Hockey in the South?

When you think of hockey, you don't necessarily think of the beach, barbecue, or the desert. Logistically hockey does not make sense in southern markets such as Dallas, Arizona, or Florida, but the NHL has found some success in those cities. This is due to the teams marketing and advertising themselves well enough to generate real interest in the teams. In fact St. Louis, Dallas, San Jose, and Tampa Bay all operate between 98%-100% capacity throughout the 41 games each team plays at home.

The Dallas Stars are one of those teams that have worked hard to increase interest in their city. Dallas is such a big city, and if people want to go to sporting events, they have just about as many options as New York or Los Angeles. Dallas currently has the Dallas Stars, Texas Rangers, Dallas Mavericks, Dallas Wings, FC Dallas, and the Dallas Cowboys. Thats a lot of competition that the Stars have to face. Not all teams run games dousing the same time of year, but the Dallas Mavericks run their season directly parallel with the Stars. The Stars are still able to bring in a large crowd and thats due to the advertising campaigns they run. 

These two billboards although may not be large television commercials or expensive campaigns, but they work because the Stars know their demographic and what they enjoy. People enjoy the sport of hockey because it goes fast, their aren't many stops in the middle of a game, and it has a heightened yet mature level of violence. 

The Stars know this well and they execute it perfectly. They also know that the youth movement in this country will eventually drive their sales, which is why they utilize comedy in their ads taking playful shots altho he other sports in town. Dallas did an amazing job building the groundwork for their financial success throughout their future.