with prompting of lincoln realtor mark claydon, who spear-headed an effort to build the city's first and only indoor ice arena, the stars came to lincoln in 1996. led by derek reynolds and future nhl player josh langfeld, the stars posted a 40–13–1 regular season record, the best expansion season in ushl history. the stars continued their domination through the playoffs, losing just two playoff games en route to winning the clark cup. every game was sold out at the 4,231-seat ice box. the success continued through the following seasons; the stars sold out every home game until early 2002. in 1998, the ice box was expanded to 5,010 seats in preparation for the usa hockey national championships (junior a). the capacity was later reduced to 4,610, as some bleacher seats were converted to club seating.