How Can I Find Beer League Hockey Near Me In 2024?
Updated: January 2, 2024 by Bill Burniece
If you move to a new town or come out of beer league retirement (again) you’re probably looking for your local beer league hockey options.
One of the first questions I get here is ‘Where can I find ice hockey near me?’
Luckily for you, I have assembled on this page all of the resources I can find on how to explore your options.
Even small communities find a way to offer ice time and hockey leagues to us diehards who refuse to hang up our skates for good.
Table Of Contents
- How Can I Find Beer League Hockey Near Me In 2024?
- 11 Ways To Find Beer League Hockey Near You
- 1. Hockey Finder
- 2. USA Hockey
- 3. Hockey Community
- 4. Sports Engine
- 5. Check The Search Engines
- 6. Check Craigslist
- 7. Check With Your Local Rinks
- 8. Social Media
- 9. Your Beer Drinking Hockey Buddies
- 10. Your Local Hockey Store Or Retailer
- 11. GotMyTeam Platform
- 12. The Local Community Center
- 13. Newspapers
- 14. Try Hockey For Free Website
- 15. Check With Your Local Universities
- Find Beer League Hockey Near Me Summary
11 Ways To Find Beer League Hockey Near You
1. Hockey Finder
Hockey Finder is based in hockey-country Minneapolis, MN. Their platform is a great resource for finding:
- Beer Hockey Leagues
- Pick Up Hockey Games (Drop-In)
- Tournaments
Hockey Finder “is the newest and best way to organize, advertise and promote pickup hockey games, and open hockey for arenas and hockey clinics. This tool is available to anyone, anywhere, and is completely FREE.”
Hockey Finder allows you to find pickup hockey games for both youth and adults plus beer leagues, hockey clinics, and tournaments. It has a really cool feature in that you can click on your state on the map graphic page and instantly find a ton of resources.
Please note that their website is a work in progress so some states are more built-out than others at this point but it’s still a great platform.
2. USA Hockey
USA Hockey has a nice page dedicated to helping you find hockey near you.
Their platform lists hockey resource websites by hockey region:
- Atlantic
- Central
- Mid American
- Northern Plains
- Pacific
- Rockey Moutain
- Southeastern
Plus additional links to hockey hotbeds including:
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- New England
- New York
The USA Hockey website is massive and includes resources on adult hockey news and tips for adult beer league players – including video tutorials, pond hockey info, and much more.
Plus they have an app you can download to check everything out from your phone.
3. Hockey Community
Hockey Community is another nice platform created to help you find different hockey leagues near you.
“Hockey Community is a platform for hockey players. We empower thousands of people around the world to discover, organize, and play hockey through our app and its tools. Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Vancouver, Hockey Community is completely founder-owned and operated.”
Hockey Community has connected over 100,000 players to leagues, games, tournaments, and teams all over the world. Hockey Community is free to join and available across iOS, Android and the Web.
4. Sports Engine
Sports Engine is an NBC Sports Group company that “is the leading provider of Sport Relationship Management (SRM) software, empowering athletes, parents, coaches, and sports organization administrators with tools and services to manage their organizations and sports lives.”
Sports Engine provides a nicely laid out platform for you to search for hockey leagues and camps – searchable by location.
It also has all of the power of NBC Sports behind it so you’ll find great stories, articles and videos on everything hockey-related.
5. Check The Search Engines
Simply go to Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, or to your favorite search engine and type in the keyword phrase: beer league hockey near me or pick up hockey near me.
The search results should show you several local options for beer league hockey.
That is unless you live in rural Siberia or in the middle of the Gobi Desert. In that case, you may be shit out of luck.
I live in the Denver, CO metro area and the screenshot below shows the results I get:
6. Check Craigslist
Go to Craigslist and search for terms like beer league hockey, pick up hockey near me, or recreational men’s hockey. In case you’ve been off the grid for several decades, Craigslist is a classified ads website that has now replaced your local fish wrap.
If you come up short on your search, you can place a free ad on Craigslist asking for information.
7. Check With Your Local Rinks
This is a no-brainer. But since this is a list of resources, there may be none better than your nearest ice rink.
If they don’t have beer leagues they will likely know who does.
When you find a rink with leagues, check with the schedule and go attend some games. Find the skill level equal to yours then approach a player or two after the game and ask if they are looking for any new players.
And as a bonus, most rinks offer skate-n-shoot or drop-in sessions that you can play in if there is no formal league to offer you.
8. Social Media
Search your favorite social media platform for beer league hockey near you.
If you find nothing, join a few beer league hockey groups and ask around. You’ll find what you’re looking for eventually.
9. Your Beer Drinking Hockey Buddies
Maybe this should be the number one choice.
Regardless, your boys have you covered if you hang around other beer-leaguers. Better to join them than to go the free agent route, even if you have to play on an ODR.
10. Your Local Hockey Store Or Retailer
11. GotMyTeam Platform
It looks like a step up from our beloved beer leagues since they talk about browsing offers and connecting with agents.
So if you are a ringer, this platform might be the place for you to connect with your next team.
12. The Local Community Center
Check with your local community centers or sports complexes to see if they offer any adult or youth hockey leagues or know where you can find more information.
Community centers are a great source of information for this kind of thing. And the staff are usually bored to death.
13. Newspapers
Look in your local newspapers before they disappear for good.
The local fish wrap or community publications may have ads or articles about local hockey leagues, tournaments, and events.
14. Try Hockey For Free Website
Try Hockey For Free is a super cool resource that has a network of over 450 local associations that will help kids try out hockey in your community for free.
This is a great concept for kids aged 4-9 who may end up being beer leaguers one day.
15. Check With Your Local Universities
If you live near a college or university, check with their athletics department to see if they offer any hockey programs or if they can refer you to different hockey leagues in your community.
Find Beer League Hockey Near Me Summary
Once you find a beer league to play in, hopefully, you can get on a team.
Most beer leagues have options for new players to join a team as a free agent. This is cool as long as you are sure you’re a good fit skill-wise for the league you’re joining.
If your league has no free-agent options, the next best way to find a team is to start doing drop-ins and making friends. Ask around if anyone is looking for a new beer league teammate.
Oh, and if you have more suggestions for this page to answer the question ‘Where can I find ice hockey near me?’ please reach out and I’ll include it here.
Another option is to assemble a group of players and petition the league to form your own team. In that case, you’ll need an awesome beer league hockey team name.
You might also like: Beer league hockey blogs
