Black Bear Strikes Again!

[Guest]

Black Bear sucks! My kid plays for a BB AAA team in THF. The travel for this league is insane. CT, MD, Western PA and Upstate NY for league games. We have 2x's the hotel stays as we did in AYHL. This will be our last season on a BB team. Going back to AYHL team. Coach wanted him back this year, but he stayed with 3 friends on THF. Next season he is moving back to AYHL team. BB is ruining youth hockey!

[Guest]

With this new video thing BB is doing, is what is on their site seriously the cost of it???  Spiideo - Black Bear Sports Group

If so, basically the only way people can watch games if not physically there is if their entire team pays towards this spiideo??

My understanding was there would be two options - the one listed with all the extra coaching tools and then one that is cheaper that is more like LiveBarn.  Only showing one on the website is concerning.  So is the comment that you get 25 games.... last I checked we played a lot more league games than that.  Nevermind non-league, tournament, school hockey, etc

There isn't anything at our rink and I don't think they've installed anything new.  LiveBarn is still up and running at least for now

[Guest]

Black Bear sucks! My kid plays for a BB AAA team in THF. The travel for this league is insane. CT, MD, Western PA and Upstate NY for league games. We have 2x's the hotel stays as we did in AYHL. This will be our last season on a BB team. Going back to AYHL team. Coach wanted him back this year, but he stayed with 3 friends on THF. Next season he is moving back to AYHL team. BB is ruining youth hockey!

I'm not a BB apologist... hate what they are doing to hockey, but when it comes to scheduling, you should blame your scheduler, not BB.  Each team is responsible for scheduling their league games.  BB only schedules the Showcase games.

[Guest]

Black Bear sucks! My kid plays for a BB AAA team in THF. The travel for this league is insane. CT, MD, Western PA and Upstate NY for league games. We have 2x's the hotel stays as we did in AYHL. This will be our last season on a BB team. Going back to AYHL team. Coach wanted him back this year, but he stayed with 3 friends on THF. Next season he is moving back to AYHL team. BB is ruining youth hockey!

I'm not a BB apologist... hate what they are doing to hockey, but when it comes to scheduling, you should blame your scheduler, not BB.  Each team is responsible for scheduling their league games.  BB only schedules the Showcase games.

That's not correct. BlackBear tells you which teams you have to play in your division (based off of parity results and research) as well as how many times you have to play each team home and away.  The scheduler is just following orders from BB. 

[Guest]

Problem with BB and THF is teams are too far away. CT, NY- West Chester County, Brooklyn, Long Island-, Pittsburgh, Far North Jersey, Maryland (VA border), & Hershey. AYHL has DC, Long Island and Scranton. Every other team is about .5-1.5 hrs away max. THF travel is just awful. We play both Long Island teams, all 3 CT teams, both West Chester NY teams, Pittsburgh teams, Hershey teams and Maryland team. We have 8 hotel stays for league games alone. This is not counting 5 tournaments. We will have 13 hotel stays with some multiple nights. This is just too much. AHF is getting this way too, because there are too many teams. AHF & THF need to put divisions in regardless if a team gets killed. Too much travel also wears on the kids. BB=ruining youth hockey!

[Guest]

Well, BB launched their streaming service. Basic subscription is  little cheaper for 1 year in advance and more expensive for monthly billing. . Premium is more expensive for yearly and monthly billing. What a damn rip off this is! Is is a total money grab for BB. Not only will you need the BB service but also Livebarn when you kids team plays at non-BB arena's, which is a lot with non-league and tournaments. My kid was asked to tryout for an AYHL team this year, but we decided to stay with BB team because of his friends. Not only is BB AAA about 15% higher than the AYHL team, we now have to pay for 2 streaming services if my wife or I can't make games, which is usually the case. I am just so disgusted with BB. I wish I could get my money back. Why not tell us this before we signed? I am sure BB knew of this new service back in March. My goal is to get everyone to boycott the BB service so it is a disaster. I am fed up being nickel and dimed. So let's see how BB has screwed us over the past 3 years- crap uniforms from Breakout, worst registration site I have ever used in Bond, stupid parity tournaments, expensive photos from Carmo, ridiculous travel to CT, NY, Western & Central PA, MD and VA for league games, basically blackballed from AAHA QB PW team, stupid HPR and Kratch rankings, no more cooperation with game sheet, prices that are the highest in youth hockey and the THF is a joke outside the top 4 teams. Did I miss anything? Oh yeah, rinks that have dirty bathrooms, dirty locker rooms, tiny to non-existent pro shops and terrible snack bars. The only reasons I have put up with this are proximity to my house and sons friends. Next year I will drive the 55 minutes rather than 25 minutes to get the hell away from BB. Boycott Black Bear TV!

[Guest]

So BB is rolling out the BBTV now. We have LB in non-BB/AHF/AGHF/THF rinks and also have Flo-Hockey in some rinks. Have to split going to games with wife so one of us always watch streaming. New registration for all rinks with no answer on what the fee is actually for. Tuition for team went up 18% from last season for same level (my kid played up). Travel for showcases are worse this year. Last year- Pitt, Hershey & Harrisburg. This year- Pitt, CT & Michigan. Hotel stays last year for league games including playoffs= 3. Hotel stays this year for league games including playoffs = 7. Throw in 4 more hotels for showcase/tournaments and we are at 11 hotel stays. I am so thankful my kid said this year is probably his last playing hockey. He likes soccer & lacrosse more. Costs for soccer & lacrosse combined are about 75% of what we pay for ice hockey. BB has ruined the sport and is pricing out a lot of people. I look at the kids my son plays against in all 3 sports and hockey has the worst athletes out of all three sports. Mid-Atlantic ice hockey is a bad product because too many of the best athletes that would play are priced out and BB is just making it worse! I hope everyone wakes up and boycotts BB. Murry has almost completed his grand plan. It is just a matter of time before everyone is playing in a BB controlled league and then BB gets control of AAHA. Once that is complete watch old Murry sell his controlling stake a walk away with 10's of millions. Private Equity/BB/Murry are evil!!!!!1

[Guest]

Why stay with BB team? If it's too much $ and too much travel why wouldn't you look for a DVHL or NJYHL team? Skill level, competition or distance to the home rink?

[Guest]

Why stay with BB team? If it's too much $ and too much travel why wouldn't you look for a DVHL or NJYHL team? Skill level, competition or distance to the home rink?

Level of play and proximity. The only option around me is FY. No way I am playing for an organization run my ML. So either go to FY or play AHF at BB rink or Hollydell. Again, no way I would play for Hurricanes. 50% of the parents at Hollydell are crazy.

[Guest]

Based on where I live we are forced to either drive 1.5 hrs to a non BB rink or drive 20 minutes to a BB rink. BB is probably the worst thing to happen to youth sports. Their leagues instituted $50 league registration fees and basically told none of the rink directors. They put in BBTV that is more expensive than LB, plus you need LB in non-BB/League rinks. Their tuition is 20% higher than non-BB owned rinks. Their rinks are dirty, smell, have bad snack bars (if any at all), have run down locker rooms, the rink employees are rude, crappy pro shops, and they always have issues with the ice. They have corporate deals with expensive photographers (Carmo), crappy, cheap, oversized, slow and rude uniform supplier (Breakaway), and the worst online payment/registration site I have ever used (Bond). They give you no choice in what tournaments you play in. They chose all tournaments/showcases no matter how far away. They force you to play league games against teams that are so far away you need to book 5 hotel stays just for league games. Yes they let our team manager schedule the games, but you are locked in who you play for home and away games. Everyone makes the playoffs and those rinks are usually 2+ hours away and require more hotel stays. I have 10 hotel stays for this season, where before BB we maybe had 3-4. Before BB we played in the AYHL and the competition was great. We are now in the THF and play AA teams who should not be playing AAA. THF is a very low AAA league with only about 4 AAA teams at every level. It is a joke compared to AYHL, and NE AAA leagues. THF pays the referees less than AYHL so THF games have terrible referees. Few if any THF players were selected for PW Quebec teams. AAHA hates BB and is looking to revoke all but 3-4 of their AAA teams status when moratorium is lifted. BB Tier 1 Teams have some success at different ages, but overall their Tier 1 teams are really AA and some are so bad they are high A. I am done with BB rink and BB league after this season and hope more parents follow me out the door. Until parents start speaking up, BB will just do what they want. The funny thing is BB can barely roster AAA teams at Revolution, Mercer, Flyers Elite, PAL Islanders and Palmyra. Most teams have maybe 11-12 players per team and half those players are AA/A level. AYHL teams has 14 skaters and 2 goalies on most teams. Yet BB tuition is higher than AYHL teams. Also most of their AHF teams are bad (with a few exceptions). They are ruining youth ice hockey and the AAHA & USAHockey need to squash them!