Home Team Rosters

[Frenchie]

How do you guys feel about home team roster numbers?

Should it be the 14 that is allowed in WFTDA sanctioned bouts?
Should it be the full team charter (up to 20)?
Should it be somewhere in the middle? Would that be confusing to fans?

Would more skaters on the bout rosters sell more tickets?
Would it give more new skaters more bout play time?
Would it effect our TT negatively? Positively? Not make a difference?

What do you think?

[GrumpityBugg]

My 2 cents? The full 20.

More skaters getting a shot to skate in any given bout, more of their supporters in the stands ... and I'm not sure how it could negatively impact the TT.

On the other hand, I am curious about what the team coaches have to say about it.

[white flight RISK]

realistically, I would not want a 20 person roster. It takes some of the pressure off of the captains/coaches that have to decide come game day, which is nice. However, it sucks being that player that is "on the roster" but never steps foot on the floor. They sit there all dressed up with nowhere to go. From my own personal experience, I would have rather been helpful to the team in some other way. Keeping a roster cap keeps people working hard. Maybe moving the cap from 14 to 16 would be a nice middle ground.

[Intensive Scare]

Agree with Whitey. No surprise there. 16.

[Slim Sheety]

I wouldn't mind seeing all 20 on the roster. In a lot of cases it would not necessarily be all 20 when you factor in injuries, absences and other circumstances that always seem to happen.
I agree that it would sell more tickets, personally it's the biggest selling point for me (when I'm playing).
I also agree with Whitey re: dressing down with no where to go sucks.

Something to think about. When the game is a blowout having the lesser experienced players on the roster MIGHT give them a chance to play that otherwise would not happen at a roster of 14. Thus, increasing their bouting experience.
Not that blowouts happen much in our home season, but something to consider when thinking of increasing the roster.

I like the middle ground of increasing the roster to 16-17 if nothing else.

Thanks for bringing this up Frenchie.

[Rhea DeRange]

Opening it up to 20 people doesn't offer much in way of incentives for practice attendance and hard work. I personally like the competion for roster spots.
20 people would be difficult to manage from a bench manager stand point. I do think 15 or 16 would be manageable, still competetive, and give more girls a chance to play (and sell tickets).

[F-Bomb]

From a league perspective, it would be great if home teams were more inclusive regarding bout rosters and playing time. More skaters with bouting experience = stronger league. I also think it would be great for morale. Skaters work really hard on and off the track - the payoff everyone wants is playing time. I agree that 20 would be challenging to manage on the bench. 16 skaters sounds like a good middle ground.

The fan experience is a huge factor, so I'm hoping more derby fans share their feedback. I'm guessing it would be more exciting for family/friends of skaters to buy tickets if their friend/family member is playing in a bout. It also might be more fun for fans to actually see a more diverse group of skaters on the track.

[white flight RISK]

mind meld!

[swag]

16 sounds about right. I have a tiny mind and would find 20 confusing.

I see the point about bench-coaching chaos when you get up around 20.

I also understand the complaints of those who are on a team but get no track time. That's not fun for them or for their friends and family who go to see them skate.

Good luck with this decision. See you at the Coliseum in a couple of weeks.

[CynicalGuy]

You may want to roster 14 for a bout, but keep 18 in the stable so to speak---injuries, the revelation that derby is not the skater's thing anymore, and life crises may eat into a roster over the course of a season, so keep some extra gals around, unless you can simply resort to getting skaters out of fresh meat training to suit up for a home team pronto.

[Amanda HugNKill]

Did someone say "fan feedback?!"

I like 16 or 18, but with the understanding that the additional 2 or 4 only be alternates in the case of a blow-out or injury. That way, a skater who is an alternate can realistically tell their friends/family "I might get to skate". If friends/family decide to come to a bout to see a specific skater who doesn't end up getting used, they'll still see some awesome derby. Also, not including the full 20 incites competition and motivation for a spot on the bout roster, and including more than the WFTDA-14 gives some of the developing skaters a shot at some minutes.

[white flight RISK]

Cynical

Generally speaking, all teams have more than 14 players on their team rosters. However, the bouting roster sits at 14 skaters per team for any given bout except for the season opener. When people get injured, leave the team for any reason, etc. all teams have other people to fill that spot.

[Push La Tush]

I like 16, it's a little more than we have now but still pushes every member of a team to strive for excellence. 18-20 seems to easy to me, it was my desire to earn a roster spot with the Betties that caused me to start skating with travel team this last summer. Believe me when I say that it took a LOT of motivation to go to practices four nights a week that scared me so much that I literally had wobbly knees and an upset stomache pretty much every night.

[Domesticated Violence]

"IF" we need to increase it I would say 16 is the MAXIMUM. We need to maintain competition within the team for "spots" on the roster.

One thing EVERYONE should remember is just because you are on the "playing roster" does not mean you will ever step foot on the track. I'm not sure how much it would affect ticket sales because our team doesn't announce the bouting roster until 2 days before the bout. I know other teams don't announce it until the day of. Part of the logic behind that is we want everyone to be giving 100% all the time, not just when they know they are on the roster. If you want your friends and family to see you on the track then you should be busting ass at practice in order to gain your spot.

[dancingscott]

Fan perspective, eh? I generally shy away from these discussions because I figure the women playing the sport have much better perspective than I can offer. What I want as a fan is whatever makes the best possible team which inspires me to scream as loud as possible and lose as much of my voice as I can. Hearing all the pros and cons about different roster numbers, it sounds to me like a max of 16 in the roster would be ideal.

[Dr. Snark N. Stein]

I'm certainly in favor of there being a smaller difference between the size of the team charters and size of the bout rosters. :)

How many skaters travel with Axles or Wheels? It seems like it's more than the 14 who are on a roster for any particular bout, so maybe that number would be a good size for team charters? And maybe give each team a few spots for "inactive" skaters who they don't want to let off the charter but who aren't actually competing for spots on the bout roster?

Reducing the number of skaters on the team charters doesn't move skaters from Fresh Meat to teams, but on the other hand, it must suck to get drafted from Fresh Meat and "make the team" but not, y'know, the actual skating team. :/