By Mark Rea

Less than two years after their 1999 Stanley Cup victory, the Dallas Stars were treated to a new home at the state-of-the-art American Airlines Center. Now, focused upon returning to the top of the National Hockey League, the franchise will open what many believe will be the league's top practice facility.

When the Stars reported for preseason training camp this month, they traveled to the north Dallas suburb of Frisco and to the newly completed $20.2 million Dr Pepper StarCenter.

The 220,000-sq.-ft. facility is the second of two jewels in the 72-acre Frisco Sports Complex. It is situated adjacent to the Dr Pepper/7-Up Ballpark, home to the Frisco Roughriders, the Texas Rangers' Class AA farm team.

Dallas-based Centex Construction Co. served as general contractor for both sports venues in the complex, completing the StarCenter in mid-July.

The building features a practice rink and spacious dressing and training facilities for the Stars, and will be home to the Texas Tornado, a Junior A team that plays in the North American Hockey League, the premier junior league (ages 16-20) for skill development and career advancement in the United States.

One of the equity owners of the Tornado is Stars forward Mike Modano. "The situation here with this team and this new facility is unbelievable for these players," the seven-time NHL All-Star said. "They are going to be playing in a world-class facility and the Frisco community will be an ideal place for players to stay and live with host families."

Modano is part of an ownership group headed by majority owner Bob Schlegel, chairman of Pavestone Co. of Dallas, the nation's largest producer of concrete landscape products.

Getting Started

Groundbreaking for the StarCenter got under way in August 2002 with the drilling of more than 300 piers to a depth of approximately 20 ft. The 24-in. diameter piers support a concrete slab that contains nearly 40 percent of the concrete in the entire two-story structure.

The upper levels, which contain corporate office space for the Stars, are smaller slabs on metal decks.

"It is not a conventionally structured steel building," said Centex project manager Tony Linker. "It is a pre-engineered structure that was fabricated elsewhere and then brought to the site and erected."

According to Linker, the advantages of a pre-engineered structure are varied. "For example, the pre-engineered steel columns are tapered and allow for much longer spans," he said. "Therefore, the fewer columns needed, the less money you have to spend. In my opinion, this process was very cost-efficient."

Arlington-based WFC Constructors Inc. fabricated the structure for the StarCenter, which was originally designed at 204,000 sq. ft. with an open area for a gymnasium or retail area. However, after Stars owner Tom Hicks decided to entertain offers from potential buyers for the team, management that had overseen operations of the Rangers and Stars had to be divided. Because the franchises are now run independently, corporate office space was needed for the Stars' new front office personnel.

"We went into that original open space and added another 16,000 sq. ft. of floor on two elevated decks," Linker said. "That change came after we had already started construction and it has been challenging to say the least.

"We were getting ready to close up the building, install the façade and the curtainwall, and start putting everything inside and we had to hold off on those things until we got the structural steel in. Since that time, we have erected two levels of steel, poured concrete and put an additional elevator in, all of which came after the roof was completed."

Crews entered the building to drill additional piers inside as well as erect grade beams in the small, enclosed area that will become the Stars' corporate headquarters.

In mid-June, while other crews performed finish work throughout much of the facility, workers were continuing to pour concrete for elevator shafts and fire-rated walls in the multilevel office space.

"We actually pumped concrete through a window," Linker said. "With the pre-engineered building, the roof is part of the structure, so it went on before the second floor was completed. You also have to be inside the building to erect the structure, so in fact, most of the concrete was poured after the roof was already on. That can present problems, especially if it gets wet. But we were fortunate and didn't have any problems."

Plano-based contractor Hill & Wilkinson Ltd. performed the placing, finishing and formwork of the concrete as well as installation of the reinforcing steel. Lattimore Materials Co.'s batch plant in McKinney supplied more than 4,500 cu. yds. of concrete for the facility, and Brundage-Bone of Irving handled pumping of the concrete.

Big-League Amenities

Although the Tornado is a Junior A team, their new home will feature amenities usually reserved for franchises in the high minor leagues or the NHL itself.

"There certainly was nothing like this when I was playing junior hockey in Saskatchewan," Modano said. "The ice is pretty much the same all over, but that's about the only thing that's the same."

The Cedar Park office of Oklahoma City-based Coreslab Structures Inc. supplied the precast concrete for a seating bowl that will contain enough room for up to 3,600 spectators. The arena features a unique top-load seating system whereby patrons enter at the event level, ascend to the top of the seating bowl and then descend to their seats.

The bowl is also ringed by eight luxury suites that will feature theater seating as well as food and beverage service.

Canadian contractor Commercial Refrigeration of Edmonton, Alberta, oversaw construction of both rinks inside the StarCenter. The rink floors are insulated with a multilayered system that allows for the best ice possible. Each layer of ice will be situated atop a subsoil base, 8 in. of sand, 3 in. of rigid insulation and a vapor barrier topped by 5 in. of concrete.

"The slab for the Stars' practice rink is approximately 17,000 sq. ft., and once we poured the slab, we didn't allow anyone in that area," Linker said. "You can't get that concrete dirty once its poured because then ice won't adhere to it. So we had to protect that floor any way we could. We wrapped tires on scissor lifts and made precautions for spillage from any type of machinery.

"The other problem that created was a lack of space. You would think with a building that was over 200,000 sq. ft., you'd have a place to store materials. But when you take a chunk of that right out of the center, suddenly your workspace is kind of tight. We were able to work around it, but it took some careful planning and scheduling."

Other NHL teams are already envious of the StarCenter and have made plans to tour the facility. Linker took Stars head coach Dave Tippett on a guided tour of the site in mid-June and the team plans to use it as an incentive to lure top free agents to Dallas.
"The dressing rooms alone are a recruiting tool," Linker said. "The area is twice as big as the one they have at their current training facility (at Valley Ranch) at nearly 15,000 sq. ft." Individual lockers feature light oak millwork complete with dehumidified compartments underneath for sanitary uniform storage.

Also contained in the StarCenter are eight other dressing rooms, each approximately 400 sq. ft., to be used by youth leagues, as well as a spacious 3,200-sq.-ft. retail store that will be stocked with hockey sticks, skates and pucks as well as Stars and Tornado merchandise. Included on the ground level will be the Tornado dressing room area and offices, a skate rental area, ticket office, concession area, office space for building management, and a 12,300-sq.-ft. gymnastic center scheduled to be operated by 1984 U.S. Olympic gold medalist Kurt Thomas.

When the Stars and Tornado are not playing or practicing, the rinks will be open to the public for youth hockey leagues, figure skating and recreational skating.

The Dr Pepper StarCenter is only the latest of multimillion-dollar sports venues to be built in Frisco. Collin County commissioners recently voted to help fund a $65 million soccer complex in the city that would include a 20,000-seat professional soccer stadium and 17 fields for amateur soccer.

The 93-acre complex at the northeast corner of Dallas Parkway and Main Street would be jointly funded with the City of Frisco, the Frisco Independent School District and Hunt Sports Group. The group operates the Dallas Burn soccer team, which would play in the stadium. The stadium is expected to be completed in time for Major League Soccer's spring 2005 season.

Work also began in June on a 320-room Embassy Suites Hotel, a 100,000-sq.-ft. convention center and a 650-car parking garage at the Frisco Sports Complex. Those projects are scheduled to be completed by September 2004.