USA Hockey Parents, Coaches & Players - Board Conflicts of Interest

If you know something now is the time to speak..... Dear hockey parents, coaches, players, business owners, volunteers: My name is Kenny Jacoby. I'm an investigative reporter for USA TODAY who has spent the last year and a half investigating the business of youth hockey. My reporting has exposed monopolistic business practices by Black Bear Sports Group and the Dallas Stars and a six-figure theft and retaliation campaign by the now-former president of the USA Hockey affiliate in Colorado. Now, I want to learn about your experiences dealing directly with USA Hockey's governing bodies: the national governing body, districts and state/regional affiliates. These bodies are supposed to make decisions that benefit players and families' interests. Instead, people who serve on these bodies often make decisions that benefit themselves or their businesses. They adopt rules that keep themselves in positions of power and help powerful corporations maintain their dominance, while hurting players' development, eliminating choice and making the sport less community-driven and more elitist and expensive. Has a USA Hockey governing body: - Shut down your program or blocked another from forming? - Prevented your child from transferring to the team or league they want to play for? - Given preferential treatment to a program or company with which a governing board member has personal or financial ties? - Prevented a parent from running in an election for a board seat? - Denied a request to review financial records, meeting minutes, election results or board vote counts? - Mishandled a SafeSport complaint? If so, I want to hear from you. You can reach me by email at [email redacted] or here by Facebook message. You can also message me confidentially on Signal at kennyjacoby.05 Thanks in advance for your help; I look forward to speaking with you. Best, Kenny Jacoby Investigative Reporter USA TODAY