Honestly they should be ashamed

Well, this story has been blowing up over the past couple of weeks, and I think for good reason. I was made aware of this specifically by USA Today, who ran an article on the Dallas Stars and their monopolization of hockey in Dallas. The Stars organization owns essentially all ice within the Dallas area. And the article and community members interviewed allege that the Stars abuse this monopoly both to profit off the community and to control how the ice is used. The team has, for example, thrown around their control of ice time to control coaching decisions on minor league teams. But it’s not just kids. In another example, the Stars retaliated against a man who petitioned against changes to the beer league structure. Basically, the organization drastically increased the cost of the ice while also adding features like a running clock, making the experience worse overall. And after starting a petition to request a change to this policy, the individual was banned from playing within his league and at the arena generally. There seems to be overall efforts to silence descent. And again, having a monopoly makes that possible, especially in a place like Texas where hockey is a newly growing sport. There’s a lot more detail in the article, especially regarding how the Stars organization has drastically increased the costs to hockey, how they haven’t honored prior community agreements. And you know, all this is made more nefarious when you consider the unique position hockey, especially in the South, is in. The article points out that the NHL is unique among the four major sports in that it plays a major role in growing the game at a local level. And by all accounts, it’s been very successful at doing so. So, the Stars initially ingratiated themselves to the community, helping to grow the hockey scene, and now are trying to extract money given that they have a monopoly and people actually want to use the ice. Now, I was reading a Reddit thread a couple of years ago about the rising league fees in Dallas. Actually, one of the situations mentioned in the story, the Stars organization not only added a running clock to the games, of course, to make them shorter, but increased prices to $27 a game. And yeah, they can get away with that. Like, that would never fly in Halifax. I know right now I can rent the Centennial Rink for $150. You split that among two teams. It’s certainly not 27 bucks a game, but hockey has been popular here for a very long time. And there’s a ton of ice surfaces in Dallas. You get what you get. You know, reading between the lines, one thing that I also see is that hockey seems to be continuing to become popular in Dallas. You’ve got more and more people each year fighting for the same ice time. Listen, that is a problem here. That’s a problem everywhere. But it seems like the stars instead are making more money off the same ice instead of contributing to build new rinks. while also using their power to control the narrative. The Stars have responded basically pushing back against these allegations. But if you’re from Dallas especially or Texas, let me know. Ditto really anywhere else in the South. What’s hockey like for you? I look forward to reading your thoughts. I take for granted, I think, how available ice is in Halifax, but it certainly is not like that everywhere. See you next time.

On the Dallas Stars and their Ice Buying controversy. That and more NHL news in today’s Hockey video!

19 comments

  5. I grew up in Perth Australia. Where I grew up we had 2 rinks in the whole city. One north of the river and the other south. We couldn't even get rink time because of social skating. We ended up playing inline hockey a lot. A rink wouldn't even let us play on the ice because they needed it for the team that played national competition team. So I can understand both sides of the story

  6. As a Texas youth hockey player (not in dallas but in houston) the stars dont have as much of a monopoly down here but if you want to play at a higher level with support from a wealthy organization the star's youth program is the best way. I mean we have other organizations like the junior aeros but in Southern Texas the star's programs offers the best development and travel opportunities. But if your goal is mainly just recreational hockey then securing ice time isnt nearly as hard as it is up in dallas.

  8. Born in Pittsburgh but grew up in Dallas playing hockey. In Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex there are only 3 rinks that are not controlled by the Stars. This scandal mainly interferes with the youth hockey programs here. Prices are rising big time and parents have no say. I have a brother who coaches my nephew’s he is first showed me this scandal it’s a mess

    The only thing I know as a beer leaguer now it’s $270 for this summer season 10 games not bad but I don’t know any better lol

    Appreciate your videos man can’t wait till October

  10. I played youth hockey in Kentucky. Lots of traveling was involved. There are only a few rinks in the state and some of them are abysmal (I remember playing with fog inside, ice on bench surfaces, etc). You go up to play teams in Ohio and of course they throw the same jokes about how Kentuckians are inbred around. The dimensions of my rink were smaller than most, so practicing there made it so that you had to adjust when you played on other rinks. Those other rinks also had much different ice conditions that you wouldn't be used to. Our zamboni was so old and busted that it literally exploded one day! For all the annoyances, it was nice in a way for the youth hockey "circle" to be so small. The same people were involved in training so many of the players starting out, including some people who were on minor league teams that used to play in the state. Everyone seems to know each other in that world and it's nice. Pretty much all of the players were sons of yankee transplants and despite us being closest to the Predators you mostly saw people sporting Blackhawks, Red Wings, and Penguins gear :p

    I should also mention that you get realllly used to the same few opponents. The hatred between teams was pretty intense. Occasionally one team wouldn't have enough players for the season so they'd merge with another one and you had to act like you didn't want to murder them last year. The most notable clashes my brother's team had was with the youth team in West Virginia– there was always a brawl and police would get sent him. Things got pretty tense.

    P.S. for all of hockey's relative unpopularity in Kentucky, the University of Kentucky hockey team is one of the hottest tickets in Lexington. They play their games at midnight. Good luck getting in to watch them play a rival

  11. okay im from dallas i go to the rink almost every day the i get that prices may be higher but if it wasnt for these rinks there would only be 3 rinks in the metroplex so i would rather pay that 22-25 even if its open hockey or a drop in game rather than drive 20-30 min to the most available rink so i think its stupid outlash you know hockey is expensive and if they did their research they are building new rinks 2 of them are already in the works , to put it simple hockey aint cheap but its available also i yet to see any hockey time at any rink that is 27$ love the vids ech

  15. I've lived in Texas for 5 1/2 years, and I can say without a shadow of a doubt it is an evil place. There are some good folks (mostly from out of state) but overall the culture that people are raised in here produces.. a type of parasitic mindset. Don't get me wrong. Good folk are all over… but they are very very very rarely in charge. In short, this scandal doesn't surprise me in any way whatsoever. Extremely par for the course down here. Dallas' public response, saying something like "it's gotten more expensive everywhere" is proof they not only don't care, but will do worse things in the future.

  16. It’s a same but hopefully a little bad publicity for the stars organization could open opportunity for a good guy team in Austin or Houston. Love to see the league expanding

  17. Hockey is already the most expensive sport to get into out of the top four in North America and from everything I've read the Stars Organization have made it even more expensive in the Dallas area, whether its increased one on one coaching fee's to shortened ice time, let alone backing coaches that aren't wanted.

  18. I live in Texas (Austin) and am only semi involved in the local hockey scene. We have a 3 rinks in the area (all in the North of the city closer to the Texas Stars AHL team). Leagues are definitely pricier, my favorite rink charges 20 dollars for drop in games. As far as I'm aware the Stars are not as involved in owning and operating the rinks here, but they do manage at least some of the youth programs in the area. I've also heard of kids driving from San Antonio to play in the youth leagues here since the scene is much better here in comparison.

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