The Texas Attorney General’s antitrust division is investigating anticompetitive business practices in youth hockey, and the Dallas Stars are a focus of the investigation, according to a report from USA TODAY.
A Dallas Stars spokesperson told The Dallas Morning News in a statement that the team has not yet been contacted by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office.
“The Dallas Stars are committed to providing the best possible experience for all players, teams and families who participate in our leagues and tournaments through long-standing partnerships with cities across the DFW Metroplex,” the statement went on to say.
The AG’s office did not immediately respond to The News’ request for comment.
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The Stars hold a strong control over the youth hockey market in the Metroplex and across Texas, operating eight ice facilities locally and running a number of youth programs and teams.
However, their youth hockey operations came under fire multiple times earlier this year. In the spring, the team cut ties with three employees after learning they had profited off hotel bookings for the Stars’ youth tournaments.
Damon Boettcher, Lucas Reid and Brad Buckland, three employees responsible for overseeing the StarsCenter facilities and the team’s youth programs, had organized dozens of youth hockey tournaments on the franchise’s behalf over the years that required out-of-town participants to book rooms for a minimum number of nights at select hotels.
The employees were also running a company called Stay2Play LLC that acted as the middleman between the Stars and the hotels, taking a cut of the revenue and creating a conflict of interest.
“There was an internal issue with it that once we became aware of it, we addressed it,” Stars owner Tom Gaglardi told a small group of reporters this spring. “We’ve got a new team of folks running that business now, and they’re fantastic. The old team just made some mistakes and didn’t tell us about them.”
A USA TODAY investigation in August also alleged the Stars have created a youth hockey monopoly in Texas, using tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to build a youth hockey empire, while crushing competition and regularly raising prices.
The Stars have denied wrongdoing and stated a commitment to growing the game in Texas.
“We’re still one of the models in the league,” Gaglardi said this spring. “We’re the gold standard.”
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