Roller Derby

I recently had the experience of attending a Roller Derby match hosted by The Steel City Derby Demons (Pittsburgh) who played against The Burning River Rollergirls (Cleveland; between 1868 and 1969 the Cuyahoga river in Cleveland had a habit of occasionally catching on fire... roughly 10 times, hence the name). It was an extremely exciting game... no one caught on fire.

I'm not going to go into an explanation of Roller Derby. If you want to learn how it's plaid visit one of the links above. I'm first gonna give praise to some of the Pittsburgh players whose contributions to the team helped to ensure a Pittsburgh victory;

Hurricane Heather: You are one wicked Jammer. Your control, speed, and agility makes you ridiculously dangerous on the court.

Athena: You block like a brick wall and hit like a Mack truck. I bet Jammers hate seeing you on the court in front of them. As a fan of Greek mythology I also like your name.

Snot Rocket Science: You have some serious speed on you. As a Jammer you skate by blockers and they don't even realize you're there till you're past them and gone.

Now, I'm going to break into some speculation.

Roller Derby is a cool sport. It's like a combination of NASCAR and hockey. I think it has the potential to become the next popular sport. At one point in time every popular sport; Football, Baseball, Hockey, Basketball, had a beginning. This period, in my opinion, is the beginning of Roller Derby... the face of the game will change in the next ten years, but the heart will remain the same.

But, in my opinion, Roller Derby could stand a little push to break into the mainstream. I, as a marketer, have some opinions as to how that should be done.

1. Showboating - if you're gonna be a bitch, be a bitch with style!

I believe that seeing exciting things like girls skating backwards, some friendly taunting, and a little roughhousing goes a long way drawing people. This plays into our psychological desire to see something fucked up happen. A big reason, maybe a dark reason, but a reason none the less that we watch NASCAR is because we want to see some crazy shit like a wreck or fire... likewise, we WANT to see two (or more) girls throw down and start wailing on each other. If you play with a little attitude it gives the audience the sense that one chick is eventually just gonna haul off and clock another.

2. Sponsors - prostitution is legal... just in not in its traditional form.

I had heard that it is against league regulations to have "distracting" imagery on a Rollergirls uniform. While I understand this, I also think that's bullshit speak for; "we are so totally nonconformist we'd rather shoot ourselves in the foot than bow to a sponsor." NASCAR has sponsors on the bodies of the race cars. It isn't "distracting". Getting some sponsors to place logos on helmets, shirts, and most DEFINITELY asses can go a long way to funding radio and television advertising for the games which will result in increased popularity.

3. Web marketing - if porn can do it, you can too!

The face of marketing in the modern era hinges on the web and properly managing your web traffic. While the sites created, undoubtedly by someone on the league, are functional they lack the finely tuned Search Engine Optimization and traffic management techniques that professional web developers use every day in managing corporate websites. The "roller derby fan demographic" is, stereotypically, computer savvy enough that they are responsive to web marketing. It would cost between $500 and $1000 to pay a professional web developer to create a league site with a page devoted to each team and the return over time would hundreds, eventually thousands of times the initial investment.

Along the same lines as web marketing... selling stuff via Pay-pal is not that big of an issue. Imagine, you're sitting at home looking for something to do. You happen across an ad for a Roller Derby so you decide to buy tickets then and there. You go to the Roller Derby and have a blast. The next day you decide to purchase tickets for the next match but, since you liked one of the teams you saw, you decide to ALSO purchase a shirt. The potential for increased revenue via e-commerce is huge. This, however, will require a bit more management.

5. More Matches - If you're a dealer you better be able to deliver the good or your crack-heads will look elsewhere to get their fix.

Matches tend to be once a month. While the logistics of managing additional matches is probably no small undertaking, having more matches should be an eventual goal. The Steelers play once a week. The Pirates play all the time (and lose almost as much as they play!). Keep the fans hooked. If you have to create "fresh meet" matches between girls who are on the training team, cool. If you create an "all star" match within the league, cool. Just increase the frequency of games to keep people interested. We live in an ADD society.

That's my spin on how to make Roller Derby the next big sport. What can I say, I'm a visionary. At one point Football was a bunch of guys wrestling in the mud. At one point Basketball was a bunch of high-schoolers running around the playground. At one point Baseball was just a neighborhood playing in someone's back yard. The sports we know today are not the sports of tomorrow. The sports of yesterday have been forgotten. Roller Derby is on it's way if it takes the right steps.

Tagged with: Baseball, Basketball, Football, Hockey, NASCAR, Pittsburgh, Roller Derby, Sport, Steel City Derby Demons