2016 International Tournaments

By Vile Love It

The ESPN3 broadcast of the final two games of last year’s International WFTDA Championships, including the third-place game between the Victorian Roller Derby League and the London Rollergirls and the first-place game between the Rose City Rollers and Gotham Girls Roller Derby, was the ultimate for everyone in roller derby. We love, and often live, roller derby and to share that passion with what seemed like the rest of the world was the pinnacle.

Derby people might have thought, “This is it! Next up: broadcast of games on ESPN, Nike/Gatorade/Under Armour will be coming with sponsorship dollars, we will finally have the attention and respect of the world (and no more dues!).”

Not so fast.

Just like in derby, where you need a strong foundation crafted with hours of practice, footage-watching, strategy and bruise-nursing, so too the business of derby needs a steady hand with foresight and a strong commitment to the spirit of roller derby to make sure these types of relationships work for us.

Broadcasting those two games was the tip of the iceberg. Underneath that was a mountain of work that took years to craft the relationships that developed into the ESPN3 broadcasts of those two games.

Double H, the WFTDA Director of Broadcast Operations and a major force behind WFTDA’s journey from its first video broadcast of Nightmare on 95, the 2011 Eastern Region Playoffs, knew that the ESPN3 broadcast was going to be a game changer.

“I wanted this because I wanted to show ESPN fans what they had been missing,” she said. “I couldn’t have created better games if I had wrote them as a story. We put the very best of derby out there for people to see, and they responded.”

And they sure did. The number of people who tuned into ESPN3 to watch those two games was more than double the size of any audience WFTDA.tv has ever had. And for the WFTDA, the impact went even further: a 700 percent (yes, you read that right) increase in Facebook traffic.

The more eyes that catch a pirouetting jammer as she slithers through the pack or a massive wall holding a jammer back, the more fans we will develop (and the more skaters we might recruit for our boot camps), and the more derby will grow.

“We wanted to create a broadcast that would meet ESPN3 fans where they were, but did not back away from who we were,” said Double H. “We put the very best of who we are out there. And it held up.”

Generally speaking, the audience on WFTDA.tv knows derby as skaters, officials, volunteers, or fans, but the average ESPN3 fan isn’t soaked in the derby magic just yet. You might get random people scrolling through their feed and thinking, “What is this thing called roller derby?” They clicked that link and became mesmerized by the athleticism and excitement that was on and around the track.

The WFTDA wants to strengthen the relationship with ESPN3. The more eyes that see roller derby, the better for the sport and better for women in sports.

“ESPN3 likes us and feels we have value. But derby is still a very small enterprise and we have to work hard to get the partnerships that we need,” said Double H.

But the WFTDA is not rushing into anything. The practice of business, just like the practice of roller derby, requires carefully looking at all aspects of any partnership before proceeding to the next level.

The stats from the ESPN3 broadcast of the 2016 Championships were fabulous, but ESPN3’s broadcast of two games from The Big O tournament, between the Texas Rollergirls and Angel City Derby Girls and between the Victorian Roller Derby League and Rose City Rollers, were even better.

And those ESPN3 watchers didn’t surf through — they stayed until the last jam.

What’s next for the WFTDA and ESPN3? This year, ESPN3 will broadcast the first-place and third-place games at championships for both Division 1 and Division 2, which will certainly bring the intensity, passion, excitement, and athleticism that is derby to a wider audience than ever before.