Gotham Roller Derby is a 501c3 non-profit organization that is run by a volunteer force of skaters and league members who chip in their diverse skills to make the league roll.

Gotham is a proud founding member of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association - a governing body to promote flat track derby (www.wftda.com). WFTDA provides member leagues with support including insurance, a unified rule set, collective national bargaining leverage, and rankings, along with organizing regional and international tournaments each year.  The WFTDA is itself a not-for-profit association.

Gotham's four home teams are named for Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens and are drafted from each year's Fresh Meat class. These teams compete against each other locally for the Gotham Championship trophy, the Golden Skate, each season.

Gotham's All-Stars are a top ranked traveling team made up of skaters from each of Gotham's four home teams. The All-Stars are Gotham's officially chartered team within the Women's Flat Track Derby Association and play at the highest competitive levels of the sport all over the world.

The Wall Street Traitors/Gotham B-Team is our other traveling team made up of skaters from each of the four home teams. They're play against All-Star teams and B-teams around the country.

No. Just as in any professional sport, skaters are drafted onto the teams that need their specific skills. Players often don't live in the borough that their team represents.

As Gotham has gotten bigger, so have the opportunities for partner promotion, from program ads to game banners to website placement. Our partners support the values underlying the modern incarnation of our sport — "Real, Strong, Athletic, Revolutionary." You can find out more about our sponsorship packages by emailing sponsorship@ggrd.nyc.

No - Gotham skates on what’s called a “flat track.”

For fifty years roller derby was played primarily on concave ("banked") tracks.  These tracks were big and expensive and required reassembly as the derby skaters of the time barnstormed from town to town.

In 2001 and 2002, skaters in Austin, Texas, lacking (at the time) the budget for a banked track, created the first drafts of a modified rule set to allow the same basic game to be played on a flat surface.  The popularity of this style of play has been exploding around the world, as the 'play-anywhere' nature of the flat game has allowed skaters to learn the game without investing in a banked track infrastructure.

The flat track version brings the skaters closer to the fans, and makes them more accessible than normal pro-sports figures. It puts the skaters inches from the fans. Plus, the lower overhead it takes to practice/play on flat track has helped roller derby to sweep the country, including all the member leagues of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association.

Nope! The new wave of derby is totally non-scripted. 

Short answer: no elbows or punching allowed. Long answer: there are lots of rules about what is considered legal contact in roller derby. For additional questions about the rules of the game, see the Rules page.

In accordance with WFTDA policy, Gotham welcomes cisgender, transgender and intersex women and gender non-conforming participants over the age of 18. Those aged 6-17 are eligible to join our Juniors program.

We teach would-be skaters how to play as part of our Basic Training program.

Gotham holds tryouts once a year. For more information, check out our Tryout page.

If you have been an active skater within the last six months, you may be eligible to transfer into Gotham outside of the yearly tryout. Please contact transfers@ggrd.nyc for further eligibility requirements.

If you are interested in being a referee or official, please contact refinfo@ggrd.nyc. The league is actively looking to expand its roster of skating and non-skating officials.

Roller derby positions and strategies require very diverse skill sets.  No matter what size you are, there’s probably a position that works for your body type. A wide range of sizes can help build a team with varied skills that keeps opponents on their toes.

Just as in any sport, injuries happen. We play hard, cross train, and rely on our referee crew to help us play as safely as possible.

No.  Gotham skaters, refs and all the support staff work tirelessly for their love of the sport and our shared desire to see it grow. Their wide spectrum of backgrounds help with the administrative, promotional, and production needs of our organization.