The Truth About Youth Hockey in Texas: Stars’ Monopoly Explained

The Truth About Youth Hockey in Texas: Stars’ Monopoly Explained

A USA Today article shines light on the Dallas Stars and their control over youth hockey in North Texas and raises concerns if the Stars are growing the game in the most ethical and transparent way as possible. Your Locked On Stars, your daily podcast on the Dallas Stars, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Howdy Stars fans. I’m Joey Ericson, former producer of 105 Through the Fan. Please be sure to subscribe. We are free and available wherever you get your podcast and on YouTube. And as always, thank you so much for making us a part of your day and making us your first listen. Welcome back to another week of Locked On Stars, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every single day. Today’s episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code locked on NHL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. And today we’ll be discussing an article from the USA Today. I’m sure many of you have read or at least seen over the weekend headline, they control everything. How the Dallas Stars monopolize Texas youth hockey. Written by Kenny Jacobe. And if you recall just a few months ago, Jacobe wrote a piece about how Dallas Stars executives were profiting off youth hockey with state-to-play tournaments in Oklahoma and Texas as well. So, this article is really fascinating. It makes a few claims I want to get into today. I want to try to lay out some of the facts and then share some of my opinions on the matter. As someone that grew up in DFW and really grew up in Star Centers from the age of five to to 18, some of this isn’t very surprising and I think is more of a hockey culture issue than maybe just specifically in North Texas. But, um, I can certainly see why parents are are speaking out and I think it’s a good thing. And maybe some of it is exaggerated, but I don’t believe all these parents have something to say and have a reason to lie in a lot of ways a as well. But I just kind of want to lay out uh the article uh and and jump into that and hear your thoughts on the matter as well in the comments below. But we’ll start with here. It says in Dallas, the stars spent decades turning what was once seen as a community good into a lucrative arm for their for profit enterprise. It says here a quote. We’re really proud of everything we built here and we’re committed to continuing to grow OY in the community and across the state, said Dan Statue, the Stars chief operating officer. They answered a few questions that the USA Today had. It says, “We become the model for all non-traditional NHL markets that both the NHL and USA hockey continually point to in terms of how to grow the game because that’s the focus for everybody.” It also goes in that the Stars regularly raise prices on their services while diminishing their quality. They repeatedly retaliate against people they perceive as threats from coaches who defect to other ranks to parents who criticize them. on Facebook. It says, “The Stars capitalized on the dynamic by building an ice empire. They convinced seven local municipalities to spend tens of millions of taxpayer dollars building rinks that the Stars run and profit from. Their ownership group bought up three more. Along the way, at least eight other independent ice hockey rinks went out of business. Now, every level of amateur hockey in North Texas, from preschoolers to adults, run through the states NHL team. And I have firsthand experience with that as well. I I grew up in in Richardson. I used to play and uh and practice at ITC and that’s what I I still call it, the ice training center, which uh was in Richardson. And then I I believe in like the early 2010s eventually the the stars spotted up and it became um a star center. Now some of the the questions that arose from certain statements like this is what if the stars didn’t go in and take control and run these specific ranks? would ITC still be a thing or would it have closed? We all know hockey is an expensive sport and and that is the the one point we’re just not going to to really ever get away from. Uh which stinks, but hockey is expensive. We can all be honest about that. And we all know the stars can charge really whatever they want. I would also be curious to see what is the comparable price from other places, other markets in the USA, um, and maybe even Minnesota, which I I know is a completely different story. Most of their ranks are communitybased, but California, maybe Florida, some other non-traditional markets. What are the ice prices in places like there? Is this just a North Texas thing, or is this really a problem throughout the country? because prices are just going up. Everything has become more expensive. And I I don’t know if we can ever get away from that or if ice costs can ever come down because as I mentioned, would an ITC be around today if it wasn’t for the Dallas Stars? I I don’t know. Uh someone could educate me more um on that. Um because that was a place I grew up playing. Um Addison, right? They had a a rink that eventually closed down. I know Plano is a rink I used to to play at a ton growing up and they had issues with their ice on that one corner of the rink that was sinking. Um, at one point I remember playing games and you would just get lost in that corner. Um, it was absolutely awful. And I I think I read that the Stars kind of came in and they fixed that up. So without the Stars help, would some of these ranks be around? Would there still be as many ranks in the North Texas area without them? I would debate there would not be um and there’s no telling that the Stars have grown the game in in in DFW. I I think you’ll be about a bit off your rocker um if uh if if you don’t believe that. But what what really really I guess eats at me is some of the the claims uh about the stars going after parents and the the stars sort of taking over operations of a local high school team. And it says here, this is from uh Lisa Bry, and um she uh sat down with a front office executive and um was told that uh basically she felt threatened. Um and the words were, “Let me remind you where you get your ice from.” Uh Bri had just been elected the president of Frisco Ice Hockey Association, a nonprofit hockey club for middle and high school students in Frisco, Texas. One of its board’s first actions under a leadership was to cancel the contracts of two coaches who had received dis uh dismal reviews from parent feedback surveys. And then Bree said Dallas Stars executive Keith Andre told her the stars which ran the rink where the club practices wanted the coach to stay. His next words are seared in her memory. Let me remind you of where you get your ice from. Andre later said he did not use those words to bry though the implication was clear. Unless the club gave their coaches back, the Star should stop letting its six teams practice in their ranks. She couldn’t understand why an NHL team would strongarm a youth hockey club over personal matter uh personal matter and hold its kids ability to play or ability to play hockey. And this is where it gets really interesting. And let me find uh the part of the article because I I don’t want to mess it up. I I’m going to paraphrase a bit, but eventually when the Stars found out that uh Brie was not going to remove uh renew some of these contracts of these certain coaches, the Stars ended up taking control and forced basically all ho teams for their coaches to be Stars employees. They would be hiring and then those would be the coaches of of certain high school teams, which is rather intriguing to me. um and kind of grinds my my gears because if the board of the Frisco Youth Hockey Club felt it was necessary to to make a change and I know in the the video there was like kind of a a video part to this in an article in the video uh Brie states that they were not going to renew the contracts. I mean here it says cancel. I I don’t know where the discrepancy um is with that, but if the if the Stars um if the I don’t really see the gain in that for for for Dallas um in a lot of ways. And I think it hurts the product overall. If a youth hockey board or a high school team, let’s say my kid plays I play on a high school team. My dad was very very involved um growing up. like if if my dad or other parents felt the need to maybe switch a coach or or change the coach for um whatever reason, I mean, again, I’m not asking for a witch hunt, but if they just feel there’s a a better direction to go, why do the stars care and why do they why should they have any input in what local high school teams are are doing? Um, parents should be emboldened to do what they think is best for their children. And look, I I can also see it from a side of maybe there’s some takes out there that, oh, well, these parents are just mad their kids aren’t getting playtime and all of this. Um, from I think Bryce suspect uh perspective, her son’s a goalie. Um, I don’t think you have to worry that much about a goalie getting ice time for to some degree. Um, I know you can uh have a number one goalender, but again, I I digress. Um, I I just don’t see the real need for for Dallas to be involved in those operations. And I think it keeps what could be potentially maybe bad coaches are are coaches that are not qualified or are not doing a good enough job to stay around. And it mentions in the article that they eventually reinstated the the two um reinstated the two coaches for Frisco because they had not broken any rules. And I can understand that. But sometimes you get fired for for not breaking rules. I if you’re just bad at your job or maybe your boss or company doesn’t feel that you should continue work because they feel like they want to go in direct another direction. I I don’t know why we’re taking that out of hands of parents in these high school clubs, um, high school teams. Just really, really fascinating stuff and some some questions I would love to hear be answered because it just makes no sense to me why Dallas should be getting involved, the Stars should be getting involved in that way in youth hockey. Um, is is sort of where I land on the conversation. We’re going to continue this. There’s a lot more substantiated claims in some uh adult leagues as well. Um, and we’re going to we’ll clean up some of that stuff um in just a moment. Today’s episode of Locked On Stars is brought to you by Monarch Money. Ever wish managing your money felt easier? With Monarch Money, it can. Whether you’re growing your savings or planning a big purchase, Monarch puts you in a driver’s seat. It’s like having your own personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Monarch Money is more than a budgeting app. It’s a complete financial command center. You can track all your accounts, investments, and spending in one place. So, in addition to managing your money, you’re also building wealth. Monarch is a great way for you to track your shared and personal accounts with maybe a partner. Maybe you can find out with Monarch Money, you’re spending a bit too much on takeout. Maybe you’re spending too much going out and trying to go to the movies. Maybe you’re going out for a night with your buddies and you can realize, “Okay, maybe I can uh maybe I can dial back a bit and save a bit more. Save up for that big trip you’ve always been wanting to take.” Take control of your finances with MonarchMoney. Use code lock.nhl atmon.com for 50% off your first year. That’s monarchmoney.com. Lock.nhl for half off your first year. By the way, I do want to give a shout out to Gavin Spittle of Spits and Suds for those of you that want to hear some more information or maybe heard from the uh the horse’s mouth himself, Kenny Jacobe, who wrote this article on USA Today. Uh Spits and Suds put out an article. Gavin Spittle talked with Kenny uh Jacobe um this past weekend. So, uh, be sure to check that out as well if, uh, you want to hear some, uh, some, uh, more opinions and thoughts on the really the the man, uh, that that wrote the article, um, as well. So, we we’ll continue into some of the the more claims here, um, that the Dallas Stars are threatening um, uh, certain parents or uh, members of these clubs. It says here, this sort of wraps up my point with the Frisco hockey club. In the face of Andre’s threat, uh, Bri stood her ground. The club did not renew the two coaches contracts, emails, meeting audio, internal documents, and dozens of interviews detail what happened next. That summer, the Stars informed all two dozen local high school hockey clubs that the NHL team would be taking over their operations. No longer would the club set and collect their own fees, negotiate their own practice ice time, hire and pay their own coaches, or sign sponsors without the Stars approval. All players would now pay the Stars directly. All coaches would be Stars hires and employees. The Stars imposed a fee structure that raised registration fees for many players by reducing the number of ice their teams received. All teams would now get two preseason games, which would be one fewer um in the past. They also uh reduced the amount of regular season games and a lot of club leaders were stunned and again it goes back why do the stars feel the need to have their hands on this? That’s what makes it it just seems shady, right? Like it seems a bit shady that this certain stars executive like Andre really wanted these two like really wanted these two coaches to to be involved with the Frisco hockey club that they felt that all of a sudden they need to take over all operations of these hockey teams. It’s it it’s really baffling to me and goes back to sort of my my hockey culture problem in a lot of ways. And and look, I I’m not going to beat around the bush. I’m probably implicit in this in a lot of ways as well. Some of that grew up in hockey. Some of it is just a boys club. Um it really it really is everywhere. This is not um this is not just a Texas hockey thing. I promise you, I’ve been in a lot of different localities and communities. It’s not just a Texas thing. Um, but I think it can be exacerbated in a place like North Texas because it is non-traditional that you can get places like especially here where certain coaches certain ex can take advantage of people um and and that’s what’s really sad in a lot of ways and um look the the ice costs and and some of this um article kind of brings up how they’re charging a lot. Again, I would like to see what it’s comparable to other places. Like it it’s just expensive to run a hockey rink. And if the Stars didn’t come in and take a lot of these rinks, would these rinks still be uh available? Um but also it it uh goes into how the uh the stars um were going after certain parents that were criticizing them and their star center on a Facebook group. There was this popular Facebook group that this mom started. Um, and sometimes uh she would post uh negative uh negative critiques on on Star Center or just overall things um about the Star. She mentions how much money she spends um on hockey. Again, not too surprised. Um I can’t imagine what my dad spent. Again, I mentioned all the time, very lucky to have two parents that supported me to to play hockey at the level I did for as long as I did. Um, I know they worked their arses off to to do that and allow me to do that. I’m very very grateful. Not a lot of um kids that that grow up in the area are are as lucky as I am, and it just becomes really really um expensive. Um but um it talks how they’re cracking down on descent says Jeremy Thompson was fed up. The Stars had raised registration fees for the adult league. Um he and his friends played in also uh while also introducing a running clock during games which significantly shortened teams time on the ice. After nearly a thousand people signed Thompson’s online petition calling on the Stars to address his peers and concerns, he took to Facebook to suggest starting a beer league in one of the three non-Stars run hockey rinks in DFW. Soon after a Stars rink manager banned Thompson from the league email show for violating the Star social media policy. And their uh social media uh policy um is this. The Children’s Health Star Centers and Comra Center expects those who use our facilities to conduct themselves in an appropriate and professional manner at all times. Social media communications targeted towards our membership that are used to commit abuse or misconduct and considered violations of policy and will not be tolerated. Now, I don’t know if the claims in this Facebook group or this petition uh would be considered abuse or bullying or harassment. Um I I would find that hard to believe. Um but he was banned and says your consistent There’s an email here. Your consistent prolonged attempts online to draw people away from our programs and facility as well as your continued defamation of Star Center programming is in direct violation of that policy. the then stars center Mansfield general manager Milt Hyfield’s uh 2024 February email said uh so really interesting. So he was kicked out of the league um and eventually ended up starting another league at one of those uh non-rinks, but then the ban was lifted all of a sudden um and he was allowed to come back and uh he never ended up coming back. But um again, I think some it it just to me uh this is just straight opinion. Seems like maybe there’s some people out there, some individuals that just they have this power and they want to use it and for some reason they’re doing it against adult league guys that are playing at like 11 12:00 at night. Um and and and look, I I understand no organization, no star sitter, they they don’t want negative press or or negative um negative posts about what they do out there. I get that. But to like ban people from your Star Center for um something that you know was brought up organically is just really confusing. And I I don’t see the win in it for the stars or this individ I don’t see the win in it. Um it it’s just disgusting in a lot of ways and and and frankly irritating because there’s also adults um I I know this is maybe the uh less thought of topic, but there’s some adults that grew up in DFW that that didn’t play hockey growing up. Maybe because it wasn’t that big uh because maybe they were born here before the Stars got here um and they never had a chance to to play. And now there’s some adults, you know, they pick it up when they’re 30, they pick it up when they’re 40. gives them a chance to play. And again, it just feels like it’s going against what the overall goal of what all these Star Centers are for. And I give them credit for doing, like growing the game and making it as successful um and as big as it is. Like there’s a ton of teams in Texas because of the Stars now. There’s a ton of youth hockey teams. There’s ones in Amarillo. There’s ones in Odessa. There’s teams in San Antonio and Houston. There’s teams in Corpus Christi, right? there are teams because of of what the stars have done and how they’ve grown the game in just the state of Texas. Um and there there’s youth teams that are thriving. Like I’ve seen it like there’s teams in El Paso. Like that’s really cool. And um to to to hear some of these claims again maybe some of these aren’t substantiated enough for for some of you. Um but I I honestly I I wouldn’t be surprised. I personally had a a head coach in high school that was eventually kind of ran out of town for for something a as well. now he coaches um out east um for for something that was frivolous to to really begin with um because he I guess maybe upset one guy and then all of a sudden he’s banned from doing private lessons in ranks in DFW like um and was you know nothing but a wonderful coach my probably my favorite coach ever um during my high school years like it was like those are the type of things that even I have dealt I know it’s anecdotal, but like um there’s there is some of this stuff that I think really rings true for myself that that grow that that grew up in this sort of a community and it’s even smaller in DFW, right? Um like and you hear stuff about, oh, your kid’s not going to, you know, you better be careful. Your kid may not be able to do what he wants. like I’ve I’ve I’ve heard about those conversations from from other parents and it would not shock me in the least bit if there are people making those claims because to some degree they do have that power which is sad and they’re going to use it um against parents and children when their main idea or their main goal should be to be growing the game um not just hockey making people better hockey players just better people overall like I’m grateful for the game of hockey I I get to talk about it for a living. Um, I always always owe hockey a great deal of debt in my life. Um, it allows me to to do something like really fun and um and just hearing this can be really discouraging um for for what I know and and and love to be true. So, um, I really encourage you to to listen or or go through, um, the article yourself, read some of the claims and more stuff because there, uh, there’s a lot of a lot of fascinating stuff that may open your eyes to to some things. Um, let’s go ahead and and kind of tie bow on this, um, and give you something to chew on the rest of the week. And this episode is is not to to bash the the Dallas Stars. I I I just want parents and other individuals that involved in these Dallas Stars travel hockey leagues, Dallas Stars, adult leagues to to be held accountable a as well for for for what they are are doing and making this uh the best place and um the most welcoming hockey culture in DFW can possibly be. Right. Um I I think there are are some uh there are some individuals that need to be held accountable for their actions. Um because they are in some degree have the power to to to shape how kids perceive this sport. And if it continues to to be a sport that just from the outside feels like ah I I can’t I I can’t get involved. Um that that stinks in a lot of ways. Um I I do want to talk about um uh the the last sort of uh paragraph in this um article USA Today. Um after uh that article that we talked about back in March about the stayin play investigation, how certain Stars executives uh were profiting off that stay uh formula. By the way, those two executives uh are no longer working with the Dallas Stars. Uh but a new league was formed actually in youth hockey. Um it’s the Texas Hockey League. Um Mike Salakin, who was actually a coach in tribal hockey circles when I was growing up. Uh it says we want to be partners with them, but they get to determine their partnership with us, said Mike Salakin, a founding Texas Hockey League board member. I went looked at their website. Um there’s a lot of teams um that are going to be involved. So I I I’m curious to to see what the Dallas Stars travel league is going to be like. But as they said here um at the end and this is the quote that it ends on uh it says ice is gold and they control the ice and uh of course like it’s awesome that they like there’s you know enough support to go um to go create this hockey league but again they’re going to have to play in star centers like it’s just sort of the way it goes. are going to have to play in these certain ranks that the Stars own and um they they control a lot of that. But there’s I mean there’s what 12 teams right here um that are going to be involved like Amarillo’s in here. You got McKenna Northstarss, Oklahoma, San Antonio, um Texas Tigers, Texas Warriors. So there there’s a lot of teams that have joined this new hockey league. But once again, a lot of these teams in the area, they’re going to be practicing at Star Centers um and they’re going to be playing games. Um, so it it’s it’s going to be really fascinating to see how this all kind of um takes shape. Um, and and again, I don’t I I don’t think what what the stars um are are doing in terms of maybe ice time. Again, I I would need to see some more information on it. I I don’t have a strong stance, but like it’s just expensive to run these ranks. I I I I I I truly believe that and I would love to see what kind of so there are some comparisons to other markets to see like is it really like is it really that bad? Um or is this just an issue that teams really across youth hockey teams are just dealing with across the issue? like um I I’ve I’ve been in Minnesota and uh and Wisconsin uh recently as well and you know I heard parents and certain people complaining about ice time in those states a as well because I imagine it’s just really like and I know it’s completely different um it’s a lot easier to maintain ranks and a cold climate but there are like there are people in those areas up north that have those issues too because I think it’s just overall just becoming really really expensive to to run rinks um in general. And I I wonder if this is not solely just uh a North Texas issue. It’s really the the kind of the the threats and maybe cracking down on certain players, uh taking over operations of high school teams. that that that really just grinds my gears because once again feels like this kind of like oh old boys club, you know, you rub my back, I rub your back, we we’ll keep you involved. Um just because like you’re you’re buddies with these guys and we’re going to reinstate coaches that parents don’t want um or maybe a board voted on that they they don’t want to return as a head coach and now the stars can say, “Oh, no, that’s not okay. um what happened to empowering parents. Uh that’s that’s that’s different. But I you know I do want to give credit to the stars for like the little rookies program which is a program that would give you know children free uh equipment and and you know kind of go to star centers and practice for a couple weeks to hopefully uh you know kind of get them that itch and play. I was I think I was involved when I was 14 or 15. I think I was involved with the very first like goaround of the little rookies program um as someone that played travel hockey. Um me and my buddies that that played like we uh we would volunteer um and and and you know kind of you know go on the ice skate with um these little kids um uh you know play play hockey with these these little kids that have never played before. I remember I was like 14. I’m tying kids skates and helping out parents, which is a bit weird, but also you gave me a a taste and and love for kind of that idea. And I hope one day um when I have kids, like I’ll be able to do that with my son. Um and I I want to coach him. Um I want him to get involved in in hockey and give him the uh the most um the most exciting way or just the best way possible to to play. And I don’t want to have this fear if I’m, you know, still in DFW, like, you know, if I say something like, you know, my my kid may get screwed over or there’s going to be um uh there there’s going to be some some push back because there are there are parents that feel that way that there would be push back if if they speak out uh against something they don’t see as fit. And um that’s just that’s not good for anybody. It’s not good for the Stars, not good for the organization, it’s not good for hockey. Um, if people don’t feel like they can speak up, right, in anything, if if they don’t feel because that’s when bad stuff happens, when when people don’t feel like they can speak up, um, that’s when when I think things can get worse. So, I’m curious to hear your thoughts um on it. Um, again, I’m not going to act like I I’m the most knowledgeable on this. I do have some experience, but uh, once again, I’m kind of far and away from like DFW, North Texas hockey circles in today’s world. Um, I’m I’m sure there’s a lot of stuff I don’t know that um because I’m just I’m just frankly not involved in I’m not an adult league. Um I I’m not going to pretend that I I know all the inner workings of what’s going on. I’m sure there’s some of you that are involved that maybe know some some more stuff. I’d love to hear your thoughts um as well. Um and again, it’s not a this is not a bash stars, but some people need to be held accountable. like they’ve done a wonderful job of making the sport as big as it is in this state and that is fantastic. But it’s time to to to maybe look in the mirror a bit and and and find out where there can be some changes and where there can be some some opportunities to change some things and um and and and and fix maybe fix some things or or make the game of hockey better in this uh DFW community. um because it um it has thrived here. I think that’s that’s fair to say. Um and the stars deserve credit for that. I’ll say that uh again. All righty. That’s um that’s going to do it for this episode of Locked On Stars. Please hit the subscribe button. Drop a notification bell as well. Never miss an episode. Have a great rest of your day, Stars fans. And we’ll see you on the next episode. So long.

On today’s episode of Locked On Stars, Joey Erickson discusses the latest USA Today article by Kenny Jacoby on how the Dallas Stars are monopolizing youth hockey in North Texas. Joey goes through the article and claims from parents and adults involved within hockey and shares his thoughts and opinions on the hockey culture in DFW. This comes on the heels of a piece a few months ago about Stars executives profiting of Stay to Play formulas and raises questions if the Stars are growing the game in the most ethical way possible.

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