ABOUT
Black Bear Sports Group, Inc. is a privately held company formed by Murry Gunty and Blackstreet Capital Holdings, LLC in 2015 that seeks investments in sports and entertainment facilities, teams, and youth sports events. Black Bear focuses on ice arenas in metropolitan areas with compelling demographics, markets with a National Hockey League club presence, and arenas with existing youth hockey clubs. The largest owner/operator of ice arenas in the U.S., Black Bear’s footprint totals 41 facilities across the United States with 77 sheets of indoor ice, 41 youth hockey clubs, four hockey leagues (Atlantic Hockey Federation, Atlantic Girls Hockey Federation, Tier 1 Hockey Federation, and National Girls Hockey League), two tournament businesses (Defender Hockey Tournaments and The Show Tournaments), eight Junior “A” hockey teams with membership in the United States Hockey League, North American Hockey League, USPHL NCDC, USPHL Premier and Elite, and Foundry Adult Hockey, the largest adult hockey organization in the USA. Black Bear TV, the broadcasting arm of Black Bear, now reaches nearly 100 sheets of ice and has quickly established itself as one of the largest hockey broadcasters in the U.S.
OUR MISSION
Black Bear Sports Group, Inc. was founded to purchase undermanaged and underperforming ice rinks to bring professional management and badly needed capital to 20-30 year old rinks to save the facilities and provide a safe and fun environment for the local community. We have subsequently expanded into youth hockey clubs, hockey leagues, and junior hockey ownership to provide our facility participants with a pathway to college hockey.
OUR HISTORY
Black Bear Sports Group, Inc. is a Bethesda, MD based private company that was founded in 2015 and is led by CEO, Murry Gunty. Mr. Gunty is a lifelong hockey fan who founded Black Bear based on combining his turnaround experience in a broad array of industries with his passion for the game of hockey. Black Bear's goal is to save older rinks by investing capital to bring their facilities up to modern standards and provide great programming for its hockey and figure skating communities.
OUR PHILOSOPHY
Focus on arenas in metropolitan areas with compelling demographics
Invest capital to ensure we have the highest quality facilities
Hire best in class operators to manage our arenas
Manage our hockey clubs to provide convenient, high-level competition at an affordable price
Ready and able to invest and hold for a very long-term horizon
Operate primarily in the Midwest, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions and specifically where there is a strong NHL presence
Support all of our constituents including figure skating, mens' and womens’ leagues, public skating, high school athletes and our learn-to-play programs