The 2010 NBA All-Star game was hosted by the Dallas Mavericks, but was held in Arlington, Texas in the massive football stadium that was built as the new home for the Dallas Cowboys.
A record crowd of 108,713 showed up to watch the midseason exhibition, and it was truly an amazing event -- one that isn’t likely to be repeated in the future, at least according to Mark Cuban.
Cuban wants to host the All-Star game once again, but wouldn’t hold it at Cowboys Stadium if he had his choice.
From Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas:“I wouldn’t do it there again,” Cuban said. “That was a one-off. Been there, done that.
“It’s hard to repeat that. It’s hard to get people excited a second time. The second act’s a lot harder.”
“The first one was so successful, you don’t try to top it,” Cuban said of using Cowboys Stadium as a venue. “It’s hard to recreate something like that. It’s just a Marketing 101 type of thing. It would be difficult, and the last thing you would want to do is throw a party and have no one show up.”
The NBA’s popularity is at an all-time high, and holding it in a venue that large -- even for a second time, and even in the same city -- would likely be similarly successful.
Fans that are normally priced out of attending the All-Star game, thanks to very limited public ticket availability along with a price tag that was $500 per ticket a season ago, would be afforded the opportunity to attend, even if only in the stadium’s upper reaches. And, the league could always give tickets away if it came down to it, as they do for other All-Star weekend events like the Rookie-Sophomore game that kicks off the festivities that Friday night.
Either way, Dallas will likely get another shot at the All-Star game. And for better or for worse, Cuban is probably right that it won’t be held at Cowboys Stadium whenever that happens.
