Thanks for coming!
We really want to thank all of the teams for coming to Toronto for the first ever Roller Derby World Cup.
When we started planning this event, we were expecting that what we would get out of it was an amazing weekend of derby, but when all of the teams arrived and started playing games and interacting with eachother, we realized that what we were creating wasn’t just derby action.
A favourite moment of the entire weekend was Team New Zealand’s Haka during the opening ceremonies. Thank you so much for that!
Thanks to everyone for sharing your culture and your ass kicking! And thanks to Jules for capturing this moment on video.
Bus schedule for Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday
There is a google doc here. The hardcopy will be posted in the hotels in the morning.
See #wcrdbus on Twitter for updates.
World Cup food vendors announced!
With four days of cheering on your favourite team in the Roller Derby World Cup you’re going to need to sustain yourself. Our amazing food vendors are sure to help in that department.
Toronto Roller Derby and Blood and Thunder magazine are excited to welcome La Mexicana Restaurant, Caplanski’s Deli, and Blue Donkey to offer their culinary delights to all the roller derby world cup fans. Here is a preview of what you could be enjoying as you watch some international derby action.
Caplanski’s Deli, Located at 365 College St. will have their famous smoked meat and bbq brisket sandwiches and hot dogs. If your team takes a loss and you need some comfort food or a snack, they’ll also be selling soup and pickles on a stick. For a true Canadian experience, poutine will be on their menu as well.
La Mexicana, with three convenient Toronto locations will give you a taste of Mexico with menu items including burritos and quesadilla. All of which will have meat, veggie and gluten free options available. This food will be great to help fire up your team and spice up your fan experience.
Even though there isn’t a team from Greece competing, we will represent that country through the Blue Donkey Street Eatery . This mobile restaurant will offer up meals and sandwiches that include Greek salad, souvlaki, gyro and grilled cheese pita.
Just be warned. If you’re going to wave your pickle on a stick high and proud to cheer on a team in green, don’t stab anyone with the stick or let the pickle fly away. As you’re watching the action on the track, be careful not to drip poutine gravy or tzadtzki on your lap. Be sure to chew your burrito before you yell and scream, because it’s the first ever world cup of roller derby!
Getting around during WCRD
Blood and Thunder has booked some buses to get fans to and from the venue. The bus is free for skaters, refs and NSOs and the cost for fans is 10$. Which is 3.5 days of bus service to and from exactly where you want to go for the price of a TTC day pass, and for 1/4 of the cost of a taxi.
The schedule will be posted in your hotels, and will also be available online. We will also be using this hash tag to help you track the progress of the buses
#wcrdbus
So if you are on the bus, please tweet your location, and if the bus is delayed. And if you’re waiting for the bus, you can use that hash tag to check where the heck the bus is.
Busing people around is really expensive, and we’re just trying to figure out how many buses it takes to move a crowd this size around and how long it will take to get back and forth between the hotels and the venue. And we can’t control the weather (we tried, it’s still raining). So, if we don’t have enough buses on the first day, we’ll add more. Be sure to give us feedback (that won’t make us cry) so we can gauge how many buses we need without wasting money and gas on empty buses.
If you want to use this bus, please pick up your wristbands at the venue when you get off the bus, so that you can show them to board the bus for your return trip to the hotel and for the rest of the weekend.
Also, please give any skater/ref/NSO trying to get to a game they skating are or officiating in the first chance to board the bus.
Attention veggies!
Did you know that the Toronto Vegetarian Association has a website with restaurant listings? It does!
www.veg.ca/
Niagara Falls
A few people had mentioned to our team wranglers that they were coming into town early and might be interested to go to Niagara Falls. We checked around and for individual people or small groups who don’t have a car, the best priced option is a bus that takes you to the Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls, ON. The casino is right in the middle of the action. The bus is a marketing initiative for the casino, so if you’re not a big gambler, it’s better not to mention it.
This is what you do, find 3 friends to split a taxi with you the 18 kilometres to Square One Shopping Mall (budget about 10$ each). Once you get to Square One, find the Casino Bus stop - South of SQUARE ONE mall, in front of Tim Hortons (which is a Canadian coffee chain). The bus costs 30$ round trip per person, here is the schedule. The trip takes 2 hours. Spend as long as you like in Niagara, then get back on the bus from the casino to Square One, and take a cab back to the hotel (budget another 10$ each for this). There is a way to make the trip even cheaper by getting a casino player card, but since you’ll probably only ever do this once, it’s probably not worth figuring the whole thing out, but feel free to ask on the bus, people will tell you how to do it.
So, that’s a way for a group of 4 to get to and from the casino for approximately 50$ a person without driving.
If you do decide to drive, car rental rates are easily searched on the internet and the route is well signed.
What do y’all wear in December in Canada?
Today in Toronto it’s just above zero degrees celsius. There was frost on the neighbour’s grass at 9 am. And it’s likely to rain or snow overnight depending on whether the temperature drops below zero.
The ToRDies have been watching the long range weather forecasts very closely as we’ve been preparing for WCRD. It seems as thought the weather between the 1st and 4th of December will be pretty similar. It will be hovering around zero and there will be some kind of precipitation, either rain or sleet or snow, depending on whether the mercury is above or below freezing point.
What that means for visitors from other climates, is that you need to bring a few extra things in your luggage. A proper coat, one that is water repellent and insulated would be ideal. Shoes that don’t leak, and a change of socks in your purse each day to be safe, there is nothing worse than having wet socks all day long! You also need a hat, mittens and a scarf. In damp cold weather, these items will mean the difference between frozen skin on your face and hands, and happy skin on your face and hands. (And bonus tip: moisturizer for your skin, going from cold to central heating to cold can make your skin pretty dry and itchy.)
For those of you driving up from the southern US who don’t own snow tires, you will need to drive carefully, stopping distances will be longer, and when temperatures hover around zero (thats 32F to you) there is no telling where a patch of ice might be hiding.
For teams and spectators taking the buses, please keep in mind that our bus schedule is designed for ideal weather conditions. We can’t control whether it snows or there is an accident on the highway between the hotel and the venue (it was probably some sucker from the southern US with no snow tires!). So, if you look outside the window and you see bad weather, try to take an earlier bus.
ToRD is looking forward to hosting you, let us know if you have any questions about things to bring!
Drinking in Ontario
Drinking is fun. But drinking without getting kicked out of events to which you’ve bought tickets is the most fun of all!
Ontario, the province in which Toronto is located, has pretty strict liquor laws. What this means for people attending World Cup of Derby in Toronto is that, while you may feel tempted to show up with a ‘traveller’, ToRD’s security will search your bag and not let you in with that alcohol you brought. And, if you go inside and buy a drink, you can’t take it with you when you go out to smoke.
ToRD’s security team, in the yellow shirts, have been with us from day one, that’s 5 years of derby support. They treat our fans with respect and we ask our fans to return the favour. It’s not their fault you can’t bring in your outside drinks, and it’s not their fault you can’t drink and smoke at the same time at our venue.
Another thing you will find is that the venue’s beer service shuts down about half way through the last game of the night. So, particularly for skaters, if you were looking forward to a cold brewski at the end of a long day of skating, you could be high and dry if you don’t plan ahead.
And, thanks to those same strict liquor laws, drinks aren’t allowed in the locker rooms.
And the drinking age in Canada is 19, so please bring valid ID.
Your hosts at ToRD aren’t big fans of the liquor laws in Ontario either. But if we don’t enforce them, we will lose our liquor licence, and then no one gets a beer! We hope that the fans and the skaters will abide by these laws because we’d really rather not kick you out. It’s going to be really hard for you to watch a game, or skate in a game, if you’ve been kicked out.
If you’re not from Ontario, and you’re not sure if something is OK or not. Ask a ToRDie, we’ll be everywhere during the event, and we won’t judge you. We can give you good advice on how to have fun without running afoul of the rules.
What to eat near the event
We’re planning on having some pretty darn delicious food for people of every dietary persuasion at the event (more details on that to follow). But if you’re looking for a grocery store or health food store near our venue, here is a handy list:
(All locations are listed in order of shortest distance from Downsview.)
Downsview Merchant and Farm Market
http://www.dpmarket.com/
Saturday and Sunday 10am – 6pm
Grocery, Beauty, Vitamins/Supplements:
Healthy Planet
http://www.healthyplanetcanada.com/
588 Sheppard Ave. West
Toronto, ON M3H 2S1
(416) 398-2444
Whole Foods Market
www.wholefoodsmarket.com
87 Avenue Rd
Toronto, ON M5R 3R9 CAN
416.944.0500
Fiesta Farms
www.fiestafarms.ca
200 Christie Street
Toronto, ON M6G 3B6
(416) 537-1235
The Big Carrot
www.thebigcarrot.ca
348 Danforth Avenue, Toronto, ON M4K 1N8
(416) 466-2129
Noah’s Natural Foods
www.noahsnaturalfoods.ca
322 Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON M5S 1W5
(416) 488-0904
Essence of Life Organics
50 Kensington Avenue
Toronto, ON M5T 2K1
(416) 506-0345
Bakery (Organics and/or Gluten Free):
Organic Oven Bakery and Cafe
3189 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON
(416) 489-7777
Haymishe Bagel Shop
3031 Bathurst Street
Toronto, ON
(416) 781-4212
Bunner’s Bakery
www.bunners.ca
3054 Dundas Street West
Toronto, ON M6P 1Z7
(647) 352-2975
Gluten Free Pizza!
I have found that most places will carry pre-packaged GF crust but since their kitchens aren’t wheat-free, it’s maybe better to avoid if you’re highly sensistive to wheat/gluten.
Also, order your pizza underdone… the crust can very quickly turn into a burnt cracker if they cook it for the same time as wheat crust.
Boston Pizza (Rice Crust) 416-636-6275
Pizza Pizza (Rice crust) 416-967-1111
Pizza Nova (Flax/Millet/Rice) 416-439-0000
Magic Oven (Gormet shit – DV is out of delivery locations)
www.magicoven.com
416-868-6836
Places to eat near the venue
Our venue is out in the suburbs and so sometimes it’s a bit of a hike and a bit of a hunt to find somewhere to eat. Here are some of the closest places to eat:
California Sandwiches - Italian style sandwiches that are as big as a dinner plate. Options like veal and sausage, but also a delicious vegetarian sandwich. 3703 Chesswood Dr. Toronto, ON. Closed Sunday.
King David - Montreal’s New Skids on the Block found this falafel place 219 Wilmington Avenue, Toronto, Canada. They have veggie burgers, falafels, and vegan options. Closed Saturday.
Tim Hortons - A Canadian institution, that serves coffee, tea, donuts, sandwiches, breakfast sandwiches, soup and chili. There are two nearby locations, 901 Sheppard Ave W, 2708 Keele Street (this one is at the Keele St exit to hwy 401).
Boston Pizza - For some reason the Boston Pizza location near the venue isn’t listed on their website. It’s north of Sheppard on Allen Road on the left hand side as you go north.
Metro – If you want to visit the local grocery store, this seems to be the nearest one. They are open 24 hours and have prepared foods also. 1090 Wilson Ave (this one is at the Keele St exit to hwy 401).