A new arena name takes effect with a press release. Its real test begins when people have a reason to walk through the doors.
For Fifth Third Arena, that opportunity arrives Dec. 5. The Dallas Stars and their naming partner plan to launch community skates on the first Saturday of each month at the NHL club’s Frisco practice facility. The inaugural event is scheduled for 3:30 to 5 p.m., with appearances by Victor E. Green and the Stars Ice Girls.
Selected sessions during the year will carry themes or community giveback initiatives.
That is a small event for a building with more than 6,000 seats. It is also the clearest measure yet of whether Tuesday’s rebrand becomes more than a new name attached to the Stars’ NHL practice home. The club and Fifth Third Bank announced that Comerica Center had become Fifth Third Arena, effective immediately.
The important question now is how much of the renovated facility reaches beyond its professional occupants and into ordinary public use.
Tuesday’s announcement also describes a recent multimillion-dollar renovation that will introduce four video boards, ribbon boards, an audio system, seats and a party deck. Those additions could improve the way an event looks and sounds. They could make the building more comfortable for people already inside.
The release supplies a list of improvements, rather than a reason to assume every element was installed and operating on the day the name changed.
They cannot, by themselves, establish whether the place works for a family deciding whether to return. A public skate can. Admission prices, the ease of signing up, the quality of the ice experience and the reliability of the monthly schedule will matter more to that judgment than the sponsor’s lettering over the entrance.
The announcement gives a date and a time, but it does not give an admission price.
That missing price is not a scandal. It is simply one of the practical details that will shape the program’s reach. A public event can be welcoming in its description and still prove difficult to repeat if participation costs too much or if the schedule becomes irregular.
The Stars have announced a series rather than a single ceremonial afternoon, which gives the program a fair chance to become part of the facility’s identity. It also gives visitors a standard against which to judge it.
Presentation can help a public session feel like an arena event rather than an afterthought. Clear announcements and a comfortable place for accompanying spectators would be welcome uses of the proposed improvements. The essential attraction, though, is still a chance to skate in a building that serves an NHL team.
The Stars can offer that experience without pretending a video board is the reason someone laces up.
There are limits to any early verdict. The renovation is described as recent, and Tuesday’s announcement does not say that every element was completed that day. The Dec. 5 skate has been scheduled, but its attendance and repeat participation cannot be known in advance. One session should not be asked to certify an entire venue program.
Still, the partnership has created a clear public obligation, even if no such obligation was stated in the announcement. Fifth Third completed its merger with Comerica in February and opened its first Texas financial center in Frisco in April. The sponsorship therefore has an obvious business side. The public-skate series is where the arena can supply the public side.
If the sessions are consistent, reasonably accessible and worth returning to, Fifth Third Arena will have earned more than a fresh sign. If they become decorative dates around a sponsorship, the renovation will remain easier to describe than to experience. The name changed Tuesday. The building’s reputation will change only when people can use it.
Sources
Dallas Stars: Frisco arena announcement
