DALLAS — The Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Stars both advanced to their respective conference finals, marking the first time in history where they have done so in the same season.
The Mavs and Stars postseason success has set up a busy schedule for the American Airlines Center, which will host multiple playoff games over at least the next week, potentially two weeks if either or both series goes to five, six or seven games.
There have been five other arenas since 1982 that have hosted NBA and NHL conference finals simultaneously, making AAC the sixth. The other five are:
- 1985: The Spectrum – Philadelphia Flyers / 76ers
- 1988: Boston Garden – Bruins and Celtics
- 1989 / 1990 / 1992: Chicago Stadium – Bulls and Blackhawks
- 1994: Madison Square Garden – New York Rangers and Knicks
- 2003: Continental Airlines Arena – New Jersey Devils and New Jersey Nets
For those who are curious, here's how those teams fared in their playoff runs. All five of the seven NHL teams advanced to the Stanley Cup Final, where two of those four hoisted the Cup. Four of the NBA teams lost in the conference finals, two lost in the NBA Finals and one won the NBA Championship.
No arena has ever hosted two championship winning teams in the same season.
- 1985: 76ers lost in conference finals round to the Boston Celtics, Flyers lost the Stanley Cup Final to the Edmonton Oilers
- 1988: Celtics lost in conference finals round to the Detroit Pistons, Bruins lost in Stanley Cup Final to the Edmonton Oilers
- 1989: Bulls lost 4-2 in conference finals to Pistons; Blackhawks lost 4-1 in conference final to Calgary Flames
- 1990: Bulls lost 4-3 in conference finals to Pistons; Blackhawks lost 4-2 in conference final to Edmonton Oilers
- 1992: Bulls won the NBA title over Trailblazers 4-2; Blackhawks lost to Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup Final, 4-0.
- 1994: Knicks lost in NBA Finals to the Houston Rockets, Rangers won the Stanley Cup against the Vancouver Canucks
- 2003: Nets lost in NBA Finals to the San Antonio Spurs, Devils won the Stanley Cup against the Anaheim Mighty Ducks
The Mavericks start their conference finals series against the Timberwolves on Wednesday. The Stars drop the puck against the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday.
Editor's note: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported that only four arenas hosted conference finals simultaneously, citing a tweet from Tony Fay PR, the public relations agency for the American Airlines Center. The previous version of the story did not include the 1989, 1990 and 1992 Chicago Stadium teams.
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