🔒Power play: Youth hockey has become big business in Central Mass., even as programs focused on fun lose ground to more competitive teams

Walking past a game featuring elementary school-aged hockey players at local arenas like the New England Sports Center in Marlborough, you’d probably be more focused on the adorable scene of pint-sized players in oversized pads slowly ambling after the puck, than the economics at play.

But youth hockey creates a surprising amount of economic activity in the region. Massachusetts had 40,699 registered hockey players under the age of 18 in 2024, according to stats from USA Hockey, the governing body for the sport. That’s more than 10% of the country’s youth hockey population, second only to Minnesota.

Central Massachusetts is home to more than 1,300 youth hockey players from ages 9 to 14, who play for what’s known as house teams, according to stats from state-level governing body Mass Hockey.

House teams are run by organizations focused more on fun and developing life skills, compared to more elite travel clubs.

With a season of house-team hockey costing parents around $2,000 per player, youth players in the 9-14 age range account for upward of $2.6 million a year just in league fees in the region.

Additional youth players play in other age brackets and for travel clubs. Costs of playing for an elite travel team can be three times or more expensive as playing for a house team, leading to costs of $20,000 or more a year for some families, according to TheHockeyThinkTank.com.

Factoring in more expensive travel teams, along with the revenue generated from equipment purchases, ice rentals, and the lodging costs and other expenses related to tournaments, it’s safe to say youth hockey has an outsized influence on the Central Massachusetts economy.

“We hear from the restaurants. They want to know when there is a big tournament happening, because they want to make sure that they're prepared from a staffing standpoint,” said Meredith Harris, executive director of the Marlborough Economic Development Corp. “Even the gas stations and smaller businesses are impacted significantly by tournaments.”

The sport has become more competitive and more focused on travel teams and high-profile tournaments, evolving into an all-year endeavor for youth players committed to playing at a higher level.

This has applied pressure to house-level teams and the organizations running them, as they look to provide a space for more players and parents focused on fun and developing life skills over pure hockey competition.

Marlborough runs on hockey

In 1969, Larue Renfroe founded Assurance Technology Corp., a satellite and communications systems developer based in Carlisle.

Frustrated by the lack of available ice time for his kids’ hockey teams decades later, he took matters into his own hands by launching another venture: The New England Sports Center.

The ice sports venue was already among the largest in the country when it opened in 1994, but it has more than doubled in size since, becoming the largest hockey venue in North America. This required the purchase of adjacent land next to the facility in 2016, allowing it to expand into its current footprint of eight full-sized rinks and two smaller practice rinks. That’s enough ice to cover about three football fields.

NESC also hosts figure skating, but ice hockey-related tournaments and events make up a vast majority of the venue’s 2025 calendar.

Even with the building’s size, ice remains at a premium at NESC and other rinks in the area, as tournaments are usually planned and booked a year or more in advance. NESC’s rinks are generally available from 6 a.m. until after midnight, with costs for an hour of ice rental ranging from $154 to $385, depending on the season and time of day, according to the venue’s website.

The rink employs around 70 workers and saw around 1 million visitors in 2023, according to stats provided to the WBJ Research Department.

Marlborough, a MetroWest community of about 41,000 people, has nearly 1,500 hotel rooms. That’s about 600 more than Worcester, a city about five times its population size.

While corporations based in Marlborough also contribute to the large amount of hotel rooms, by far the biggest driver for the small city’s 10 hotels is the existence of the New England Sports Center, said Harris.

“Even here in the last 10 years, the Hyatt and the Fairfield were added to the market, and those hotels are pretty full most of the time,” she said. “The sports center is able to sustain the number of hotels that we have here in Marlborough.”

Keeping the ice frozen

Like other businesses, hockey venues have been dealing with rising costs of operation, with a major factor being rising energy costs, said Derek Alfama, general manager and director of business development for the Fidelity Bank Worcester Ice Center. This job is part of his role with Edge Sports Global, a Wellesley-based firm tasked with running the venue by Beverly-based Rucker Investments, the venue’s owner.

Constructed in 2017 for $18 million, the two-rink venue sees about 550,000 to 700,000 visitors a year, said Alfama. He estimates hockey accounts for over 90% of the rink’s business, compared to figure skating.

Hosting about a half-dozen youth hockey programs and around 18 tournaments a year, Alfama said the rink plays an important role in the economy of the growing Canal District.

“That’s 18 weekends a year, if not more, where we have outside families coming in and looking to spend at hotels, restaurants, and Polar Park,” he said. “All those things that are within striking distance of the ice center, so there's a tremendous economic impact to the city and the surrounding towns.”

Alfama, a parent himself, doesn’t see the guardians of youth hockey players cutting back on what they spend on their kids’ playing careers, even as working-class families deal with the costs of inflation.

“I know people are feeling the pinch, but when you have kids, you get them to do their activities, especially with team activities and the opportunity to grow as an individual and learn how to deal with adversity,” he said.

The rise of club teams

First recognized as a nonprofit in 1989, Marlborough-based Triboro Youth Hockey Association is the home for house-level players in the communities of Marlborough, Southborough, and Westborough, as well as other area cities and towns without a program designated by Massachusetts Hockey.

Triboro’s focus on house-level teams means it's a place for parents more focused on keeping their children entertained and helping them develop life skills rather than becoming the next Bobby Orr. Players aren’t rejected due to a lack of skills, and the organization works cooperatively with parents when money or a lack of equipment becomes an issue.

“Triboro’s purpose is to give kids access to hockey, and we are one of the cheapest options around, if not the cheapest,” said Dan Larson, a member of Triboro’s board. “It doesn't matter skill level, how many years they've been playing. If they can skate well or not skate well, they're going to get equal ice time. So it's a different mantra than a lot of the more competitive club stuff.”

Season fees for Triboro range from $1,000 to $2,450, depending on age level and season length.

Getting players to come back the next year has become a challenge, and it’s not due to a lack of enthusiasm for the sport.

Instead, Triboro has been consistently losing players to more elite and competition-focused teams like the Minuteman Flames of Marlborough or the Junior Railers Hockey Club in Worcester.

Some older players are even bypassing high school hockey, once seen as a key stepping stone to playing at the collegiate or professional level, in favor of these high-profile club teams. A Boston Globe report from March found 78 high schools have dropped their boy’s hockey programs since 2022.

Larson said one of Triboro’s teams for ages 10-12 is having five of 15 players return for next season. The rest have jumped ship for a club team, including Larson’s son.

In order to stay relevant, Larson said house teams may have to start combining resources or launch club teams of their own.

“For us, it's less about coming away with a medal saying we won, and more about the kids and parents bonding," Larson said. “When you do the immersion of being away with a group of people and the families, how you really get to know people, and it's great.”

Eric Casey is managing editor of Worcester Business Journal, who primarily reports on the real estate and manufacturing industries.