Rat City Breaks Modern Attendance Record

here begins a lengthy exposition of long-developing thoughts, which I realize I'll never have a better opportunity to lay down

The idea that "interleague doesn't sell" is a persistent urban legend, but in my experience it simply doesn't bear out. There's a subset of cases for which this is true, which seems to include 1) leagues that were among the first couple dozen to form, and 2) a handful of younger leagues that attached themselves very aggressively to the intra model based on advice from their more veteran neighbors.

I think a similar principle causes this phenomenon both for this subset of leagues, and also for tournaments: fans care very much about "their" team, and aren't too terribly interested in "other" teams' bouts. For leagues that focused tightly on intraleague play for their first couple of years, the fans only have the opportunity to develop that relationship with intra teams.

There are no shortage of teams that consistently draw very large crowds for city-on-city bouts. Naptown never had a intra structure, and consistently pulls 2000-3000 or more. Cincinnati started with an intra structure, but quickly moved to interleague only while drawing similar crowds. Santa Cruz has settled into intercity-only play, and they sold out their 1200-seat venue 32 days in advance for the last bout.

Additionally, there are a number of leagues that have successfully developed an interleague fan base after starting with an intra structure. You mention Carolina; I raise you Rose City, who pack the house for everything they do; Gotham, who are now successfully drawing capacity interleague crowds (in admittedly smallish venues for their market size); both Denver teams, drawing 2500+ all year; both Derby Dolls leagues; and more.

Beyond that, while I haven't done the math, we're clearly to the point where the strong majority of leagues simply do not have an intra structure, and are thriving nonetheless. Just based on the constant stream of bout results that come through my inbox on the way to the site, I'd guesstimate that around three-quarters of local roller derby organizations are now either single-team or A/B organizations, skating strictly intercity action.

Beginning with my observations from the better part of year on the road, I've had an awful lot of time to think about these issues, and I've reached a couple of conclusions. First, I've come to believe that the "3 to 5 teams playing a season locally" intraleague structure is, at its core, an accident of history, and not actually a natural and necessary structure for the sport today.

When the sport existed in only one city, naturally that city needed several teams. As it spread, the next dozen cities formed the same way because there was no reason to think that actual travel to other cities would actually ever happen. 2005-2006 proved the contrary, but by then inertia had set in -- new leagues formed with that intra structure, because "that's how it's done."

Whenever I probe a little deeper into the source of the "interleague doesn't pay" legend, it tends to turn into "it didn't work the couple times we tried it," with very little exploration into the question of *why* it didn't work... and furthermore, what other leagues have done differently to make it work (as some have, as we established above). I think a deeper investigation would uncover that it requires a real commitment and determination to develop a fanbase for the interleague team, and that leagues that elect to really get it done have consistently succeeded.

I'm looking forward to a day when skaters at the current "intra" level play get to play MUCH more often with MUCH less work, against MANY more opponents, in a structure that's more akin to the traditional meaning of the word "league." Almost anywhere in the US where there are four teams playing for a local championship, there are now at least half a dozen other teams of similar skill within easy day-trip distance.

Let's make a season out of those TEN teams, playing every other week, ten or more games in a season, against every other team, often without all the overhead of production, then crown a "league champion" who's not just the best of four, but the best of the whole metropolitan area and beyond. The current "travel" or "all star" team of the metro area in question will continue to provide upward mobility, as they do today. Likewise, there's downward mobility for skaters who need their lives back but still want to play, or who need to rehab from injury, or whatever.

Time for a modern roller derby census, for a lot of reasons, but in no small part to get real numbers to substantiate or refute the above arguments. Add that to the list :)