Informational Packet

Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby

Presented to: Mayor Kenny WeldonJune 7, 2012

From: Ashley Gill

President of the Cowboy Capital Rollergirls

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What is Roller Derby?Flat track roller derby is a fast-paced contact team sport that requires speed, strategy, and athleticism. The flat track version of the sport evolved in 2001, and has quickly grown to encompass more than 1242 roller derby leagues worldwide.1 This is in large part due to the ease of setting up a flat track--it can be done on any flat surface that is suitable for skating, such as skating rinks, basketball courts, parking lots, and even airplane hangars. This greatly reduces the capital needed to start up a roller derby league, and allows small groups of people to get a fledgling league off the ground. The DIY spirit that drives the sport allows roller derby leagues to create their own unique identities and adapt their structures to reflect their local communities.

Who we are…We are the Cowboy Capital Rollergirls, Stephenville’s first amateur women’s flat track roller derby league. We formed in October 2011, with ten women and the goals of playing roller derby and helping our community. We now have 28 women, three full-time referees, an army of volunteers and a full schedule in our inaugural season.

Our skaters range from 20 to 43 years of age. We are students, stay-at-home moms, manufacturing managers, office professionals, servers, counselors, and several members actually own their own businesses right here in the Cowboy Capital! Half our skaters are married with children, and this is the main reason why we push to make all our events family friendly! We are not the stereotypical “hard partying” roller girls. We are athletes and that’s the image we maintain. Roller derby is a sport, not a “spectacle.”

Our mission…Our mission is to bring roller derby to the Stephenville community by allowing women athletes the opportunity to learn and play roller derby. We foster athleticism, empowerment and sportsmanship among women, girls, and supporters, while benefiting local non-profit organizations though our charitable donations and service. We seek to promote women’s athletics, provide an exciting game, and a fun family atmosphere for our fans.

1 http://www.derbyroster.com/

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Our goals…We have many short term goals for this season:

• Provide the community with strong, positive role models• Give back to our community• Promote roller derby and our league around the world• Finding a larger venue to host our events and possibly purchase a

SportCourt

Our long term goals include:• Applying and be accepted into the WFTDA Apprentice Program2 within the

next year which is comparable to the minor leagues in baseball• Form several teams under the Cowboy Capital Rollergirls league name

o Including a junior roller derby team for ages 3-17 in 2013

What can roller derby do for the community?We help fellow non-profit organizations in Stephenville by following the roller derby model of sponsoring a charitable organization at each home bout. We partner with the organizations for exposure for their cause and to bring them much needed funds.

So far we have been able to assist:• Lion’s Club- Brianna Bass’ Fund for a Diabetic Alert Dog, we donated our February 11th

ticket sales and March 17th raffle sales for a total of $750• Cross Timbers Fine Arts Council- we were Ragin Cajun celebrity waitresses to raise money

for the organization which as a whole raised $8500 at that event• Big Brothers Big Sisters- we served and donated our proceeds from Cowboy Breakfast

April 6th and 7th during the PBR totaling $417• Adopt-A-Highway- we volunteer quarterly to clean a two mile section of 377• Evening Lion’s Club- we donated a basket to their Upland Bird silent auction to help raise

money for their local programs• Cross Timbers Emergency Response Team- donations on a per bout basis for providing

medical support • American Cancer Society- Relay for Life- we donated our May 5th tickets sales for a total of

$700

Upcoming events we have scheduled:• June 9th Home Bout ticket proceeds benefiting CASA of the Cross Timbers Area• June 23rd Silent Auction Basket benefiting Meals on Wheels for the Shoot Down Senior

Hunger fundraiser• August 25th Home Bout ticket proceeds benefiting Foster’s Home for Children• September 22nd Home Bout ticket proceeds benefiting Cross Timbers Pregnancy Care

Center

2 http://wftda.com/apprentice-program

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What can the community do for us?The Cowboy Capital Rollergirls are in need of a larger bout space. Our current space only allows us to sell about 300 tickets, after that its standing room only. We also are unable to skate regulation size at our current facility. Our regulation size track is 98 ft long by 63 ft wide, which includes a WFTDA recommended 10 ft buffer zone for safety.

With a larger bout space we could:• Increase ticket sales• Increase ticket sales= more money to our partner charities!• Schedule bouts against WFTDA/WFTDA Apprentice Teams• A visiting WFTDA team and their fans= more money spent in the community

at our restaurants, hotels and tourist spots!o Avid roller derby fans (attending 3 or more bouts per year) have

average household incomes exceeding $75,000 annually • Great visibility for our league sponsors as well!

o 95% of fans hold a favorable view of local business sponsors, 75% of avid derby fans go out of their way to patronize local business sponsors. 3

Ultimately, the Cowboy Capital Rollergirls hope to find a larger bout space with a concrete floor and possibly even purchase a SportCourt in the next year. With this type of space we would have plenty of room for our league to grow. A SportCourt would allow us to host our home bouts at any facility in Stephenville or the surrounding communities!

View photos on the following page to see what we are aspiring to accomplish!

Contact us…Ashley Gill aka Gillotine Grace, President(763) 232-3191 or cowboycapitalrollergirls@gmail.com

Rebecca Sanders aka Dolly Wanna Machete, Treasurer

Megan Guidry aka Cybil Injustice, Secretary

KayLee Pemberton aka Psycho Filly, Fundraising Chair

3 http://wftda.com/sponsors/2012-demographic-information

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Photo by Justin Oliphant at Fair Park Coliseum

Home Venue of Assassination City Roller Derby

Dallas’ WFTDA Roller Derby League

Pictured: ACRD skates on a SportCourt

Photo by Felicia Graham at Austin Convention Center

Home Venue of the Texas Rollergirls

Austin’s WFTDA Roller Derby League

Pictured: TXRG skate on a concrete floor

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