Black Bear Sports Group Lawsuit: LiveBarn Suit, Michigan AG Probe

Black Bear Sports Group, the largest owner-operator of ice rinks in the United States, is the subject of a Michigan Attorney General antitrust investigation opened in April 2026, an active lawsuit brought by streaming company LiveBarn in Delaware Superior Court, and sustained public criticism over pricing, evictions, and nonprofit conflicts of interest documented in a nine-month USA Today investigation. The Black Bear Sports Group lawsuit landscape now spans state antitrust enforcement, civil litigation from a former business partner, and a track record of disputes tied to founder Murry Gunty and the company’s private equity backing.¹

The Michigan Attorney General Investigation

On April 28, 2026, the Michigan Attorney General’s corporate oversight division opened an investigation into Black Bear for “potential anticompetitive and unfair trade practices involving the consolidation of youth ice hockey facilities and programs in Michigan.”² The inquiry is grounded in the Michigan Antitrust Reform Act, which prohibits monopolization and conspiracies in restraint of trade.

The trigger was Black Bear’s expansion in West Michigan, where it recently acquired Griff’s Georgetown Ice Arena in Hudsonville, Griff’s IceHouse West in Holland, and Wings West in Kalamazoo.³ The attorney general’s office said it is concerned about “consumer harm — including higher prices and reduced service quality — that can arise from diminished access to community and recreational services.”⁴ Investigators have been contacting Michigan hockey families with questionnaires about their costs and experiences.

The inquiry remains in the information-gathering phase and is not a formal finding of wrongdoing.⁵ Company spokesperson Evan Nierman said Black Bear was “unaware of any investigation by the Michigan Attorney General, or any basis for such an investigation,” and noted that the company operates 9 of more than 100 rinks in Michigan and 47 of roughly 1,700 rinks nationally.²

The LiveBarn Lawsuit in Delaware

In November 2024, Canadian streaming company LiveBarn sued Black Bear in Delaware Superior Court. The case, LiveBarn, Inc. v. Black Bear Sports Group, Inc., C.A. No. N24C-11-049 CLS, alleges tortious interference with contractual relations, unfair competition, and unjust enrichment.⁶

The two companies had been partners, with LiveBarn providing subscription streaming at Black Bear venues. LiveBarn alleges that Black Bear then launched its own competing service, Black Bear TV, and used confidential venue-specific contract data obtained through the partnership to copy LiveBarn’s pricing strategies and take its clients. Black Bear moved to dismiss, arguing it had engaged in ordinary business competition.

On July 10, 2025, Judge Calvin L. Scott Jr. denied the motion to dismiss on all three claims, finding that whether the information was confidential and whether the interference was wrongful were factual questions unsuitable for resolution at the pleading stage.⁶ The case is active.

The Business Model Behind the Legal Scrutiny

Both the Michigan investigation and much of the public criticism turn on the same structural fact: Black Bear does not just own rinks. Founded in 2015 by Gunty, a former Blackstone executive whose private equity firm Blackstreet Capital Holdings backs the company, Black Bear grew from a single rink to 47 rinks across 11 states in the Northeast, Midwest, and mid-Atlantic. It also controls hundreds of youth teams, leagues, tournaments, showcases, and the Black Bear TV streaming platform.¹

Company executives sit atop the leagues that use its buildings. Gunty served as interim commissioner of the United States Premier Hockey League, and Tony Zasowski, Black Bear’s director of leagues and tournaments, served as USPHL deputy commissioner.⁷ Matt Kiernan, Black Bear’s vice president of hockey, is commissioner of the Tier 1 Hockey Federation, a league Black Bear itself owns and operates.⁸ Antitrust experts quoted by USA Today characterized this stack as abuse of monopoly power, using rink control to gain leverage across every adjacent service.

What Families and Former Partners Allege

The Pittsburgh Vipers Eviction

The Pittsburgh Vipers, a nonprofit youth hockey organization that had run for 60 years, sat at the center of the USA Today reporting. In 2021, Black Bear purchased the Pittsburgh Ice Arena where the Vipers rented ice. The next year, Black Bear offered to buy the Vipers’ youth teams for one dollar. When the board refused, Black Bear evicted most of the club’s teams. In February 2024, with nowhere else to play, the board voted to fold the organization.⁹ Gunty called the Vipers “a failing organization” that “didn’t want to work with us.” Nierman attributed the eviction to declining participation.¹

The Team Maryland Nonprofit Arrangement

USA Today also documented what a nonprofit expert called a “glaring conflict of interest” involving Team Maryland, whose president was Robert Weiss. In February 2016, Gunty’s firm Blackstreet Capital Holdings and Weiss formed a for-profit company, Piney Ice LLC, that took over the lease for Piney Orchard Ice Arena and became the landlord to Team Maryland, the nonprofit. Money families paid to the nonprofit flowed to companies controlled by the people running it.¹⁰

Tax records showed that during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, Team Maryland paid over $1.2 million to for-profit companies owned or co-owned by Gunty, Robert Weiss, and Weiss’s son Michael. In 2024 alone, entities controlled by Blackstreet and the Weisses billed Team Maryland at least $595,000 for ice rentals and coaching fees, plus $145,000 in management fees paid to Black Bear.¹⁰ In 2023, Black Bear took over Team Maryland; Robert Dragonette, Blackstreet’s CFO, joined the nonprofit’s board as principal officer.

Laurie Styron of CharityWatch said such arrangements could run afoul of federal laws barring nonprofits from enriching insiders and could cost Team Maryland its tax-exempt status if the transactions were not at fair market value.¹⁰ Nierman said the transactions were “fair and reasonable” and legally disclosed under Maryland law. Gunty said he was “very comfortable” with the arrangements.

Streaming Bans and Recording Rules

The LiveBarn litigation connects to a broader dispute over how Black Bear controls what families can watch. Company contracts obtained by The Lever state that “no other form of broadcast or recording” is permitted by “family, friends, spectators, etc. through the use of cameras, iPad, phones, computers or any other recording and/or streaming devices.”¹¹ Rink staff reportedly threatened to confiscate devices or penalize teams whose members recorded games.

All streaming must instead go through Black Bear TV, where single games cost $14.99 and monthly subscriptions run $26 to $50, adding up to as much as $440 a year.¹¹ U.S. Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut said publicly that he was warned his child’s team would be penalized if he livestreamed a game at a corporate-owned rink.

Price Increases After Acquisition

Families across Black Bear’s footprint have reported steep price jumps after the company bought their local rinks. At Heartland Ice Arena in Lincolnwood, Illinois, hourly rates reportedly climbed from roughly $300 to nearly $600 without an ice cut. Non-prime rates at other facilities were said to have risen from about $400 per hour to $550, with prime slots reaching $700 to $800.¹² The company also introduced a $50 annual “registration and insurance” fee for some leagues, prompting a parent petition calling the charge predatory.¹¹

The 2019 Antitrust Case Black Bear Filed

Black Bear has also been the plaintiff in antitrust litigation. In 2019, the company and its subsidiary Center Ice Arena sued the Amateur Hockey Association of Illinois in federal court, alleging AHAI had blocked Black Bear from obtaining a charter to field a Tier II youth club. AHAI had told the company that a Tier II club in DuPage County was “unnecessary” and pointed out that its rules required sponsoring organizations to be nonprofits, whereas Black Bear is for-profit.¹³

The district court dismissed the case for lack of standing because Black Bear had never formally applied. The Seventh Circuit rejected that reasoning but affirmed dismissal on different grounds in June 2020, calling the Sherman Act claim “frivolous” because Black Bear was seeking to join what it characterized as a cartel rather than break it up. The case was dismissed for “lack of a plausible federal claim.”¹⁴

Founder Background and SEC Settlement

Gunty’s regulatory history predates Black Bear. In 2016, the SEC filed an administrative proceeding against Gunty and his firm Blackstreet Capital Management (File No. 3-17267), finding that Blackstreet had acted as an unregistered broker-dealer, performing brokerage services for portfolio companies without proper registration and collecting at least $1.877 million in transaction-based compensation.¹⁵

The SEC also found that Blackstreet used fund assets for unauthorized political and charitable contributions and entertainment expenses, including a luxury suite at the Verizon Center. Gunty acquired fund interests from departing limited partners and then directed the general partner he controlled to waive his obligation to make future capital calls on those interests, contrary to the fund’s governing documents and without disclosure to other investors.¹⁶ Gunty and Blackstreet settled by paying more than $3.1 million: $2.339 million in disgorgement, roughly $284,000 in interest, and a $500,000 penalty.¹⁵

On March 21, 2026, weeks before the Michigan investigation became public, Gunty stepped down as CEO. Kevin Kuby, a former partner at restructuring firm Alvarez and Marsal with a background running retail chains and no sports experience, was named interim CEO. Black Bear said Gunty was leaving to focus on “family office activities as well as health related matters.”¹⁷ Kuby has made no public statements about the Michigan investigation or the LiveBarn litigation.¹⁸

How This Compares To Other Youth Sports Cases

Black Bear is not alone in facing this kind of scrutiny. In November 2025, the Texas Attorney General’s antitrust division opened an investigation into the Dallas Stars for allegedly monopolizing amateur hockey in Texas through control of rinks, leagues, and pricing.¹⁹ That inquiry does not involve Black Bear.

The most developed parallel is Varsity Brands, which dominates competitive cheerleading. In December 2024, a federal court in the Western District of Tennessee granted final approval to an $82.5 million class-action settlement with cheer families who alleged illegal price-fixing. A separate $43.5 million settlement with all-star gyms was reached in 2023.²⁰ The theory in those cases, that a vertically integrated company controlling venues, sanctioning bodies, and mandatory purchases can inflate costs and suppress competition, closely tracks the accusations against Black Bear.

Federal legislation introduced in mid-2026 would designate private equity owners of youth sports facilities or associations as “vulture investors” subject to a private right of action, citing Varsity Brands by name.²⁰ Whether that bill advances, and whether the Michigan investigation or the LiveBarn suit produces enforceable outcomes, will decide how much of Black Bear’s business model survives contact with regulators and courts.

1
USA Today. Takeaways From USA Today’s Black Bear Investigation
2
WOOD TV. Black Bear Sports Group Under Investigation by Attorney General’s Office
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WKZO. Black Bear Sports Group Under Civil Inquiry
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WMUK. Black Bear Sports Group Under Investigation by Attorney General
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CharityWatch Blog. USA Today Investigation Raises Questions About Private Equity’s Growing Influence in Youth Hockey
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Midpage AI. LiveBarn, Inc. v. Black Bear Sports Group, Inc.
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USPHL. USPHL Names New Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner
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Tier 1 Hockey Federation. Black Bear Sports Group Launches Tier 1 Hockey Federation
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AOL News. Takeaways From USA Today’s Investigation Into Black Bear Sports Group
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USA Today. Lord of the Rinks: Black Bear and Youth Hockey
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The Lever. Wall Street Is Paywalling Your Kids’ Sports
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Barstool Sports. The Youth Sports Private Equity Update: Black Bear Sports Group and Hockey
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Duggan Bertsch. Youth Hockey Organization Disputes Heat Up Antitrust Grumblings
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Findlaw. Black Bear Sports Group, Inc. v. Amateur Hockey Association of Illinois, Inc.
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SEC. SEC Charges Blackstreet Capital Management
16
SEC. SEC Administrative Order 34-77959
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Black Bear Sports Group. Black Bear Sports Group Announces Kevin Kuby as CEO
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GlobeNewsWire. Black Bear Sports Group Announces Kevin Kuby as CEO
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USA Today. Texas Antitrust Investigation Into Dallas Stars Youth Hockey
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Sportico. Varsity Antitrust Settlement and Open Championship