How Black Bear Changed Youth Hockey — For Better and Worse

I've tried to stay on the sidelines for a majority of the controversy and angst among hockey parents and programs when it comes to Black Bear...but with all of recent articles in the national media lambasting them over the crooked "stay-to-play" practices of their tournaments, I figured now is as good a time as any to air some laundry.

All three of my kids played for a youth hockey program that was absorbed by Black Bear over an off-season.

We were there before...and we were there after.

They came in and bought the building, which included the team charters, while also purchasing five other local rinks -- 7 ice surfaces total.

It was quite the shake-up in the region when it happened. Uncertainty.

And here's the thing...I know everyone blasts them for ruining hockey and running up costs and blah, blah, blah...

And I'm not going to deny that all of that is 100% factual...because it is...but...

Well, honestly, the building we were playing out of (and even the one before it that they also acquired at the same time) were in dire need of repair and renovation.

I mean...not to the notoriety level of HockeyTown in Saugus, Massachusetts...but still in really rough shape.

Speaking of HockeyTown -- it really is an experience every hockey family should take in.

Really, if you happen to drive by it on the way to another game, stop in.

Terms like "old school" or "nostalgic" don't do it justice. It'll set a new bar for you the moment you open that first exterior door.

Anyway, so Black Bear came in, threw a fresh coat of paint on things, replaced all of the flooring, re-paved parking lots, put up goofy clip-art style signage outside the buildings, and then melted the ice surfaces down, one at a time, to correct decades worth of neglect.

For a bit, they even repurposed a fleet of Zambonis from NJ and PA (based on the area codes on the advertisements on them) in Connecticut while they put our dated resurfacers out to pasture behind the building.

The rinks weren't dilapidated by any means, not on the exterior...but they required some really pricey repairs.

All of them.

Black Bear came in...and did that.

That was a good thing.

Parents still complained endlessly...but, taking a step back, I'm thankful they came in.

From a "real estate" perspective, they seemingly knew what they were doing, you know, being that acquiring property is frequently a path to wealth.

From a business operations and hockey perspective...mistakes were made.

Repeatedly.

Over and over.

And over.

And continue.

We're like 5-6 years into their rapid expansion at this point...and the vortex of ruin they've left everywhere they've gone has finally started to boil over.

I'll start with the business operations piece first.

The first mistake they made was basically cutting out 100% of the existing staff at the rinks they acquired.

My perspective was that Black Bear was of the mindset, these undervalued businesses and properties were failing, or underperforming, upon acquisition and it had to be the people that were the problem.

Totally get it.

Problem was...they brought in new people with zero experience for the local scene. Or, for at least one of the buildings, their "existing" staff evaluation process upon acquisition was a total failure as they kept the least competent person in the building...and let them run the show on their own.

At one rink, double bookings, no zamboni drivers, doors locked for 7am games with forty families waiting outside...well, that became normal. Clearly the "wrong" person was running the show...

They also didn't know the ins-and-outs of which programs were held in high regard and which were not. They didn't even seem to care. Jets, Stars, Eagles, Dragons...didn't matter. They were just USA Hockey charters -- all of equal value.

They came in seemingly thinking that the hockey landscape was cookie cutter.

If it worked in Maryland, it'll work in Connecticut.

If only it were that simple.

Every single hockey parent out there knows it's not that simple.

How a corporation, rooted in youth hockey, could come in thinking it was that simple still has my jaw on the floor.

We live in Connecticut. The Hartford Whalers "lore" here will never die here...still going strong 30 years since they left.

It's one of those things -- you just need to live here to understand it. I mean, I don't get it...let it go, people, they're not coming back...but I've also accepted that it's just a nostalgic regional pride thing or something.

But Black Bear came in and shuttered the youth program named the Whalers.

Seriously...the one place having a program named the Whalers made the most sense...and they squandered it.

C'mon, that's low hanging fruit -- and they not only chose to let that fruit fall off...they cut the whole tree down.

So stupid.

The Whalers program wasn't strong and had been declining for years, that's a fact, but this is what Black Bear has become known to do -- shutter programs that have been around for decades that are known entities in the community.

You mention hockey in Connecticut...and the first thing that comes to mind, even for folks that don't follow hockey, is the Hartford Whalers.

Read the room, man.

Don't shoot from the hip thinking all of your ideas are gonna work everywhere.

They won't.

They haven't.

It's a common theme across their constantly growing portfolio of rinks.

To their credit, though, they brought in some super high-end hockey people right out of the gate.

Like, holy crap, five of our top contacts in hockey were Black Bear hires.

I'd never have met four of them if not for Black Bear.

They had an uncanny ability of plucking the best of the best from non-Black Bear rinks and getting people to relocate.

I mean, I know how they managed that -- fancy titles and promises of full unchecked control to really build something up.

I mean, the sky was the limit.

The future really was brighter than it had ever been...because of Black Bear.

Two of the best coaches we've ever had -- that thankfully were involved in coaching and mentoring all three of my kids -- were from our Black Bear years.

But read that again.

See? Did you catch that?

It's subtle...but it was the root of the issue.

Why were these coaches on the ice with 3 (or more) teams?

My kids are 2009, 2011, and 2015 birth years.

They worked with these coaches concurrently. That's...a little unusual.

Can you say overworked and understaffed?

Add in that they were also way overqualified to be coaching mite hockey. And learn to skate. And even helping repaint the locker rooms.

It's no wonder that they all relatively quickly moved on to other hockey positions OUTSIDE of Black Bear.

But, look, I was giving them the benefit of the doubt when they made their entrance into our market.

Cleaned up our building, brought in high end hockey coaches. Things were looking like they might work out just fine.

As a regionally known hockey parent, I was actually on zoom calls with Murry Gunty himself, the Black Bear founder, a couple of times and countless emails too.

Sharp guy. My first impression was, "Wow, cool...wealthy guy with a true passion for youth hockey and really investing in it. A good hockey dad that had the means to really change things."

He was electric -- the enthusiasm was there...but also, occasionally, a little out of touch on certain things.

One thing he'd harp on was social media.

Every Black Bear team at every age level was REQUIRED to put out numerous social media posts per week -- he had this attack dog guy really shaming programs and specific team managers.

Mundane stuff like game scores -- as if ANYONE not already in the building cared about a squirt game result...let alone four of them in a single weekend.

Low end programs were putting out more social media content -- awful content, by the way -- than NHL teams with full blown marketing staffs. Per corporate order.

If you live in a Black Bear region, you've seen it on your feed. I mean, it's hard to say it's worse than AI content...but it's worse than AI content.

He'd put out documents titled "Tier 1 Social Media Audit" where teams were "ranked" on their social media output and others were shamed -- in person, on the calls -- for not meeting the mark. Volunteers, I might add.

The message was "Strive for 3 posts per game".

We're talking low end hockey...with per period updates online. It was ludicrous.

Like, I'm a clear pane, totally transparent...so I'm thankful I wasn't on video cause the eyerolls were coming more and more frequently as the calls went on.

I mean, I'd worked in pro hockey within marketing departments -- this was a misguided approach.

One of those things where "the boss" stops recognizing that quality is greater than quantity....but everyone just nods along.

So much time wasted micromanaging peripheral tasks like that -- posting that the U10 team lost 4-3 to another Black Bear team...who had to post that they'd won 4-3.

Forty-five minutes of an hour-long weekly call was spent dealing with trivial things like this...

It's okay that the Zamboni leaks transmission fluid on the ice or that the dehumidifier is down, though...

But that's their thing -- they were trying to "scale" rink management in a cookie cutter style based off of what, I'd assume, was one of their early success stories.

Don't believe me? I mean, I wouldn't believe it either...but here's one of those audits.

Money, money, money, social media, money, money...

It wasn't working.

I tried to help with their mis-marketing of our region once it was apparent they had no idea what they were doing.

Worked as a contractor for them -- building out a bunch of their rink websites.

I'd designed and hosted the websites for a number of the properties and teams they'd acquired in Connecticut and I kinda thought they'd have me help "cookie-cutter" them to look just like all of the other Black Bear teams and rinks throughout Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

Or, at the very least, provide them with vector versions of the logos for all of the teams and buildings they'd acquired...and maybe the phone numbers of the figure skating coaches they'd quickly ousted upon arrival before they realized that the figure skating market brings in a ton of revenue during otherwise dormant hours.

You know what they had me do?

They had me transform and rework three websites to look like websites they'd already redesigned in the Philadelphia area...for rinks in Ohio and the Pittsburgh area...

And that's when I saw the red flags for myself.

I've got some pretty deep roots in youth hockey when it comes to Connecticut. You just bought five buildings in our State...but, no, have the guy in Connecticut do NOTHING in Connecticut but be the digital presence for our western front.

You know, rinks I've never been to. Eight hours from home.

Teams we've never faced.

Utilizing local talent meant nothing to them. Held zero value. They continually failed to read the landscape of the regions they expanded into.

And you know what happened after I re-designed and re-deployed those websites for them?

Admin passwords were changed, ghosted on emails, and never paid. Ahhh...

Six months later, I got a cold email from someone I'd never dealt with asking how the Connecticut website re-designs were coming along... I ghosted them back.

Over a year later, someone from the Youngstown Phantoms pinged me about updating a link on the website that they couldn't figure out. Ghosted them too.

But here's the thing -- I would have done the work for the five facilities in Connecticut for free because I had vested interest. Like, I was a team photographer in the AHL for over 20 seasons.

Since then, I've brought that skillset to my kid's teams. I have hundreds of thousands of images...and I post tons of them...for free.

I've been asked before by parents if they could buy photos...and my response has long been, oh, you can just download them here...and give them a link. I never felt the need to monetize. It's a skill that I have, that I enjoy doing, that I'd do anyway since my kids are out there...so if your kid gets in the frame, boom, I'll take shot.

Youth hockey is crawling with talented people like me -- Black Bear missed the opportunity. Designing websites for rinks 8 hours from home misses the mark. I didn't feel like I'd done them a favor for the betterment of my immediate hockey circle...instead, I felt used.

Funny story -- Henrik's image was featured on a number of Western PA and Ohio based rinks for years.

You bet I put my "stamp" on it.

Actually...my kids show up on rink, tournament, and team websites all the time, to this day! Just little easter eggs I left behind. Ha!

It's the monetization of everything that's got them in hot water now.

I mean, aside from the business practice of trying to scale something that isn't really scalable in the way they thought it would be...it's the nickel and diming that's generated so much angst.

Uniforms MUST be purchased from their vendor...and they arrive late...and they're the quality of a store brand garbage bag. New player signs on...their shells and socks are a totally different shade than everyone elses. Every time.

Photos must be done through their provider...and they send some grumpy ass photographer to take blurry photos and charge you an arm and a leg in advance...and provide prints weeks later like we're still in the 1980's...

Dark, out of focus PRINTS?! One kid's picture, legit, his eyes were mid-blink. Unacceptable in the digital era when you can see the captured photo immediately upon taking it.

One of our teams went rogue and hired a local guy -- boy, did that create some waves among the Black Bear folks! Jazz-hands level drama around the rink. Yikes!

But the photos were awesome...and a quarter of the price.

Black Bear required participation in "showcases", four hours from home, to play against a team you share a building with. Three Connecticut based teams in a four team bracket...playing in Pennsylvania.

And then being forced to choose between two dumpy hotels, with their rates jacked, a month in advance, that don't end up being remotely close to the rink you're assigned to two days prior to the event.

That practice is now the subject of a proposed federal class-action lawsuit. Well done.

Hotel is in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. Game one is in West Chester, PA...over an hour drive. The city of Philadelphia is in between...there were certainly more appropriate hotel options. Every team. Every time.

And then the parity... Oh, the parity!

Just look up my kid's THF game scores for the 2022-23 season -- click on their names in the menu up top.

Between two kids, they went 0-35. Routinely lost by double digits.

But, hey, we're AAA, right?

"Required" patch on our jersey says so. Tier 1, THF baby...

And it wasn't just that our team was awful -- it was -- it's that NONE of the teams had more than maybe three competitive games. It's that scalability cookie cutter thing that they whiffed so terribly on.

Not all programs are equal. Not all regions are equal.

Adding insult to injury, then they have rinks hit you at the door for an entry bracelet to watch your own kid play.

Then Black Bear TV comes around -- to watch my oldest son's game now would cost me nearly $600 per season. And my kid doesn't play in a Black Bear building or for a Black Bear team. They just "forced" the league to comply.

So, it's just been one thing after another where they treat their customers poorly and routinely shame people volunteering their time... So awkward. It's one of those things, like, where they don't appear to even know who their customer base is...or what their customer base wants.

But wait...there's more!

Last couple of years, Black Bear has poisoned junior hockey too -- handing out USPHL and NCDC programs to anyone that raises their hand.

Once knocking on the USA Hockey's NAHL door as a legitimate Tier 2 alternative...Black Bear infiltrated the NCDC and added countless new teams out of the blue... There are 68 of them now. Sixty-eight!?

Circling back to that cookie cutter scalability lack of understanding again.

They turned a tuition free league into just another pay-to-play league.

Seriously...in some of their more recent announcements, they boast about adding “tuition-based” teams.

Seriously!

For me, that's fundamentally changed what the NCDC used to represent, you know, what our family's draw towards it was.

Like, sure, I'm self-aware enough as a hockey parent to know that this six-figure investment I've made over the span of a dozen years in my children's hockey careers was never a sound investment...but if I get a single season or two of tuition free hockey out of it at the end, well, it softens the blow.

It's increasingly starting to feel like an extension of pay-to-play youth hockey...for kids that can grow beards.

Money, money, money, money, money...

I hope they get what they deserve.

I do truly believe their idea at the onset was sound and good for hockey...they just utterly failed to execute it appropriately.

From where we sat, somewhere along the way, things transitioned from a passionate idea to develop strong hockey players to financial greed.

They're not out to make youth hockey better.

The hockey sucks, the great coaches they'd initially attracted are gone, and the building renovations turned out to be of the "Flip this House" variety so they're right back in the same condition they were when they started...

Ever notice the heat is almost never on anymore? Like...ever.

Black Bear just manages rinks. Niche slum-lords.

Putting in as little as possible to increase the profit margin...by ripping parents off.

And that's the thing...backlash is a bitch... The buildings that remained under municipal or local ownership are starting to look like shining city on the hill again.

There's one building near us that Black Bear wasn't able to acquire...it's had another couple training rinks added, high end landscaping added, a new program with top end coaching, a robust figure skating community...all new since Black Bear tore apart the market.

We moved my youngest to play for a program that plays out of a prep school rink -- Black Bear can't get their hands on that.

You've got all kinds of ongoing litigation against them.

Entire Facebook groups and reddit's letting you know how to sidestep their stay to play nonsense. Hotels even getting in on the action -- double dipping in a way -- explaining how to book directly and NOT through the league.

Entire teams SHARING single Black Bear TV accounts.

Social media groups sharing clips for folks that aren't signed up.

We all know the hockey community is small...and it's pretty tight too.

Black Bear spurned a lot of people...and the people are doing what they can to sidestep the fees.

Just another terrible long term business practice.

It's sad...when it does spiral down the drain, it's going to take a lot of rinks down with it.

And I know I said earlier that acquiring real estate is a solid path to wealth....except...rinks are very "specialized" facilities that are, again, falling into disrepair.

Re-purposing an ice rink for a different use isn't really a financially viable thing. I can't think of a building I've ever been in that "used to be an arena".

People might claim that Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto became a grocery store...but it didn't really. There's still a full-blown arena within those walls.

As of 2026-27 season, NONE of my children play in a Black Bear building or for a Black Bear owned team...and that was definitely one of the factors we took into account when choosing where they'd play.

Two are, sadly, part of the THF but only because Black Bear infiltrated the USPHL a couple seasons back and then forced everyone under 18 to join the THF.

I have also never been a Black Bear TV subscriber. Won't do it.

Holding out hope that LiveBarn will win their legal battle against Black Bear.

Hands down, LiveBarn provides a better service, better feed, better pricing, better website, more facilities, etc.

Ridiculous to see their cameras mounted to arena walls...but unplugged...because of Black Bear. And then FloHockey enters the conversation...

Again -- thanks for everything Black Bear... Can I just plug this back in?

But seriously, from promise to profit, Black Bear lost the hockey community due to their continued poor execution. It's too bad -- it had some solid potential at the onset.

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