Right now if you go to register your kid for money hockey you are required to sign up with your local minor hockey association. The primary advantage of that is competitive balance, that you play with kids in at least the same part of the city, and at least you kind-of mostly get ice times close to you (although because rinks aren't all evenly balanced throughout the city this isn't always true).
Downsides are that if you don't like your local club for some reason you're out of luck. There's also a side disadvantage that if you love you are forced to register with a new club for the next year.
But now Hockey Alberta is proposing getting rid of that requirement. You can sign up with any club. This does open up the advantage that clubs can now compete - maybe one offers better ice times, or more ice times, or more predictable ice times - or who knows.
Downside though is - how do you ensure competitive balance in such an environment?
Interestingly though is elite hockey (your AA/AAA teams) will sort-of stay in place (you can only try out for a team based on what minor hockey club you're a member of). It's also a one-time only choice - you can't switch year-by-year.
I have to say the fact that they're proposing a kid is "locked in" once they first register kind of defeats a lot of the purpose of the change. As a hockey parent what I'm looking for in a hockey program for a 5 year old is very different than for a 12 year old.
I don't want to focus just on Alberta though, as that's a topic only a couple people (if that) would care about). What more general experience do people have with open versus closed registration for minor hockey?
