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There’s an ironclad truism in youth sports: every parent turns into an ESPN 30 for 30 documentarian as soon as they have a video recording device in hand and their kid is in the game. Some record the games and post them online so family members and friends who can’t attend in person can watch their kids play. Sometimes they do so to attract the attention of college scouts or help players hone their craft. Some people just want to preserve the memories. But in the world of corporatized youth sports, even this simple pleasure is being banned and monetized by Wall Street to extract as much profit as possible from players and parents, no matter how many kids get sidelined because they can’t afford the sport’s rising costs. As the $40 billion youth sports industry comes under private equity control, corporate-owned facilities and leagues — from hockey rinks to cheerleading arenas — have begun prohibiting parents from recording their own kids’ sports games. Instead, parents are forced to subscribe to these companies’ exclusive recording and streaming service, which can cost many times more than the streaming costs for professional sporting events. Meanwhile, the firms’ exclusive contracts have prohibited alternative video services from being made available. In some instances, parents have been threatened that if they choose to defy the rules and record the game, they may end up on a blacklist that punishes their kids’ teams. Those threats were even reportedly made to a sitting US senator. “I was told this past weekend that if I livestreamed my child’s hockey game, my kid’s team will be penalized and lose a place in the standings,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) at a public event earlier this year. “Why is that? Because a private equity company has bought up the rinks.” Murphy did not name the company in question, though the restrictive streaming practices he described have become widespread across youth hockey. Black Bear Sports Group, an emerging youth hockey empire and the largest owner-operator of hockey rinks in the country, is among the private equity–backed companies that are amassing a chokehold on recording and streaming youth sports. At Black Bear–owned ice rinks, parents cannot record, post, or livestream their kids’ hockey games online “per official company policy,” according to staff at those venues. Some rink attendants said they will confiscate attendees’ recording devices if they find them. Some specialized sports training consultants have agreements with Black Bear that allow them to record games and practices, but only for internal use. According to a spokesperson, Black Bear claims the policy is to mitigate “significant safety risks to players,” such as players being filmed without their consent. The spokesperson failed to answer a follow-up question about what penalties attendees might face if they try to record the games themselves. Black Bear’s streaming service costs between $25 and $50 a month, depending on the package and additional fees. The company’s aggressive expansion of the program has even triggered a lawsuit from a former streaming partner alleging breach of contract and trade secret theft. Black Bear’s streaming service costs between $25 and $50 a month, depending on the package and additional fees. In addition to its recording rules and associated costs, Black Bear is starting to add a $50 “registration and insurance” fee per player for some leagues. That’s on top of what players already spend on expensive equipment, team registration, and membership to USA Hockey, the sport’s national governing body. “Black Bear Sports Group does not have a good reputation in the hockey world and is known for predatory practices of its customers like price gouging,” reads a recently launched petition protesting the new registration and insurance charges. The fees and streaming restrictions reveal how private equity firms are deploying the same playbook in youth sports as they have in other domains, from dentistry to bowling: degrade the quality of service while juicing returns for investors. “Black Bear [is] following the exact same model as we’ve seen elsewhere in the industry,” said Katie Van Dyck, an antitrust attorney and senior fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project. “It’s not about investing to enrich our children’s lives.”
“The New Sport of Kings” The new fees tacked on by Black Bear contribute to the already rising costs of participating in youth and recreational sports like hockey. Across the board, youth sports have become an increasingly expensive budget item for American families, thanks to costs ranging from equipment to team memberships and travel. According to a recent study from the Aspen Institute, households now spend an average of $1,016 a year on their child’s primary sport, a 46 percent increase since 2019. The professionalization of youth sports has further driven up costs. Some parents now pay for personal trainers and even sports psychologists to give their kids a competitive edge in the hopes of them reaching the collegiate or professional level. As a result, many children from lower-income families are being priced out of youth sports. “We have this affordability crisis, and youth sports are one of those things that’s becoming an activity only for the wealthy,” said Van Dyck. “It’s not something that is accessible to people who make less than six figures a year.” This trend line has been particularly pronounced in hockey, which, according to some metrics, is the most expensive youth sport, with an average cost of $2,583. Skate prices can top $1,000, and sticks can often cost several hundred. “It’s the new sport of kings,” said Joseph Kolodziej, who runs a consultancy helping parents and athletes navigate the world of youth hockey. “I’ve been hearing for over twenty years that prices are forcing people out of the sport and that teams are losing gifted athletes because they can’t afford to play.” The rapid commercialization of youth sports has become big business. One recent estimate put the total valuation of the youth sports market at $40 billion. Youth hockey alone could reach over $300 million by the end of the decade. Those sky-high revenues have attracted Wall Street investors looking to charge more money from a wealthier customer base willing to pay more for their kids. And now, virtually every corner of the youth sports industry is coming under corporate ownership. A company called Unrivaled Sports, run by two veterans of Blackstone, the world’s largest private equity firm, is rapidly consolidating baseball camps, flag football, and other leagues. The operation even bought the iconic baseball megacomplex in Cooperstown, New York, considered the birthplace of the sport, where summer tournaments draw teams from around the country. Bain Capital–backed Varsity Brands, meanwhile, has cannibalized the competitive cheerleading arena and now acts as the gatekeeper controlling access to the sport. All of this outside investment has raised concerns that the financial firms rolling up the market may further increase costs for families. From health care to retail, private equity firms purchase companies, load them up with debt, slash costs, and extract as much profit as possible for investors before selling the operations or filing for bankruptcy. “When youth sports become an investment vehicle, rather than a development vehicle for children, there [are] all kinds of financial predation that can arise from vulture companies that don’t have the sport’s long-term interest in mind,” said Van Dyck at the American Economic Liberties Project. Youth sports are one of those things that’s becoming an activity only for the wealthy. Varsity Brands, for example, faced a class-action antitrust lawsuit for alleged anticompetitive practices that pushed out cheerleading rivals while squeezing profits from participants, such as forcing teams to purchase Varsity’s own apparel and equipment. In 2024, Varsity, which was also mired in a sex abuse scandal, settled the suit for $82 million. In addition to controlling venues, uniforms, and the tournaments for competitive cheerleading, Varsity expanded into entertainment streaming services with Varsity TV, which has the exclusive right to livestream the company’s competitions. It’s lorded that arrangement not just over parents but also tech giants. During the 2020 Netflix docuseries Cheer, which follows a cheerleading team competing across the country, Varsity wouldn’t allow the series’ crew to film inside the venue they owned in Daytona, Florida. The Texas attorney general is probing similar anticompetitive practices by the Dallas Stars, a professional National Hockey League team, following an explosive USA Today investigation into its youth hockey operations. According to the report, the team bought up dozens of Texas’s recreational rinks. It then allegedly used its market power to jack up fees on youth players, underinvested in rink maintenance, and retaliated against clubs that tried to oppose them. Now, legal experts say Black Bear Sports is replicating a similar model for youth hockey teams along the East Coast and beyond.