After news broke of the suicide of Michigan teen Sam (Casper) Taub, a 15-year-old transgender skater, I’ve not felt like writing about derby business. As someone immersed in roller derby culture, active in the junior derby community and a father of two teenagers, the news hurts even though I had not met Sam. Being a teen
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Your derby league’s look and feel affects the success of your marketing and your community relationship. A smart, calculated and yes, creative selection of your logo, league name, team name(s) and tagline is vital. Derby Branding 101 If you are not familiar with branding, think of it as a consistent look and voice that represents your
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Drama? What drama? Drama is too prominent in the derby experience. It lurks at all levels and, too often the f-word expletive replaces the other (and most important) f-word—fun. Derby allows individuals to express themselves within a group driven by shared goals. That’s an eloquent way to say the individualism is celebrated and yet, affects
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Opening a roller derby business is an exciting, adventurous and potentially dangerous idea. How would I know? I acted on it in 2007 with Flyin’ Squirrel, a novelty t-shirt company. Flyin’ Squirrel closed in 2010 after one of the worst economic crashes in U.S. history. Exciting and adventurous? Yes. Confidence boosting? Absolutely. I still have
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For most, derby season matches the “when weather sucks most” of the four seasons. Cold winters, insanely hot summers, basically when people search for indoor entertainment. One exception: the holidays. I don’t care if November through December has terrific weather in your area, the holiday season is the best time to make money, raise funds
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By now, I hope your league knows its best marketing tool: announcers. This blog is not self-indulgent nor written to over-justify the role of announcing. It’s to dispel the myth that announcing isn’t all that important. I am going to tell you how a lack of good announcers can hurt your league, what good announcing
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Online ticket sales low, slow, non-existent? It’s the second post in our derby business tips series and this time, I’m getting social. “Bob, we use social media all.the.time. And nothing happens.” I don’t doubt it. But when it comes to social media, it’s not how much you use it. It’s how well you use it.
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Brown Paper Tickets is proud to present our new roller derby blog series. Take a rink-side seat as we explore the business side of derby with Bob Noxious, a veteran of modern derby. Bob will share lessons learned, advice and tips to make your team or league even more fierce. Our resident “Derby Answer Man”
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Blood, sweat, tears, joy, family. Roller derby hurts, but it also heals. Brown Paper Tickets went behind the bouts to talk to 4 derby girls about the sport’s lasting impact. For young women like Uno Socko, the athletes are role models. “I didn’t really see many sports where it was just all women. I thought
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Blood. Skates. Cookies. Community. Lives. Brown Paper Tickets and Red Cross team up with 8 roller derby leagues in the greater San Francisco Bay Area for the 2nd annual blood drive to save lives, rally the community and make it fun to tap your veins. Dates span August 9 to October 18, 2014. In its
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