Headlines: MN Hockey Orginizations Sue

I have admired Minnesota hockey from afar.  Admittedly, I have not lived in the system.  But it seems to me that they do it right up there.  Minnesota produces more hockey players per capita than any other state.  Ice time is cheap, and there are numerous lakes to play some good ol shinny outdoors.  In the midget years, the best hockey is played by high schools.  From the land of $325/hr ice, this all looks pretty appealing.

Today's headline came as a bit of a wake up call that the land of 10,000 lakes is not one big hockey family.

MinnPost: Youth hockey groups face off over antitrust charges

Courtesy of Google News.

More after the jump.

This quote from the story sums it up quickly:

[sic] into federal court as a private for-profit hockey clinic filed an antitrust lawsuit against a group of metro area youth hockey associations, charging that they are banning players who participate in their competing winter  league.

 Minnesota Made Hockey Inc. (MMHI) is suing Minnesota Hockey Inc. of St. Paul — a dozen metro area team clubs that make up District Six of the statewide organization — and the district’s director, Brad Hewitt of Edina.

I don't have the stats at my fingertips, but the Edina area produces a lot of NHL level players.  The ironically named Minnesota Made Hockey Inc sounds very much like how things are done in Illinois:

Minnesota Made Hockey started out offering hockey clinics back in 1993. Now in its 17th year of training hockey players aged Mites to High School, clinics and hockey training are still a large part of the Minnesota Made Hockey program. Over time we have steadily grown to now include Tournaments, Trips, Events, plus 4 AAA Hockey Clubs as part of our lineup. In 2006 we expanded our operations to include our own ice arena made up of two NHL regulation size rinks in Edina called Minnesota Made Ice Center.  

We strongly emphasize the individual development of our athlete’s with discipline and skill instilled in all of our programs, believing that no athlete will succeed unless they have both.

Four AAA clubs!  Not teams, clubs.  Now, AAA is quite a bit different up there.   The AAA teams usually come together in the spring and summer so as to not interfere with the dominant high school season.  The revolution occurring in Edina that lead to this lawsuit is that players are choosing Minnesota Made Hockey over the officially ordained organizations in the winter season.  Winter, not spring.  So District Six fired back with a rule change:

At the heart of the suit is a rule change instituted in July that threatens to suspend players on District Six teams who “register or play hockey with any other organization, association or team during the winter hockey season.” The new rule is on the Minnesota Hockey District Six website here.

Sounds like something AHAI would do, no?  

The rule prompted Minnesota Made Hockey Inc to sue District Six on antitrust grounds.  Should they win the case, the resulting precedence has implications for youth hockey in Illinois.  In particular, AHAI's two choice rule could be challenged in court.  If you are not familiar with it, I plan on writing a column on the two choice rule at some point this season, so stay tuned.