Last week we mentioned the steps the city of Duncanville was taking to turn the Dr Pepper Starcenter into an indoor basketball facility. The city is discouraged from slow business and supposed lack of support from the Dallas Stars franchise. After word got out that the DPSC was in jeopardy, groups started forming to fight the closing and keep hockey alive south of Dallas.

This also comes at the same time that the team is announcing the grand opening of a brand new, state of the art DPSC in McKinney. While I can't speak on the politics of exactly what is happening in the DFW area as far as hockey goes, I do know that the cities north of the DFW area have received more attention from the Stars and have many more ice facilities at their disposal. There is still a large contingent of hockey players in the Duncanville, Mansfield, Cedar Hill, Midlothian, and Arlington, and having the ice surface in Duncanville is extremely more convenient for them. If that closes, hockey players will be traveling much, much further to play hockey. As someone who grew up living in Cedar Hill and playing hockey in Addison and Grapevine I know from experience how incredible it was to have the DPSC open up just down the road.

This isn't a knock on the opening of new DPSC in McKinney, in any way. I'm ecstatic that the team and the area are still working to promote this great sport in North Texas and I know that there are plenty of hockey players and fans who are ecstatic to have one in their backyard. In fact, I've received word that anyone in attendance at the Grand Opening will receive 2 free tickets to a Stars game in September.

However, I do wish that something could be done to help keep the DPSC in Duncanville. Oh wait, there is!!!

Via Wil Dobson at WhereHockeyHappens.com, I've been informed that there is an online support group for the DPSC. They need as much support, comments and traffic as possible so please head on over to Support Our Rink and give them a little bit of your time. Even if you don't live in the area, we all benefit when hockey is supported anywhere in Texas.