In Wild-Stars Playoff Matchup, History Comes To A Head
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The Wild begin their playoff series against the Stars tonight in Dallas.
That is, of course, the team that played its first 26 years in Minnesota before leaving in 1993.
Twenty-three years after the North Stars left for Dallas and became the Stars, the Wild are facing them in the playoffs for the first time.
It's a matchup that brings back a lot of painful memories of when the State of Hockey lost its hockey team, and the man who took it away. Team owner Norm Green remains one of the most hated men in Minnesota.
"Actually it's not fair," said former North Stars great Lou Nanne. "Because if the sports and facilities commission would have helped," they wouldn't have left.
Nanne was no longer with the North Stars at the time, but he sure tried to help get them to stay. He says it would've taken only $15 million in arena improvements – a drop in the bucket compared to the $280 million to get the expansion Wild seven years later.
"The Met Center was not a building that could sustain the salaries of today," Nanne said. "You only had 20 suites. They wanted to put in 40 more. They couldn't get it."
In an interview back in 1993, Green said he was left with little choice.
"It's just a financial thing. Nobody tried harder than us, but it didn't work," Green said back in 1993. "If this franchise could have been successful here financially, it would have been here."
Nanne said he's been in contact with Green this week, and that it bothers Green that people still blame him.
"Oh yeah, it bothers him a lot," Nanne said. "He says there's no way he's coming back to Minnesota. He says they'd want to kill me. But he understands how upset people were."
Green sold the team only three years later, but still lives in Dallas.
As for the upcoming matchup, he told WCCO this week in an email, "Wishing them an entertaining series."
No team has left the Twin Cities since, and certainly not over stadium issues.
"The folks in charge got the message, "Green wrote this week. "They went on to create great facilities to ensure it did not happen again."
