Start a Dues-Funded Community League Launch Advisory

1. 1

   Codify the dues-first revenue model

   Teach the core truth the roller derby model reveals: member subscription dues are the overwhelming majority of income (roughly 98 percent in the documented case), while event tickets offset only a fraction of costs. Founders who plan to fund on tickets fail. Your playbook must reset that assumption first, showing exactly how to size dues to cover facilities and insurance across a committed roster, because the revenue logic is the whole model.

2. 2

   Teach transparent member governance

   Dues-funded leagues run on member buy-in and volunteer labor, so governance (an elected board, member votes, open finances) is not optional; it is what keeps members paying and volunteering. Provide governance templates and the nonprofit or cooperative structures that fit the model and can open grant and sponsorship doors. Trustworthy, transparent governance is what sustains a community-funded organization through its lean years.

3. 3

   Show how to run lean on shared facilities

   A dues budget cannot carry a full venue, so teach founders to rent off-peak practice time, share rinks or gyms, and negotiate community rates, keeping facility cost (usually the biggest line) low enough that dues stay affordable. The advisory's practical value is a realistic operating budget that a volunteer roster can actually sustain, not an aspirational one that collapses the first slow season.

4. 4

   Handle insurance, sanctioning, and safety

   Many of these sports are physical or full-contact, so teach the insurance, waivers, and governing-body affiliation that provide sanctioned-play coverage and rules. Getting the liability structure right is both a legal necessity and a credibility marker for a new league. Founders often overlook this until an injury exposes them, so building it into the launch playbook is core value.

5. 5

   Package as playbook, coaching, and templates

   Deliver the advisory as a launch playbook, founder coaching, and reusable templates (dues structures, governance documents, budgets, sponsorship decks). Because these leagues are lean and mission-driven, price accessibly and consider group or cohort formats. The recurring opportunity is helping leagues through growth stages and helping the same model reach new community sports beyond roller derby, where dues-funded structures apply just as well.

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Best for: Organizers who can teach the member-funded, mission-first league model

Not for: Not for anyone chasing high fees; the clients are lean, mission-driven, community-funded leagues, and the advisory has to fit that reality. Not for advisers who will push a ticket-revenue or for-profit model onto founders, because the dues-first structure is exactly what makes these leagues sustainable.