WFTDA changes rules about what counts as a derby number

It's time to retire those jerseys that say "B00BS".

Today, WFTDA announced that, by the end of next year, jersey numbers will not be able to include alphabetic characters.

Specifically, they state that the rule change will not go into effect until December 2015, so that teams
will have time to adjust to this. I suspect that what they mean by this is that teams have time to get new jerseys for their skaters, or that you can start saving up for your new jersey now.

The Olympics is international, and
Usain Bolt gets letters on his jersey; why can't we?

It's not clear what the motivation for this is, except that there is some speculation that WFTDA's international reputation means that it shouldn't be relying on the Roman alphabet, as some places don't use that. However, that argument only goes so far, as surely the same can be said for different numbering systems as well. Conversely, it might be argued that international scientific systems, or sporting systems, like the Olympics, have to agree on using a particular alphanumeric system as well, so why can't WFTDA?

It seems that this will go over well with refs and officials more so than skaters, where reading numbers is way easier than letters.