FAQ's
Glacier Pointe is now part of Black Bear Sports Group (BBSG). Below are answers to the questions families ask most about the change in ownership. Black Bear’s full FAQ on ownership, pricing and rink investments is available at blackbearsportsgroup.com/faqs.
Q: Why is Glacier Pointe changing ownership?
A: Black Bear Sports Group purchased Glacier Pointe Ice Complex to preserve an important
resource for hockey players and ice skaters in the Blue Water Area.
Running a community rink is a high-fixed-cost business, and aging rinks require constant repairs
and capital upgrades – new ice plants, chillers, dehumidifiers – to stay open and safe. That
investment has not kept pace: since 2019, due to the high cost of operating rinks and declining
public investment, rinks have closed in Black Bear’s operating states of Michigan, New Jersey
and Pennsylvania 3.5 times faster than new rinks have opened. BBSG looks for rinks at risk of
closure due to significant financial or facility maintenance problems, and for markets where the
local community doesn’t have enough ice to meet demand.
BBSG is a long-term investor, owner and operator of rinks that reinvests virtually all available
funds directly into its facilities – more than $20 million across its 47 rinks in the past three years
alone – and it is taking ownership of Glacier Pointe to ensure the rink remains a cornerstone of
the Blue Water Area for years to come.
Q: Who is Black Bear Sports Group?
A: Black Bear Sports Group (BBSG) was founded in 2015 by a group of lifelong hockey supporters. Its mission is to make hockey more accessible for the next generation of hockey players and create new and improved pathways for hockey players to achieve their goals at the junior, collegiate and professional levels of the sport. By preserving community rinks and creating development opportunities, BBSG ensures that hockey and other ice sports remain accessible, competitive and positioned for long-term success. Since its inception, BBSG has helped thousands of young players get on the ice for little to no cost, saved 47 rinks from closure and modernized them across the Northeast and Midwest. In the 2025-2026 season, BBSG grew player participation 9%, from 5,515 participants to 6,008, in the states where it operates, while youth participation overall declined in those same states.
Q: Who owns Black Bear Sports Group?
BBSG is a privately-held company owned by dozens of individual investors – hockey parents, former players, and sports-medicine physicians among them – who are committed to a mission of growing the game of hockey and keeping community ice rinks open for the public. It is a long-term investor, owner and operator of rinks, operating many for more than a decade.
Q: Will the rink’s name change?
A: No, Glacier Pointe will keep its name. Glacier Pointe is a home base for hockey and skating families across the Blue Water Area, and we look forward to keeping it that way.
Q: How much of my rink experience is going to change?
A: Every club, league and program currently skating at the rink will open the 2026-27 season on schedule, with the same ice times. Generations of Port Huron families have learned the game at Glacier Pointe, and Black Bear will introduce new programs to ensure the next generation does as well, including Take a Shot at Hockey, which helps first-time players ages 4 to 9 learn the game at zero cost; Learn to Play Hockey, which provides free equipment for kids to keep as they play; and Get in the Game, which is the largest co-ed adult learn-to-play hockey program in the country. Each of these new initiatives is designed to widen the pipeline into a sport the Port Huron community already knows well, so the rink is as full a decade from now as it is today.
Beyond these new offerings to grow the game, which will roll out during the 2026-2027 season, all current programming is slated to continue on schedule, without interruption, including the Port Huron Minor Hockey Association, the Port Huron Figure Skating Club, Glacier Blades Learn to Skate, and Glacier Pointe’s adult leagues.
