The Dallas Stars are largely successful on the ice. They’ve made it to three consecutive Western Conference Finals, though they’ve been in losing efforts. Moreover, the team has been one of the best regular-season performers over the last few seasons. They are right there with the Edmonton Oilers and Vegas Golden Knights in terms of Western Conference contenders.
The Stars have cultivated a passionate fanbase since relocating from Minnesota in the early 1990s. However, some families in the Dallas-Fort Worth area are not fans of this organization. They’ve seen a different side of this franchise over the last several years.
Unlike most American sports, NHL teams take a direct approach in growing their sport in local communities. The Stars are certainly no exception. In a recent report from USA Today’s Kenny Jacoby, Dallas has built a youth hockey ice empire, controlling all but three ice rinks in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.
This has given the Stars considerable power over the youth hockey community. And it’s power they are not afraid to use. Local families and community members are speaking out against Dallas for their tactics against parents and players who express frustration or dissent with how the Stars operate, as detailed in Jacoby’s report for USA Today.
“The Stars have created a culture in our area that if you speak out against the Stars, then there’s retaliation,” Lisa Bry, the former President of the Frisco Ice Hockey Association, told USA Today.
How Stars Use Power of Youth Hockey Monopoly
Sam Hodde/Getty ImagesLocal parents in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex are speaking out against the team’s youth hockey monopoly.
The Stars arrived in North Texas in 1993 when ice hockey was not a popular sport in the area. However, once the team arrived, interest in the sport grew in its local communities. Dallas set out to control as much of the ice in the metroplex as it could.
As of now, the Stars control 10 of the 13 rinks in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and outright own three of them. This includes a rink in Northlake set to open in 2026. As a result of this, the organization can raise prices and dictate how youth hockey teams operate in the area.
These are common occurrences, as detailed in Jacoby’s report. Dallas routinely retaliates against parents who criticise them on social media. They also raise prices for access to their rinks. Community members have detailed how they’ve felt the franchise has bullied them for years while extracting as much money from these families as possible.
Dallas executives did respond to some of USA Today’s questions in an interview. “Everything has gotten more expensive; it’s just the economy we live in right now,” Dan Stuchal, Dallas’s chief operating officer, said of their decision to raise costs. “We’re really just trying to keep this thing afloat and keep things moving in a positive direction.”
Community Members Detail Retaliation, Intimidation Tactics
One story from Jacoby’s report involves Bry. She had recently become the President of the Frisco Ice Hockey Association. And she wanted to terminate the contracts of two coaches. Team executive Keith Andresen told Bry that the Stars supported these coaches, however.
“He had found out some of our coaches that we were not renewing contracts for two of our coaches. He told me point-blank that the Dallas Stars and the AT&T Metro High School Hockey League supported these two coaches coaching that specific team. And if they were not coaching that team, then I needed to be reminded where we got our ice from,” Bry told USA Today.
Jeremy Thompson, a local recreational hockey player, took to social media to express his frustrations. He did not like how the team raised registration prices and introduced a running clock for his league’s games. A petition he created received over 1,000 signatures. Thompson floated the idea of moving to a non-team-owned rink if his issues were not addressed.
However, the team caught wind of this petition. In an email obtained by Jacoby and USA Today, a Stars rink manager banned Thompson from their rink. “Your consistent and prolonged attempts online to draw people away from our programs and facility as well as your continued defamation of StarCenter programming is a direct violation of that policy,” the email read.
Kat Pierce criticized the Stars after her son suffered a concussion during a game. A now-former employee of the Stars told Pierce to refrain from posting in her Texas Hockey Parents Facebook group for six months “if your son wants any future here in Dallas hockey,” according to a SafeSport complaint she filed about the incident.
The Stars did respond to the claims of threats and intimidation. Stuchal said the organization would not go as far as to threaten any community members.
“We would never threaten or oust any individual from any of our programs, as long as they were competing and behaving within the stated rules of the league, policies of our company or facilities. We pride ourselves in having safe, clean and positive facilities and programs, so any actions that have been taken were ultimately done for the safety and protection of our customers, officials and staff,” Stuchal said, via Jacoby.
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