For years, OS has been reporting that certain regulations and governing-body rules in amateur hockey have caused the sport to become much more expensive than necessary, and parents should investigate their respective organizations for full disclosure of all costs and expenditures assessed by their non-for-profit clubs. 

In fact, the Chicago Tribune has just reported on a pair of lawsuits naming a state governing body as a defendant, claiming that it has prevented new teams from forming, which ultimately prevents competition and allows existing teams to charge higher club fees.

Interestingly, the Tribune reports that some of these existing clubs pay their team managers or officials “six-figure salaries.” 
Naturally, these are allegations, but still, what happened to the definition of “amateur?”

The article goes on to report that these lawsuits illuminate a peculiarity of youth hockey. While travel baseball, soccer and basketball teams can form in a variety of ways, in hockey, there is a single dominant route: Clubs must be granted membership by a state or regional association, which act as affiliates of the governing body USA Hockey. 

According to the lawsuits, it exercises a much tighter control over the sport than other state associations. In fact, the plaintiffs claim that the Illinois governing body allows only four clubs at the elite level known as Tier 1, where college scouts commonly hunt for talent. No other state has such a restriction, according to the plaintiff, a new organization that aims to bring Tier 1 hockey to an area of the state. The lawsuit points to USA Hockey figures showing that Illinois has one Tier 1 team for every 5,837 players, a ratio far higher than any other state. The plaintiff says the existing programs accept children from outside Illinois, further minimizing opportunities for homegrown kids.

Hey referees. Ever wonder why parents are out-of-control at travel games? Here’s one answer. The lawsuit does not say how much the existing clubs charge, but parents whose children play Tier 1 hockey told the Tribune it costs around $8,000 to $11,000 a year, not including the cost of travel to out-of-town tournaments.

Like OS has previously explained, when parents shell out private school fees for a four-month hockey season, their inherent anger over that expenditure alone, coupled with substandard arenas offering frozen bleachers, obscured sightlines due to fish-netting and scuffed-up plexiglass, plus general discontent over club politics, naturally manifests itself through unreasonable anger directed at amateur referees calling the best game possible without the benefit of instant replay, or other modern conveniences that these parents come to expect as part of their substantial financial contribution to little Riley’s future ACHA club hockey career.

Every stat. Every missed offside. It’s the difference between varsity gold and JV silver. 

You know something? If I’m paying $15,000 a season, I’m probably expecting the best officials available, too. It’s just that I hate ponying up an additional sawbuck or two per season to pay ‘em.

And anyways, those NHL guys miss goals, offsides and high sticks, too. That’s why they get technological assistance.

OS repeats: The aforementioned lawsuits are simply allegations awaiting a finder-of-fact to sort out the claims. Still, that it has even gotten this far is a sorry state of affairs for “amateur hockey” in the 21st century.

Questions and comments can be sent to editor@letsplayhockey.com, via Twitter @OSpeaking or through the Let’s Play Hockey Facebook page.