Help Bay Area Derby keep our practice space!
Our roller derby league is facing a heart-wrenching challenge that could leave us without a home to play and practice in.
My name is Eris Jordan, #23, and I am a proud skater with Bay Area Derby (BAD), a women-/queer-/trans-led roller derby league that has been tearing up the track since 2004.
For the last ten years, our headquarters have been in a leaky, old West Oakland warehouse we affectionately call “The Pearl.” This space has hosted countless scrimmages, bouts, tournaments, learn-to-skate bootcamps, parties and practices over the last decade.
But now, we are in real danger of losing our space. This would be a blow to our community. We shut our doors during COVID and lost a lot of our members. Like many nonprofits, we have been struggling to recover financially from the hit.
Now, we need your help to save our space, so that we can keep our home and rebuild our league and community.
We’re asking for $50,000, which will pay for our rent, utilities, and operating costs for 2023.
Without the operating cost, utilities and rent payments, we will be forced to shut down our league indefinitely. This means that the community who have found solace, strength, and support in roller derby will lose much more than a place to play.
Roller derby is much more than a sport – it's a family. We come from all walks of life, ages, and identities, and we find a home on wheels.
This money will allow us to rebuild our league and bring derby to new people. Since the start of this year, we’ve run two Learn to Skate camps and two beginner (“Baddies”) camps. We also held a tournament at our practice space for the first time since 2018.
We want to do more! But we can’t if we can’t keep the lights on and pay our rent. The money we raise now will help save our space and our league.
We’re asking for your support for our GoFundMe campaign to raise the funds we need to continue renting the space. Every donation, no matter how small, will make a difference and help us keep our league alive.
More about BAD
The “flat-track” revival of roller derby began in the early 2000s and BAD was one of the first leagues. Now, roller derby is one of the fastest growing sports in the United States, if not the world. BAD was the first roller derby league in the Bay Area, and is proud to participate in the broader derby community.
Roller derby leagues offer safe space for people who are often excluded or singled out in sports because of gender identity or expression, sexuality, or body shape/weight. At a time when trans people are being pushed out of competitive sports, roller derby welcomes transgender, intersex, and gender expansive participants.
Our sport embraces passion and directness, encouraging skaters to take up space on and off the track. Roller derby contributes not only to participants' physical health, but also to their sense of community, confidence, and resilience.
BAD has been ranked within the top 20 leagues in the world, and at one point was in the top three. Locally, BAD has been a fixture of the Bay, hosting games in Oakland, Richmond, and San Francisco, and volunteering at cultural events throughout the area.
Our current and former members have been deeply involved in Oakland skating culture, including the Oakland Rollers and Rollin’ with the Homos, and have gone on to found the East Bay’s only skate shop solely dedicated to quad roller skating, Quad Republic Skate Company.
BAD also closely partners and shares our warehouse space with Skate Like a Girl SF Bay Area, a program which empowers young women and trans skateboarders.
