Chris Murphy

In our league, which is owned by private equity, they just find all sorts of ways to squeeze every dollar out of the product.

One of the ways they do that is by creating a closed circuit television system.

And that's the only way that you can watch your kids play hockey.

I go to some games, my wife goes to some games, but I can't live stream the game for their mom or their grandparents.

That's illegal in our league because they want the parents and the grandparents to buy games

a subscription to the closed-circuit television system.

It can be anywhere from $25 to $50 per month to buy Black Bear TV, which is the private equity-backed company that owns the league and many of the rinks.

So, like, again, I get back to this question of, like, what is this doing to us spiritually?

Like, that's, like, one of the most important rituals as a parent to be able to share your kids' sporting events with their grandparents.

And now I can't do that unless I or my parents pay...

hundreds of dollars a year.

It's just like robbing us of the things that make parenting special, that make being a kid special as these youth sports experiences become more and more and more expensive and more monetized.

We used to have an informal understanding in this country that there were some industries where you didn't want the incentive system to be money.

You wanted the incentive system to be just what was right.

We have no recollection of this, but the health insurance industry in this country didn't start out as a for-profit business.

It was just like the right thing to do, the idea that you would pool risk so that nobody goes bankrupt if they get sick.

It started in Texas.

where a whole bunch of teachers essentially got together and pooled the risk of hospitalization.

And, you know, until about 20 years ago, health insurance was still not for profit.

And then somebody figured out that you could make a whole bunch of money off it, and it became for profit.