Roller hockey in United States gains popularity despite constant setbacks.

Despite facing many challenges, roller hockey in the United States is still gaining popularity and attracting teams from around the globe to play in tournaments.

When you think of roller hockey you may picture it being played with friends on a lonely street in a neighborhood with trash cans for nets.

Roller hockey is more than just a sport played on the streets, it’s an international sport with teams from countries you might not expect to have a strong hockey culture.

The United States roller hockey scene has been a big attraction for many countries around the world, tournaments such as State Wars, North American Roller Hockey Championships (NARCh), and Tournament of Roller Hockey Series (TORHS) bring in teams from several different countries.

In 2005 State Wars started with 192 teams in its first year, now the tournament has seen as many as 330 teams in recent years. The growth of State Wars attracted the international roller hockey community which now sends teams from all over the world.

Last year State Wars had multiple teams from Namibia, Colombia and the United Kingdom travel to Taylor, Michigan to compete against North American teams. State Wars is a tournament where players get to represent their state, country or province. This is unlike any other roller hockey tournament; it creates a unique environment for competition and pride in one’s community.

“Our 2008 (birth-year) Ohio State Wars team played Australia and it was more than a competition for all of those kids. A lot of them still keep up with those players through social media. They’re not just competing, they’re making friends and learning about cultures,” said Ian Asplan, Ohio’s State Wars director.

It’s hopeful that more teams and new countries will continue to travel to the United States for roller hockey tournaments.

“The international scene is definitely growing, which is great, the European countries like Spain, Italy and France have a lot of government support for their pro leagues and teams which build youth programs under them,” said Tim McManus, President of State Wars.

Teams representing Chinese Taipei, Spain, France and Italy all have strong programs competing on the world stage against traditional hockey countries such as Canada and the United States.

“Internationally I realized it (roller hockey) was huge when we played in Argentina, a country you probably wouldn’t think of off the top of your head as being a big roller hockey culture, the place was absolutely packed, you felt as if you were at a soccer game, it was drums and music and chants and everything,” said Anthony Merrigan, team USA player.

The barrier to entry for roller hockey comes at a much cheaper cost compared to ice hockey. Ice time in areas such as South America, Asia and Africa is limited due to the climate and the expense of building a facility.

Many of the countries competing on the international stage have received funding from their government, this funding has allowed international competition to grow and prosper.

While the United States continues to welcome teams globally to compete in tournaments, the local communities have struggled to keep rinks open.

"Regionally, 18 different facilities in southeast Michigan have offered inline hockey as one of its activities over the past 30 years. Today only four facilities still host inline hockey activities," said Karl Richardson, Director of the Midwest Inline Hockey Association (MIHA).

Despite the closure of rinks, Michigan produced over 45 different teams to participate in State Wars at last year’s event.

States such as Arizona, Ohio, New York, California, Michigan, and Pennsylvania have all seen several rinks and programs shutdown over the past 30 years.

Even though rinks have been closing, there’s been a steady stream of growth seen in tournaments and youth leagues.

In Arizona the roller hockey community has seen growth from about 15 youth teams to 40 in a matter of a decade.

Before the recent growth in seen in Arizona, roller hockey used to be bigger than ice hockey, once ice rinks started popping up they took much of the clientele that roller hockey had. This strong foundation of skilled players led to top end NHL stars such as Auston Matthews coming out of Arizona's ice hockey pipeline.

The Cincinnati Youth Inline Hockey League (CYIHL) has seen participation numbers quadruple since their first spring roller hockey session.

In 2018 the CYIHL had 26 participants join the spring league, now in 2023 there are currently 117 participants. Not even COVID-19 slowed growth, after the spring league was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic, the league added 29 additional players to next year’s spring session.

“We actually had a way better pandemic than most industries did. We couldn't keep outdoor wheels in stock. Once our factory opened back up from lockdowns, we were air freighting pallets of wheels, every moment we could. It was just continuous production, trying to get wheels made to meet the demand and it wasn't just us, all the wheel companies were, skates were impossible to find,” said Nick Boyarsky, Brand Manager for Konixx Hockey.

Roller hockey’s outreach in the United States has been increasing. Robb Woods created a social media page called “Rollerdad News,” which he runs with Anthony Merrigan, promoting the growth of roller hockey in North America and Internationally.

“One of our goals is to somehow get linked up with the NHL (National Hockey League) and have every NHL team have some sort of roller hockey program in their area. It's a lower cost of entry. If you can't afford ice hockey this is a way that you can still play hockey and not have to do it for $3,000 a year,” said Merrigan.

Reaching and encouraging players to join through social media has been a goal of “Rollerdad News.” Many hockey influencers such as Nasher, Pavel Barber, Swaggy P and John Schiavo have promoted the game of roller hockey through their platforms.

Traditional ice hockey players are part of the audience being reached by these pages. The concern many ice players have is the transition into roller and if it will affect their game negatively.

NHL players promotion of roller hockey has been an encouraging sign for the growth of the game. Auston Matthews in particular became an investor in Marsblade, a company who is releasing products promoting the use of inline skating to improve hockey skills.

“You see Auston Matthews. He's advocating for players use of Marsblades. You see a whole bunch more people, you know, Maxime Comtois, Pat Maroon, Adam Erne, all these guys, they're playing during the summer and they're not shying away from the conversation,” said Woods.

Additionally, Marsblade has made products to make it easier for ice hockey players to transition into competitive roller hockey players.

These products and influencers have extended the outreach of roller hockey into both the ice hockey community and new players who discover roller as a better alternative compared to ice hockey.

While the growth and outreach of roller hockey continues in a positive direction many people in the community want to see a more consistent and better funded governing body for the sport nationally.

Countries such as Spain, Italy and France are subsidized by their governments, giving them the ability to support their local leagues and national team with funding and a well-run national established program. The United States has struggled to form a cohesive national program such as the ones abroad.

The lack of organization and funding in recent years has prevented roller hockey from reaching its full potential. The future of roller hockey needs support from a combination of resources such as the NHL and government grants.

Roller hockey presents an excellent opportunity for community-building on both a national and local level.