Private equity-owned Black Bear Sports Group is buying up youth hockey — and icing out parents who want to record their kids’ games.
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.
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