How Rotten Ownership Extinguished The Minnesota North Stars 

Stars should never have left Minnesota

"Dude, Where's My Franchise?" is a hit, I hope they come out with more

Loving this Hockey History vid series! And the North Stars' 1988-91 Green Jersey is still my all time favourite jersey design!!!!

As a Winnipegger I understand this video very well

Pisses me off that Dallas took our team and won the Stanley cup right after they left.

Huge North Stars fan as a kid. Caesar Maniago, Gump Worsley, Bill Goldsworthy, “Moose” Vasko. Backyard hockey rinks and new hockey skates every Christmas. Minnesota was a great place to be a kid

Terrible ownership doomed the north stars. Such a shame the state of hockey has yet to have a stanley cup title.

These NHL vids are why I'm subscribed.

I am a Minnesotan and I would have cheered for the North Stars if they had stayed. But today I am cheering for my new team, the Edmonton Oilers, against the Stars. I have a North Stars jersey, it is my only non-Oilers jersey and I really wish they stayed.

The mention of contemporary historical events in the introduction is a really nice touch. This is top notch content.

I am still very bitter about losing this franchise. The Wild are (ok) but the North Stars were known to be a different animal come playoff time no matter where they were in the standings. That 90-91 season was awful snuck into playoffs beat #1 Blackhawks then Blues and Oilers 4-1. Pitt was the better team we lost in six. Fuck! now I'm sad. Wild haven't done shit!

So, The NHL awards the groper an open invite to take a franchise out of Minnesota, rather than punishing him for his harassment. I guess no surprise, look what theyve done to Chicago for much worse behavior by executives some 30 years later.....

the 2000 expansion was cursed tho. the wild havent made it to the conference finals since 2003

The Stars have been in Dallas longer than the North Stars were in MN. That still blows my mind. My last North Stars game was 1991, game 3 against the Cup Defending Oilers. It was electric! I wanted season tickets so bad, but they moved before a early 20s kid could afford them. So I had Wild season tickets the first 4 seasons, had a blast. My seats were below the 1 banner raised in the video. The Norm Green chants and Bettman boos were deafening. lol

Sometimes I wonder if a Stanley Cup title could have kept the Stars in Minnesota, especially in 1991. Then again, the Wild having a two decade conference finals drought suggests that the move to Dallas may have only been delayed rather than prevented. More often than not, title droughts are due to dysfunctional ownership rather than so called curses.

You nailed it! The move should have never happened. In fact, Gary Bettman said that if he knew then what he knows now, the North Stars would have stayed in Minnesota.

Loving this series! I'm getting my popcorn ready for the eventual Oakland/California (Golden) Seals episode. That franchise was a flaming hot mess

I’m a Dallas Stars fan. Have been since they moved in ‘93. I’m not a fan of cities losing a professional sports franchise at all, however, it’s difficult for a franchise to stay in a city when they can’t make money to pay players and staff. As a fan, it’s difficult to pay your hard earned money when the on ice product is sub par. The North Stars had both of those problems, and an aging arena was the third issue that couldn’t be remedied. Just like the second iteration of the Washington Senators moving to Texas to become the Texas Rangers under then owner Bob Short (who is a pariah in DC), Norm Green did the same thing to the North Stars by bringing them to Dallas. I will say this: I would like to see the number 19 retired here as a gesture of respect for the franchise’s history as a whole.

Would like to have heard a bit more about some of the decisions that Norm and others made. Otherwise, it seems that the fanbase was surprisingly fickle and could not accept a losing team. BTW, I can't get over how small the average crowds were for expansion teams.

There was a bunch of stuff going on. One thing was that the Met Center had no luxury suites, walk up sales beat season ticket sales and Lester Bagley the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission chairman had his eye on selling the Met Center property at a price tag of $25 million. So when Norm Green came to Bagley and the commission saying they needed the luxury suites to compete financially at a cost of $11 million. The North Stars did not own the arena. They paid rent. But Bagley said if the North Stars want suites they have to build them on their dime. I felt that Bagley knew it was a deal breaker which would mean the commission could sell the arena. And it was exactly that. The arena ended up being sold for that $25 million. To the Metropolitan Airports Commission. Great. Soon after, the name was changed to just The Stars and once their lease was up, it was off to Dallas. There was a bit of a local scandal with a secretary filing a sexual harassment suit against Norm Green over a comment that she should wear some lipstick to improve her appearance. Fans were pissed. The team had finally become a really good team and went on to win a Stanley Cup with essentially the team drafted while here. There is some blame on all sides - fans, state government and the team. The fans for lack of support, the team for lack of a good product and the state government for not providing the team with the tools to build a successful team with those suites. Ironically, when they tried to demolish the Met Center with explosives they couldn't do it. They ended up having to finally take an extra heavy wrecking ball. It barely came down. It's still a sore spot here even though we have the Wild and a very nice arena in Xcel Energy Center. I went to games as a kid from the first year they started up to when they left. (Except for my 4 years of military service from 1984 to 1988) Oh, and it's Gilles Meloche (Mel- Awsh) and Caesar Maniago (Mah-Nee- Ah-Go)

For someone who just started watching NHL in the late 2010s, these are awesome!

It is kind of funny how they got really lucky moving to Dallas and being able to easily fit the Stars nickname into the Lone Star State. (Just dropping the "North" part because calling Texas "the North" is about as truthful as calling Minnesota warm.)

I really like these hockey mini docs! It helps me out a lot as a new fan of the sport.

Can’t wait for the Hartford Whalers one that’s got to come out soon

Bro sounds like he’s tryna sell me Slushie Magic

This video got a lot right, a couple of things wrong, and missed a couple of things. The attendance problems they got right. Which means, bottom line, the blame for the team leaving was fan support, or really lack of fan support. Blame also goes to the Metropolitan Sports Commission, a group who fleeced ownership of the Met from the original North Stars owners, who built it. The Sports Commision never helped with renovations at the Met. The Gund Bros. spent their own money adding some suites to the Met in the mid-late 80s. Later, Norm Green spent $20 million of his own money renovating the Met after the Commission refused to help. Now nobody would spend $20 million renovating a rink if he planned to leave 2 years later. Something wrong. The Logo change. The new logo was unveiled very early in the season they went to the finals (Green's 1st year as owner). They had the logo on the ice, on the boards, on programs. Norm Green was part of NHL owners on a league board called the NHL Vision for the 90s. The board wanted new logos, new colors, and new design jerseys. All of this was on full display the next season with the new logo and jerseys. Something missed. Lou Nanne. Lou was a former North Star player, afterward briefly coach and GM, then GM, and later team president. The man is beloved by hockey fans in MN. However, the guy was a horrible GM. Yes, he made some good draft picks (Modano, Neal Broten, Brian Bellows, Bobby Smith), but he also made some horrible ones like Brian Lawton. Lou drafted Lawton #1 in the same draft were he could have drafted Steve Yzerman or Pat Lafonte. OOPS!!! He also made horrible coaching hire decisions after Glenn Somner needed leave because of alcoholism. He traded away Bobby Smith after Smith set a franchise record scoring 115 points in a season because the new coach didn't like him and took him off the power play. That coach was later fired. The merger with the Barons and the success that followed made him look like a great GM. In a Sport Illustrated article in 90 or 91, titled Falling Stars, Lou is blamed for the many mistakes he made as GM for the team's downward spiral in the standings over the years. Also missed. While the video acknowledged the North Stars had to compete against the WHA St. Paul Saints. The North Stars also had to compete against the beloved University of Minnesota Golden Gophers hockey team. In the Sports Illustrated article about the team's upcoming move to Dallas, a fan was quoted saying "why pay $20 and watch the North Stars lose, when you can pay $10 and watch the Gophers win". Wow! That really sounds like loyal fans. Ultimately, the blame for the North Stars leaving belongs to the Metropolitan Sports Commission and the fans. If all those fans who said "Norm Green sucks" actually bought season tickets AND kept their season tickets, the team wouldn't have left. One little extra about the great fans in the so called State of Hockey. After the 89-90 season, when it looked like the Gund Bros. were going to move the team to San Jose, Channel 5 News and the Star Tribune did a poll asking fans if they would care if the team left Minnesota? 60% said NO they wouldn't care if the team left.

Lost interest in the NHL when the Stars moved to Dallas. The biggest slap in the face in the history of professional hockey.

Loving this Hockey History vid series! They truly makes this channel !!!!!

What I want to know is what happened to the Gund's lawsuit against the league. They lost money on the deal to found the San Jose Sharks after being told they weren't allowed to move the Stars, then when Norm Green was allowed to they Gunds said what the heck? I found an old issue of The Hockey News announcing that the Gunds intended to proceed with legal action against the league, but I can't find anything else. A lot of the Google results about a Gund lawsuit come back from a recent settlement from a US police department paid out to someone who's last name happens to be Gund.

These videos are cool, love to hear about the history of fallen teams

It wasn't the money or fan support. It was Norm Green getting involved in Sexual Harassment that caused the North Stars to leave for Dallas.

I grew up in MN during the North Star era. People just didn't go to the games or support the team unless they were winning. The Timberwolves almost left MN around that same time for the same reason as well.

This video series is the best!

THEE Hockey State was robbed. This move would never ever have been approved of these days.

The only NHL game that I went to was a Los Angeles Kings vs Minnesota North Stars at the Fabulous Forum in LA in the early 80s.

It’s been over 30 years and Norm Green still sucks.

Sadly, this team moved to Dallas one year too early to be included in NHL '94 😒 In a different universe, the North Stars franchise would have never moved to Dallas and Dallas would have gotten an expansion team.

2:49 WHAT IS THIS SONG? I’m sure it’s a royalty free song, but it’s so good it distracted me from what you were saying when those extra horns came in.

One of my old time fav Jerseys and name

I never noticed that both the Cleveland Crusaders(WHA) and Cleveland Barons(NHL) both "folded" and moved to Minnesota. Also, when mentioning pro sports teams in Minnesota you failed to mention that before the Vikings and Twins came to be Minneapolis lost the Lakers to LA in 1960. And one thing you were incorrect on, when Masterton got injured, it wasn't before helmets. It was before helmets were mandatory. Some players wore hockey helmets as early as the 50's(previously scant few players wore helmets and when they did they were leather football helmets). It wasn't until Masterton's death that more players began wearing them and by the 1980's they were made mandatory for all new players and the practice of not wearing helmets was phased out. The last unhelmeted player in the NHL was Craig McTavish. You mentioned the great Gump Worsley, he was on of the last goalies to not wear a mask and even he wore one in the final season of his career(journeyman Andy Brown was the last official player in the NHL to not wear a mask). And incidentally, in the 1979-80 season the North Stars were the team to end the Flyers still standing 35 game unbeaten streak.

IT'S A SERIES LET'S GO

This contradicts a magazine article at the time that stated after the Cleveland merger there were 2 owners. The owners got along fine for several years but when they started losing money they started arguing over where the team should be relocated. One owner moved half the team to Dallas and the other owner took the other half of the team to expansion San Jose.

As an Arizona resident, I can understand the pain of losing an NHL franchise. This happened in my home area less than two months ago.

When the North Stars started in Minnesota in 1967 (when the NHL first expanded with 6 new teams) they played at the Met Centre in Bloomington, Minnesota. The Met Centre was considered one of the best arenas in the NHL at the time. The ice was considered by visiting players as the best in the NHL as were the spacious dressing rooms, the lighting on the ice etc. Ultimately when the North Stars left the Met Centre was demolished and it took many attempts at implosion to bring it down as it had been so well built.

While there were a lot of moving parts that resulted in the Stars relocation to Dallas, there is a lot more to this story than what the video mentions. Fans love to blame Green alone, but the fan base at the time was partly to blame. They were the dagger that ultimately led to the decision to relocate, due to low attendance. Green was the mastermind behind the Flames move to Calgary, and just like Dallas they were immediately loved and accepted, with both teams winning the cup less than ten years after their relocations. Calgary in nine years and Dallas with six.

I never saw a boring game back at met center.those teams brought it every night.

Around the 1350 mark, you can see Dan Gladden and Jack Morris walking by

I always felt that the Minnesotans' familiarity with hockey was a curse as much as it was a blessing. After all, if the North Stars were bad then they knew it and chose to stay away, especially as there was plenty of hockey that didn't suck. I feel bad for the Minnesota hockey fans that lost their team, but as a lifelong baseball fan in Texas that got into hockey by watching the Dallas Stars the past few years, I am thankful the Stars are in Dallas.

Great video! Could you please do one on the Hartford Whalers?

As of half a decade ago, Minnesota had one of the top fan experiences, so I'm glad that stayed true

Bill goldsworthy is on the hall of fame in my city of Waterloo

To the Stars credit, they basically acted like they were an expansion team once they moved to Texas. They don’t have any North Stars banners in the arena and they never wear throwbacks from before they moved. The North Stars history technically belongs to them but they might as well give it to the Wild.

They just moved to Dallas that's not extinguishing, that's relocation. :)

Actually the franchises of Philadelphia and Oakland were at first awarded to Seattle and Baltimore but both pulled out when they failed to provide the money deposit at the deadline.

Correct me if I am wrong. I thought the Cleveland Barrons were the original California Golden Seals ( they had a few names), so when the swindle was pulled and the ownership returned to the Bay area it was full circle ⭕ Were they not the San Francisco Seals, but move to Oakland before first game where they had more names than wins? Oakland Seals, Bay area Seals, California Seals, then California Golden Seals....😢

I became a fan in 1991 when they played penquins in finals....my best friend has all the games on vhs tape....

I always found it inconceivable that a team could be in the Stanley Cup Finals one year and the very next year be sold off and dissolved.

Man I keep wanting to watch these but the narrator just kills it.

This mfer has the goofiest voice he should be voice acting for a children’s show

Then-Minn. North Stars spent 26 seasons (1967-1968 thru 1992-1993) in Bloomington, Minn. before transplanting to "Big D", City, Dallas in Tex. for 1993-1994 season

The one thing that was left out of the video is that the sticking point was that the wolves owners basically made it impossible for hockey to happen for the owner. They wanted the money from everything but the tickets. So harv and marv are just as culpable for the move as green is. MPLS lost out and could have cemented itself as the sports town for all four teams.

The North Stars always had a great physical team and were very tough

Bobby Smith #15. My all time favorite Minnesota North Star. 👍

Good video. Also, was the presenter the voice actor who did Facebones on Metalocalypse?

I still have and take very good care of my Dino Ciccarelli hoodie !! special occasions hoodie like Vikings games

I always liked the team name North Stars.

DFW is more than double the size of MSP. Even so, MSP is still the 16th largest metro area and a hockey town. The North Stars didn’t have to move.

The stars had a heck of a team in 1991 . Lost in finals to Pens .

Awesome Video, Please do the Whalers next.

Usually franchise moves take a majority of NHL owners to approve a move that didn't happen here

I would not exactly call this franchise a failure. The North Stars had some solid hockey teams. It just proves how bad moves can ruin a good thing.

More of these. Houston Oilers please

The same thing that ruined Atlanta Thrashers, terrible ownership and management

Loved the Cleveland Barons.

i wish the North stars stayed.

They will ALWAYS be the MINNESOTA North Stars to me.

Liked the whole video. If you are going to bother flashing stats, W/L or Attendance or whatever, make them readable. Hockey fans love stats.

Please do San Diego either the chargers, clippers, or rockets

Norm Green still sucks.

Wow they've really dropped the standard for retiring jerseys xD

Don't forget the soft drink war between Coke and Pepsi that led the North Stars refusing to play in the Target Center. Target Center was contracted to Coca-Cola, while the Met Center was contracted to Pepsi

The Beatles also played at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington in 1965

There were worse owners but *St Louis not going to the 1983 draft* had to be the stupidest move ever. Relax Minnesota, hockey is here to stay.

You forgot the drafting of Brian Lawton. They handled him so bad. They had him playing in the NHL when he should have been playing at UND or in the W for a couple of years.

Norm sucks thanks for robbing me of many great memories

I still want the early 90s black North Stars jersey.

I am a Dallas Stars fan

Vintage clips great. Graphics great. Host voice, better, more toning down required. Do we need to SEE the host? Does not advance the doc. Give him the intro and the exit. That is enough. Backwards Ball cap ? Really?

Nothing beat a North Stars / Blackhawks game in the mid 80’s….Dino sucks

Target Center sucks for hockey....I went there for an exhibition game between bos/phi......sight lines where horrible....never would have worked.

Its 1967 but feels like WW2 Movietone reels.

It was an all time franchise name. Perfect for a hockey team. Some how they screwed it up. In a huge hockey state. Way to go Minneapolis.

The Wild era is arguably worse than the North Stars (from a team success standpoint) 🤣

As someone who followed the North Stars religiously as a kid growing up in Minnesota in the 1970s--1980s, I just came here to say NORM SUCKS!

Wild fans might be #1 but the team hasn’t ever been

Still have one of their jerseys

Minnesota was ok with the Stars leaving until they weren't.... the dagger is, only years after they left, the won a stanley cup and Minnesota has had two teams and no stanley cups.

North Stars wanted less than 2 million for arena upgrades state said no. Guess how much it cost to get the Wild? A hell of a lot more and they had to take down the Civic Center to build the X. Pretty stupid in the long run

Guess I'm old by asking this, but I will anyways. Wheres the suit my good man?

No helmets is just CRAZY