"The American Airlines Center (AAC) in Dallas!"

Come one, come all to see the finest hockey and basketball establishment this side of the Mississip'!! Okay, so maybe I embellished just a bit for effect, but when teams get a brand new building to hone their craft, they must be doing something right. So hop on the bus as we take a tour of the only place to see the Mavericks and Stars do their thing:



Before we can have a hockey game, we need an AM station to broadcast it!! Here we see the WBAP broadcasting team of Ralph Strangis and...some other guy calling the exciting (and ultimately futile) Dallas Stars vs. Los Angeles Kings game.



Yes, make some noise we did!! We had to do something to get the seemingly bored Stars players to put some points on the board! Remember in "Return Of The Jedi" when Darth Vader came to see the completion of the death star and when he was told the men were working as hard as they could, he quipped, "Perhaps I can find new ways to...motivate them." Coach Vader...has a nice ring to it.



If the image were WAY sharper, we might be able to read the names of the players who have had their numbers retired...or maybe it's championship banners...whichever.



The Haggar Slacks blimp makes its way around the arena. What's interesting is this blimp still uses deadly hydrogen gas to power itself from seat to seat. One stray spark from a cigarette and POW! the entire building explodes. Makes ya wonder why they don't use harmless helium. Glad they banned smoking from inside the arena.



Finally the moment we were all waiting for!! GOAL!! Mike Modano was definitely the star of the game with not one but TWO goals on the night. Even though we lost 3-2. I can bet Modano was in the locker room after the game saying to his teammates "Wasn't my fault we lost...wasn't my fault...we...lost..." Nah, I doubt he said that. Seems like something a real jerk would say. But enough about Ed Belfour...



And finally, what evening would be complete without one last shot of our beloved skyline? We parked on the fourth level of the garage and we had a perfect shot. That big green building really put us on the map. Still don't know what goes on inside of it.

Well, there you have it!! Hope this tour was informative as well as entertaining. Now if the Stars and Mavericks could just figure out a way to win the big one...