Arizona Roller Derby
 |
|
| Metro area | Phoenix, Arizona |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Founded | 2003 |
| Teams |
Tent City Terrors (A team) Phoenix Rising (B teams) Bad News Beaters Brawlarinas Surly Gurlies Gaudylupes |
| Track type(s) | Flat |
| Venue | Ability 360 |
| Affiliations | WFTDA (West Region) |
| Org. type | non-profit |
| Website | AZRollerDerby.com |
Arizona Roller Derby is Arizona's first all female roller derby league. It was founded in 2003 making it one of the oldest resurgence roller derby leagues in America. Arizona Roller Derby, abbreviated as AZRD, is one of the founding members of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association.
AZRD is based in Phoenix, Arizona and holds their bouts at Ability 360.
In the early days of AZRD, there was a separate chapter in Tucson called Tucson-Arizona Roller Derby, which had a single team called the Furious Truckstop Waitresses. The logistics of being a two-city league were not cost-effective, and the chapter split from AZRD to create Tucson Roller Derby. Upon its split from AZRD, Tucson Roller Derby became the first 501(c) roller derby league in the nation.
The first AZRD games were "no rules/no holds barred". As the overall sport was starting to evolve and establish rules, some skaters would split away from AZRD to form other leagues:
In 2007, members of the Bruisers team, with the aim of raising funds specific to the team and having more opportunities to skate, formed a limited liability company (LLC) called Arizona Bruisers, LLC. Citing violations of the league's "non-compete" policies, AZRD threatened the skaters with expulsion from the league. In addition, issues were reported as a result of the registration of the name "Bruisers" with the Arizona Corporation Commission relating to an agreement that AZRD has with the Brewcity Bruisers, a WFTDA member league from Milwaukee.
In January, 2008, despite efforts to settle differences, the Arizona Bruisers announced that they were now independent of Arizona Roller Derby in an effort to position themselves as a high-level travel team. AZRD continued to use the "Bruisers" name for one of their home teams.
After two scrimmages between a squad from Duke City Derby and the Copper Queens from Tucson Roller Derby, the Arizona Bruisers would eventually be called the Phoenix City Rollers and then by March, 2008 would ultimately dissolve.
The Bruisers were revived as one of the four AZRD bouting teams. For the 2009–2010 season, amid a declining membership experienced in 2008 and 2009, AZRD reduced the number of home teams from 4 to 3. As a result, AZRD would use the name "Bruisers" to identify their secondary travel team (or B-Team). This reflects an ongoing trend in WFTDA to form B-teams to help develop skaters to eventually play on the sanctioned travel (A) team as well as to help train apprentice leagues. They were "reinstated" as a beginner home team squad in 2012, only to be removed once again due to membership fluctuations.
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