Mike Serba Memorial Golf Tournament

Cui Bono? – Part 3

The most I ever paid for an annual registration for one of my sons in hockey was $750 for the triple A Marboros Midget team. Now this was back in the late 1990’s and we as parents also had to work at charity bingos or casino nights so that the Marlie organization would provide more funds for the team  operations. I think the total budget for the team for the entire season was just north of 30K.  Today the registration for some triple A teams is reported to be in excess of $8000 in some cases  (and the total yearly cost for triple A has been reported to be from 10K to 15K per child).

How And When Did Things Get Out Of Hand?

In the good old days, one of the “defacto” owners of a triple A GTHL team was a man by the name of Bob Law. Bob Law was the “defacto” owner of the triple A North York Junior Canadiens organization. When Mr. Law passed away, his family decided to “sell off” (sometime in the early 2000’s) the Jr. Canadiens organization to three very wealthy gentlemen by the names of; Harvey Shapiro, Peter Friedman and Stuart Hyman, who had children just starting out in hockey.

Shapiro, Friedman and Hyman wanted to build an elite organization and rumour has it that they felt there was “a lot being left on the table”; in other words, there was more money that was willing to be paid by hockey parents. These guys initiated the era of paid professional coaches and a lot more. Rumour also has it that the team budget for their sons’ novice team (at that time the boys were 9 years old), was in excess of 200K. This group went on to reconstruct an industrial building into a 2 pad ice rink facility. I suspect these wonderful people have other related business operations integrated into their overall “hockey empire” and have realized the potential monies to be had.

And so, the cost of minor hockey has escalated dramatically and you can thank these wonderful people. Subsequently, the other “defacto” owners realized that they were monies being left on the table and raised their registration costs accordingly.

Can You Really Make Money Running A Minor Hockey Organization?

Stuart Hyman broke away from his partners in the Junior Canadiens organization and struck out on his own to develop his own hockey empire. I could go on about the extent of the hockey empire that Hyman built however lets just cut to the chase and say that it was reported that he gained control of more than 90 GTHL teams. It has also been reported that to finance this control he immediately doubled registration fees for all teams.

According to a Toronto Star news article in 2008, Al Morris, chairman of Hockey Canada, said the GTHL asked the country’s governing hockey body to audit Hyman’s books because the league doesn’t have the authority on its own to probe the financial records of its clubs. “(Hyman) doesn’t want an audit,” Morris said in an interview, adding that Hyman and his lawyer have imposed numerous delays on the process. “I think (he) has decided to withdraw (from the GTHL) as the lesser of two evils.” Subsequently , the GTHL demanded Hyman divest his interests in several of the clubs. Hyman agreed to shed 36 teams if he were allowed to continue with the remainder.

Why would an already multi-millionaire try to control that many hockey teams if it wasn’t for the money?

You Need To Understand The Beast You’re Dealing With

I’ve droned on a bit about this subject, but you really need what you’re dealing with when you get you children involved with minor hockey and how it came to be. There’s a lot more to this subject, but for now just remember that at every level in this area and probably in North America everyone is out to make a buck.

There’s a lot more you need to know to understand this “beast” you’re dealing with, however, I’m going to move on and give you some really valuable information. I’ll deal with more of understanding this “beast” in future blogs.

In the next blog I’ll tell you what I believe are the two most important things you have some control over that will help to ensure you and your children have the best experience possible in your hockey careers.

There’s a lot more to come.

You Need To Understand The Beast You’re Dealing With

Note:

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