Our New Floor.....

Any team or visiting skater that has skated with us at either of our seasonal practice spaces can tell you, our floors are far from great for roller derby. In recent winters, we have been on a traditional wood gym floor. As (bad) luck would have it, a very slick gym floor. In the summers, we are blessed to have JFK Arena in Rome which has a beautiful, flat, polished concrete floor. Depending on the weather, some days it is downright grippy, but the majority of the time its not.

The start of this season has been particularly slick, and we've tried everything under the sun to correct it. If there's a floor treatment, we've tried it, and with very small success. So far, the 'Traction' product sold by derby suppliers has worked best, but it's not enough.

So after saving, and members' hard work, and cutting costs, and putting our heads together with the lovely Randi Maehym, North America's (well, and a bunch of other places) rep for SkateCourt by IceCourt flooring systems, we've made a big move: Today we put the down payment on our own SkateCourt floor!!!!

We went small this time around, going with 6,468 sq ft, the bare minimum for a complete track and a 5' ref lane/crash zone. It's going to be quite the sight: A patchwork of 7 or so different colors done up derby style!

If you're not familiar with why exactly SkateCourt is the way to go for a derby floor (and trust us, it IS!), you should definitely check out their information here. Also, drop Randi a friend request on facebook using the link above for any questions you might have. The whole crew at SkateCourt has been SO amazingly helpful to us in this whole process, and we want to send a big derby THANK YOU to them.

We also cant say all of this without major thanks:
This entire move is made possible by all of the amazing skaters, refs, NSO's volunteers, sponsors, supporters, and fans of CNYRD. All of those dues paid, those tickets sold, those long hours working merch tables at events, the sponsorships donated- this represents part of the sweet payoff! We will be given the opportunity to up our game in such a big way as a result of this purchase, increase safety for our skaters, and give our fans an all around better experience.

Please check back soon for pictures of laying the new floor, and also for an upcoming fundraising drive to add to our floor. We LOVE what the Ithaca League of Women Rollers has done with their tile drive floor fundraiser , and we plan to do something similar here in CNY to help us with more flooring and to also showcase our loyal supporters beyond sponsors who are willing to give a few bucks to help us out and show their support.

WE'RE SO EXCITED!!!!!!!! Woooooo hoooooooo!!!!