Hitting Pause on Roller Derby
For the First Time Ever, Growth Takes a Back Seat
Anyone involved in roller derby over the last decade has heard some variation of, “It’s the fastest growing female sport in the world!” The growth of the sport has been rapid, from its revival in Austin, Texas across the U.S. to Canada, Europe, Latin America, the Pacific and beyond. From 30 U.S. member leagues in 2006, the WFTDA had to grown to 451 members on 6 continents by the time this pandemic hit. There is no way to take stock of the sport without this backdrop of extreme growth. The sport has changed so many lives, worldwide, and although the rapid growth has served as validation for the sport, it has also become one of its largest issues.
WFTDA had begun to acknowledge this pre-pandemic, with their Skate of the Union address and 2020–2023 strategic plan largely focused on tackling internal structures and governance with an aim towards slower and more sustainable growth. Admittedly, they’ve outgrown their internal structures and communication, outgrown the rankings system and outgrown their governance model. This is no move to innocence, calls for change have existed alongside these problems for years, but some of these issues were not foreseeable.
The ranking algorithm, the main motivator for membership and competition is one example. Released in February 2013 to 149 leagues, it was built to be scaleable and devised to allow for a wide range of opponents. The rankings algorithm, as it paused in March 2020, held 367 leagues, with stubborn and unworkable rankings bubbles in more isolated regions that forces leagues to either a) attempt complex strength factor challenges that could still keep them off their actual strength and potentially see them under or over ranked b) face unsustainable travel plans to break outside that bubble c) play within the bubble and remain chronically under ranked d) ask again for some kind of incentive to have leagues outside their bubble to come to them. The algorithm was built for growth and to scale, but algorithms are not neutral. Leagues with a higher availability of close opponents have a distinct advantage over those who do not. This in turn hurts representation, as leagues which advance to a post season from more isolated regions have to do so facing extreme barriers.
The growth of the sport can also be set against the unhealthy pace of training with this break, since March, being the longest break many skaters and officials have ever taken. For some skaters and officials, either by choice or in leagues still without an off season or rest period, this is their first break ever.
This pandemic is not an “opportunity” for the sport, inevitably many people will be touched personally by this virus and it is a horrible event we are experiencing in real time which we cannot, individually, turn off. This is where we are though, our sport which has experienced a period of extreme growth has outgrown many of our structures and resources and the mood for change is greater than it has been at any other time since its revival. The chronic and systemic issues that exist in the sport, especially anti-black racism, will not be addressed with more growth. A dwindling and stressed network of volunteers and officials won’t be helped with more growth.
WFTDA’s return to play, and focus on community safety and slow return to play has rightly been celebrated outside of the sport as an ideal model to follow. To date, over 800 other organizations have requested it to influence their response to this pandemic. Within the context of the sport community, the return to play shows the strength of the sport as it relied upon its broad membership to identify and recruit experts and provided them with the space and resources to craft a plan without a focus on profit. Within the context of the history of the WFTDA, the return to play is important because it finally breaks with this cycle of rapid growth. It also provides a template for the organization to follow as it confronts other issues of equity in the sport.
The near constant cycle of the derby season, especially going into and coming out of the last World Cup, has always provided the built in excuse of pushing change down the road to the next off season only to be ignored. Those issues did not go away though and they are demanding our attention, at every level and within every league. Hitting pause on derby has to mean we return to a different sport. Everything needs to be on the table and growth needs to be left behind as the main way we define success in our sport. The importance of the Return to Play plan can’t fall into triumphalism, it has to be the template which leads into a new era of derby.
