Lawsuit challenges Park City Ice Miners restructuring amid governance fight

A Summit County youth hockey fight over money, records and board control has moved into Third District Court, where Benjamin Arnold is challenging how the Park City Ice Miners are being run and whether the nonprofit’s restructuring was designed to shut out parents.

Arnold’s amended complaint, filed Dec. 12, 2025, says the organization began as the Wasatch Back Amateur Hockey Association on June 23, 2008, was renamed in 2009, and won IRS approval as a 501(c)(3) that August. The filing says the club was originally governed by voting members under Utah nonprofit law, a structure that let parents and community members who paid a $1 membership fee run for one of seven board seats.

That model changed sharply in March, when the board voted 5-2 to merge into a newly formed nonprofit called Newco and move from a membership organization to a self-selected board of directors. A lawsuit filed last month says that restructuring was meant to prevent a fair election. The Ice Miners have said they already provided the records Arnold is entitled to review and described his request as a fishing expedition.

The financial dispute that set off the governance fight centered on President Matthew Prucka’s personal Venmo account. Arnold alleged that more than $273,000 flowed through @mprucka over two years and that the payments were not properly reflected on the organization’s Form 990. He also sought access to the club’s financial records and Prucka’s Venmo statements, saying the records could show private benefit, self-dealing or IRS violations. In December, Arnold amended his complaint to allege retaliation against him and one of his children.

The stakes reach beyond one lawsuit. The Park City Ice Miners say they serve more than 165 players in northern Utah and the Wasatch Back, and their board page lists Prucka as president, Darren Lees as treasurer, John Howe as vice president and Mike Adamek as director of hockey operations and Safesport coordinator. The club is also part of the Youth Sports Alliance, which was created from the legacy of the 2002 Winter Olympics to expand winter sports participation and scholarships.

For Summit County families, the fight is about more than bookkeeping. Whoever controls the board will help shape the future cost of participation, the level of parental influence, and the decisions that drive access to ice time, team placement and travel. That matters in a community where Park City High School’s varsity hockey team won its third straight state championship on Feb. 3, 2026, and hockey remains one of the most visible youth sports pipelines in the area.