Minnesota hockey's public-first structure persists as private investors change the sport nationwide

MINNEAPOLIS - When puck-skidded boards are flooded each December in Minnesota's parks, gaggles of kids flock to their neighborhood rinks. Free skates and beaten-up hockey stick rentals are easy to come by in a warming house on one of 10,000 lakes. Many towns boast an arena kept cold with city dollars.

This is the community-funded hockey norm for most Minnesotans. Of the state's 200-plus ice arenas, only a handful - for now - are privately owned.

That's rare outside the State of Hockey, especially on the East Coast, where a cautionary tale of private companies and investors looking to profit off hockey's portion of the $40 billion-a-year youth athletics industry has captivated the sport.

Black Bear Sports Group's founder and former CEO Murry Gunty, the largest owner and operator of ice rinks in the nation, claims his company isn't one of them. But a nine-month USA Today investigation into Black Bear's business practices and a new federal youth sports bill inspired by the company's rapid acquisition of rinks have put rising hockey costs in the headlines.

Black Bear, the owner of 47 rinks across 11 states, has yet to break into Minnesota's thriving hockey market.

"Minnesota is its own ecosystem," Gunty told Strib Varsity. "It's, in my opinion, one of the best, if not the best, hockey cultures in the U.S. You have just the most amazing high school hockey experience for kids, and we would never want to do anything that would disrupt that in any way."

Black Bear doesn't have any concrete plans to buy rinks in Minnesota, according to Gunty. The state's rink grant funding and 136 nonprofit-run youth hockey associations leave little room for private businesses to make a profit. Black Bear, headquartered in Sunrise, Fla., is also focused on markets that are shrinking in hockey participation, not growing like in Minnesota.

"The only way we would ever operate in Minnesota is if we own the buildings," Gunty said. "There's not a lot of need for private rink owners to come in when you have just such a strong municipal ownership of the rinks. I wish every state had such a strong municipal ownership; it would be a wonderful thing for the sport."

But Black Bear did discuss options to help fund the National Sports Center Super Rink's $23.7 million need for rink repairs, according to Todd Johnson, the executive director of the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission, which oversees the Super Rink and the Mighty Ducks Act Grant Program.

"The conversation didn't last long," Johnson recalled. "We'd be run out of town with pitchforks and hockey sticks. It's just not right to go to $500-an-hour.

"It was informative. However, it's important to the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission that ice sports continue to be publicly available to all at the Super Rink, and the public ownership model best serves that mission."

The Super Rink offers a prime business opportunity for a private company: It is one of the largest hockey complexes in the world. Teams range from the Women's Olympic National Hockey Team to college programs to local high school and youth organizations. The facility generates an estimated $40 million in economic impact and contributes to 40% of the National Sports Center's annual economic impact through its 25-plus hockey tournaments and two million yearly visitors.

And it's in dire need of repair and refrigerant replacement, exactly the kind of ailing business that would offer Black Bear a foothold in Minnesota.

"Unless municipalities are going to do what they're doing in Minnesota, the sport needs people like Black Bear," Gunty said. "Without us, half our rinks would be data centers or apartment buildings."

Gunty declined to comment on individual rinks or transactions, citing company policy.

"Venture capital and private equity absolutely have value in American society," Johnson added. "I'm just not sure that value is realized in owning youth sports facilities."

Minnesota's community hockey culture has been praised as the standard. Most rinks are publicly owned through city, state and booster club funding. The Mighty Ducks Act, passed in 1995, built 61 ice rinks in just five years and continues to help ease the cost burden of upkeep. The legislature approved $750,000 in grant funding this year, and Minnesota cities are investing more than $300 million in rink upgrades and new sheets of ice over the next few years.

That funding has allowed Minnesota to have the largest hockey participation of any state and to produce elite players. A quarter of hockey players in the United States Hockey League, a direct pipeline to Division I hockey and the NHL, are from Minnesota. It is the largest D-I hockey player-producing state and has the most ice rinks in the country.

Privatizing would threaten that model, insisted Mike Snee, the vice president of the Minnesota Wild Foundation and community relations.

"Most Minnesotans look at ice arenas the way they look at playgrounds, football fields and bike paths," Snee said. "The intent of ice arenas in Minnesota isn't to maximize profit; it's to serve the community. That mindset is an important part of our state's culture that we want to preserve."

In states where private hockey ownership has taken over, ice time, team and tournament fees have inflated, all major concerns with Black Bear's growing influence over the national hockey market.

In May, USA Today reported that Gunty, the CEO of private investment firm Blackstreet Capital Holdings, created a pay-to-play business by purchasing rinks and forcing youth associations within those rinks to sell or buckle. Black Bear then pulled its new portfolio of for-profit teams out of local tournaments and put on its own, all while buying youth and junior hockey leagues and creating its own $320-per-year streaming service.

More than 40 Black Bear teams compete in 16 leagues, and half of those leagues are owned by Black Bear or overseen by Black Bear executives. The majority of teams play in Black Bear-owned rinks, and all games are livestreamed via Black Bear TV. Many teams enter tournaments and showcases put on by Defender Hockey Tournaments, a Black Bear-owned company.

Gunty was the commissioner of the United States Premier Hockey League, a junior hockey league Black Bear's P.A.L. Junior Islanders team competes in. Gunty stepped down from all his roles on March 16, citing family and health reasons in a company news release.

As Black Bear consolidated power in less than a decade, registration costs rose, with some families paying $5,000 per season for a kid as young as 8, not including travel, hotel and other fees. That price doubles for the highest level of club hockey Black Bear's teams offer. Minnesota's youth associations, in comparison, range from no cost to a few thousand dollars, and high school teams often charge around $300 per season for participation and equipment. Competitive club teams within youth associations, like Junior Gold A and Bantam AA, can reach $3,800 in Minnesota.

This spring, Black Bear's rink and team ownership inspired regional and federal intervention.

Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Pennsylvania, and Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, sponsored the "Let Kids Play Act" on May 13, aiming to prevent private equity-backed "vulture investors" from increasing costs. Weeks before the federal bill was announced, the Michigan attorney general launched an antitrust probe into Black Bear after parents alleged the company was participating in anticompetitive business practices by purchasing local rinks and raising costs.

Gunty denies claims that he's swindling families into opening their wallets by creating a hockey monopoly, falling back on the fact that there are 1,700 ice rinks in the U.S. and Black Bear owns just 2.8%. He emphasized that Black Bear is one of the few hockey companies with price transparency and said prices reflect the cost of keeping a rink running. Gunty also insisted that no part of Black Bear is owned by private equity and that the company website's FAQ asserts "BBSG is not owned by a private equity firm and has nothing to do with Wall Street."

"People perceive us to be much, much bigger than we are," Gunty said. "The notion that we're a monopoly couldn't be further from the truth."

Gunty pointed out that Black Bear introduced 3,300 kids to hockey free of cost last year through its Take a Shot at Hockey program.

"We're big believers in choice," Gunty added. "There's another rink, club, team, another league opportunity within 30 minutes of every rink that we own. That's done on purpose."

Some hockey associations in Black Bear-owned arenas tell a different story.

After Black Bear bought the Pittsburgh Ice Arena, the rink's youth association was given two options: sell to Black Bear or leave the rink, reported USA Today. The Pittsburgh Vipers weren't able to find sufficient or affordable ice time at nearby rinks and dissolved after 60 years.

In Michigan, Black Bear owns and operates nine rinks. In Ryan Ossenmacher's 20 years of coaching, he can't remember one new rink opening in the state. Many municipalities have shut down city-funded arenas or sold them to private companies like Black Bear.

As a result, Ossenmacher, the president of the Michigan High School Hockey Coaches Association, has seen high school teams that previously called rinks home lose locker-room access and ice time.

Several Michigan high school hockey coaches whose practice rinks have been bought by Black Bear spoke to Strib Varsity on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. One coach had to cut a practice day from the team's weekly schedule because of rising ice time rates. The team lost locker room access, and the high school had to rearrange its game calendar as the number of home games dwindled. Another coach didn't have issues with ice time but was surprised by significant rate increases.

"When rinks come up for sale," Ossenmacher said, "nobody is hoping Black Bear buys them."

Responding to their stake in Michigan hockey specifically, Black Bear told Strib Varsity in a statement, "When we save and revitalize a rink, we always make every effort to work with local high schools to provide their players with affordable ice times and locker access, when it's available. The reality is that a lot of these rinks would close without Black Bear. In the past six years in Michigan alone, five rinks have closed and only one has reopened, and that's the one Black Bear saved in Kalamazoo."

Gunty declined to discuss Black Bear's profits but said that nearly all revenue is invested back into its rinks, roughly $20 million in the past three years.

Black Bear isn't the only one at fault, Ossenmacher insisted.

"It's a bigger picture than Black Bear," Ossenmacher said. "They're not the reason why Michigan is not as good as Minnesota. We're not as good as Minnesota because of the consistent lack of city rinks. If you simply removed Black Bear, I don't know if our situation is better or worse."

Ossenmacher hopes Minnesotans look to Michigan as a cautionary tale. His Northville High School players funnel in from eight or nine different associations each year, many of them unable to skate at rinks in their own community and jumping from team to team every year.

"And we wonder why kids fall out of love with the game," Ossenmacher said. "Minnesota's success leaves clues."

Minnesota operates on a funding strategy and a belief that ice rinks are a public good. Black Bear's company motto, "Protecting hockey. Growing the game," suggests a similar goal.

But the consensus from coaches in Michigan on the rapidly growing hockey empire seems to be clear: "Keep them out of Minnesota," a coach said.

For now, Black Bear's entry into Minnesota looks unlikely, according to Gunty: "We are 100 percent in support of what Minnesota does."

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This story was originally published June 4, 2026 at 2:48 AM.