapped around the shopping center. We haven’t even started our (formal) marketing campaign.”
As one might expect, there was a little apprehension about how the community would respond in support of the team and the center.
“I’m not shocked (at the turnout),” McLaughlin said. “But you’re always a little nervous because you don’t know if you’ve created enough buzz to make sure people know you’re here. I’m not surprised that there’s interest in hockey. I have a feeling that a lot of folks that are here travel up to go to Dallas Star’s games. You see the (Stars) jerseys out there and I have a sense that the people here are real hockey fans.”
The facility will hold just under 7,000 people for hockey and the goal is to fill about half the facility with season ticket holders.
“If we could get about 3,000 season tickets sold, I’d be glad with that,” McLaughlin said. “Our tickets are reasonably priced. The average ticket is around $20.00. I don’t think we’ll have trouble selling tickets.”
The Texas Stars are expected to begin play next October. Construction on the building site started in June and is well underway.
“The building is on schedule,” McLaughlin said. “It is about 10% completed and we’re scheduled to open on or around October 1, 2009. Everything is on track.”
Randy Locey, Executive Vice President of Business for the Dallas Stars agreed.
“We’re well under way with the construction,” Locey said. “Steel will go vertical in the next few weeks which is a huge milestone.”
There are currently 29 teams in the AHL and if nothing changes that will rise to 30 next season when the Stars come on board. What is significant is less than half of those teams (14) are owned by a parent NHL team and the Texas Stars will be one of the 14. This gives them an added competitive advantage.
“I communicate daily with (the Dallas Stars) about issues like strategies, sales competition, etc.,” McLaughlin said. “Our success helps promote their success.”
Having a parent NHL team also provides the city of Cedar Park with the confidence that the team will be around for the long term.
“The city is totally supportive,” McLaughlin said. “They are a great 
partner. They’re comfortable with the fact that I have the resources of a big league team just a phone call or email away. They’re excited that we’re affiliated with a big league team and that we’re not an independent team.”
Another advantage the team has is that the Texas Stars will control the building.
“The Stars will get the best dates and I won’t let them fail,” McLaughlin said. “We’re doing it similar to the Dell Diamond (in Round Rock, Texas). They are an affiliate of (the Houston Astros) and we’re an affiliate of (the Dallas Stars). We want to promote the team and the players so they move up 200 miles north to the parent team as successful players.”
While the current focus is on hockey, the events center will host a number of events and activities that should appeal to all members of the community.
“We’ve met with the group that controls Disney on Ice and the Circus and we’re trying to get those family shows here,” McLaughlin said. “We’ve talked to the Sesame Street people and Live Nation and other concert promoters. Other professional (sports) teams have expressed interest in coming out to the Cedar Park Center. We’d like to get 125 events into the center the first year and include everything from family events to concerts, graduations and rodeos. If it can fit inside our building, we want to have it.”
If the grand opening event and the overwhelming response to the team is an indication of things to come, it would appear that the Texas Stars Hockey Team and the Cedar Park Events Center have a rosy future ahead of them.
“This is the first professional hockey team at this (AHL) level in the area,” McLaughlin said. “Everything will be first class from a customer service standpoint and a team competitive standpoint. I hope that will differentiate us from anything else that’s in this market.”
Visit the Texas Stars web site at www.texasstarshockey.com
Contact the author at: Mitch.cooper@prohockeynews.com
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