How minor hockey’s volunteerism model became big business

This is an excerpt from TSN investigative reporter and former Toronto Star journalist Rick Westhead’s new book “We Breed Lions: Confronting Canada’s Troubled Hockey Culture,” focusing on how minor hockey ‘s volunteerism model transformed into a professionalized approach:

The story of minor hockey’s evolution into a business extends back more than two decades, to a time when most minor hockey organizations were operated and coached by volunteer parents. Moms and dads wanted their children to be able to play but often lacked experience playing high-level hockey themselves and had no idea how to organize team practices and games.

But through the 1990s, minor hockey began to change dramatically, and teams in Detroit were at the centre of that development. Motown was a long-time hockey city