A $2 billion NHL team has taken control of youth hockey. Parents are fed up.
In the lucrative world of youth hockey, ice is power. In North Texas, parents say the Dallas Stars hold most of it.
The Texas Attorney General’s Antitrust Division is investigating anti-competitive business practices in youth hockey, USA TODAY reported.
The Dallas Stars, a $2 billion National Hockey League team that dominated the state’s youth hockey world, are the focus of the investigation.
The state investigation, which is in the early intelligence-gathering stages, follows a USA TODAY investigation in August that revealed how professional sports franchises had a monopoly on amateur hockey at all levels from preschoolers to adults in Texas.
“The Dallas Stars have not been contacted by the Texas Attorney General’s Office,” Joe Calvillo, the NHL team’s communications director, said in an emailed statement to USA TODAY. “Through our long-standing partnerships with cities across the DFW Metroplex, the Dallas Stars are committed to providing the best possible experience for all players, teams and families participating in our league and tournaments.”
Assistant Attorney General Paige Etherington, who is handling the case, told USA TODAY by phone that the office does not comment on confidential investigations.
This is the second investigation into a youth hockey organization by state authorities following the USA TODAY report. In October, the Colorado Secretary of State’s office launched an investigation into the Colorado Amateur Hockey Association’s mismanagement of charity 50/50 raffles held at professional sporting events to benefit youth hockey teams.
As part of the Texas investigation, Etherington and Stephen Craig, an investigator with the Texas Attorney General’s Office Antitrust Division, spoke with Lisa Bly, a Dallas-area hockey mom who went public with her experience with the Stars on a USA TODAY series.
Etherington and Craig asked Bly about the Stars’ dominance in the youth hockey market, pricing power and the rink’s experience trying to compete with NHL teams. They discussed the youth leagues run by the Stars, tournaments, private lessons, and hotel requirements during their stay. This is a practice detailed in USA TODAY in March.
Bligh said the state’s investigation offers hope to hockey parents across the country who feel stuck in a system where corporate interests exploit the passion of families and children for profit.
“I hope the Stars are shaking right now,” Bligh told USA TODAY about the state investigation. “I think this could be a big deal.”
A USA TODAY investigation details how Starz used tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to build an ice rink empire, crush competition and regularly raise prices while lowering the quality of service. Knowing that most families have nowhere else to go, the Stars impose their will by reminding parents that they can block the path of their children trying to make it to the sport’s highest stage.
Reports document multiple instances in which the Stars retaliated against people they deemed a threat, from coaches who defected to other rinks to parents who criticized them on Facebook. The Stars also installed their own leadership in the Texas Amateur Hockey Association, the nonprofit USA Hockey governing body that regulates the sport in the region, and sought to avoid interference.
A March investigation by USA TODAY revealed that three former Stars executives profited from their positions with the NHL team and the Texas Amateur Hockey Association by forcing participants in Stars-run tournaments to book at least three nights of hotel stays that they did not necessarily want or need. At the same time, those executives were running a business that earned a portion of the revenue from each hotel reservation.
The continued play requirement, which is common across youth sports, is perhaps the clearest example of the Stars’ anti-competitive business practices, antitrust attorney Luke Haskamp of the Bona Law Firm told USA TODAY in July.
Haskamp said threatening or retaliating against parents and coaches who use non-Stars-run rinks, and locking cities into 20- to 30-year leases to control taxpayer-funded rinks, could also run afoul of antitrust laws that require companies to compete for business solely on the merits of their products and services.
The lodging requirement was one of the focuses of a 2020 antitrust lawsuit against Varsity Brands, a company that required participants in youth cheerleading competitions to stay at certain hotels and received kickbacks. The Varsity agreed to limit its continued play policy as part of an $82.5 million settlement of the lawsuit.
In July, Stars spokesman Dan Stuchar said in response to a USA TODAY report that the NHL team would “relax” its suspension requirements. Two current and former Stars employees who served on the board of the Texas Amateur Hockey Association also resigned, and one did not seek re-election.
Mr. Etherington and Mr. Craig asked Mr. Bly for the names and contact information of other people in the Texas hockey community who might be interviewed for the state investigation. They also told Ms. Bly that they planned to issue her with a civil investigative demand (a discovery tool used by government agencies to compel information before filing a lawsuit) for documents and communications related to Starz.
Bligh said he would be happy to comply.
“My hope is to stop other markets from following this model that Stars has created and allow Stars to look internally and maybe make better business decisions,” Bligh said. “This cannot continue. Children are not dollar signs.”
Kenny Jacoby is an investigative reporter for USA TODAY, covering sports, higher education and law enforcement issues. Email kjacoby@usatoday.com. Follow him on X @kennyjacoby or Bluesky @kennyjacoby.bsky.social.
