Tonight Kim and I headed out to the world famous Roy Wilkins Auditorium in downtown St Paul for the final Minnesota RollerGirls bout of 2008, 28 Games Later. Opening entertainment was provided by the announcers, WetSpot and his kick-ass homemade cannon, and plenty of freebies launched into the stands. Halftime entertainment was by the self-proclaimed “second best ELO cover band in the Twin Cities” E.L.nO (warning: MySpace page) and the big prize was the coveted “Golden Skate” to the winning team this year.

Quick overview:

1. Awesome bout that was quite physical at times.

2. Maddie passed a note to Sparkle Ninja that read, “Make the ugly girls cry.” For her hysterical commentary she was awarded a Swarm frisbee and the quote was read by the announcers to a hushed crowd.

3. The crowd was the biggest ever that I have seen and it was awesome to see the stands as packed as they were. The last time I saw a crowd like that for MNRG was the first bout of the season in early 2007.

4. The Rockits won the coveted “Golden Skate” in a victory over the Dagger Dolls.

As expected, I have a couple of videos and the first is of the pre-game entertainment with WetSpot and crew using his cannon to launch various items into the crowd which came from boxes labeled “Puppies” and “Kittens”. Hysterical:

Here is Buffy being a bitch and starting a fight, as usual :)

Here are the Rockits taking the win and then celebrating with a victory lap:

See all the pictures from 28 Games Later on Flickr here (camera).

Cincinnati Rollergirls vs. Minnesota Garda-Belts(originally uploaded by Jason Bechtel)

Kim and I have been going to see the Minnesota RollerGirls for a while now and this season we were season ticket holders. Although, the more often we go, the more I realize that too many things have changed and I’m less and less interested in the bouts :( I have some suggestions on how to keep us as season ticket holders and I really hope that at least some of my concerns are addressed…

1. We were originally very interested in track-side seating which brought you right up close to the action including having the rollergirls sliding across the floor, after a good bit of bumping and/or elbowing, and into your spot. Unfortunately, starting this season, track-side seats have been pushed back and a safety buffer zone has been created to appease the insurance gods.Obviously there is little that the MNRG can do to bring back the allure of the track-side seats but for those that are season ticket holders, I can’t imagine that the hard floor (sometimes limited with the MNRG ass pads) and very little leg room is all that comfortable when you don’t really get any benefit out of it. Kevin, a fellow season ticket holder, mentioned that he has absolutely no interest in track-side seating not only because of the points I have mentioned above but also the lack of decent sight lines to the action. I couldn’t agree more.

2. Those of us with season tickets that were not offered an opportunity to receive track-side seats, end up in General Admission (with floor access). While that’s all well and good, this week we were displaced from our regular seat choices by “Reserved” seating for various groups. I might be missing something but I honestly feel that season ticket holders should have the first choice on seating above anyone else and *we* should be the ones that have “Reserved” signs on the chairs, not some group that might show up to a handful of bouts at best.

3. The bouts are less violent, less thrilling, and are coming down to be more defensive than offensive games. While I realize all of that is quite a mouthful, it is really grating on me. I have chatted with Kevin about it and while he enjoys the low scores and slow action, I just find it boring. Yes, it takes quite a bit of team work and talent to slow the pack and make sure the jammers aren’t getting through but it reminds me of baseball — long, drawn out, and boring at times.

There were rumors last year of some serious team drama with the girls being upset that some teammates were going for the individual glory and not doing their parts to elevate their teams to team wins. Personally, I loved the standouts that were kicking ass all over the place last year. Yes, there are still standouts, and they happen to be many of the same individuals — now they are just standing out in different ways and it doesn’t entertain me in the least. Boo on drama.

4. The entertainment at half-time hasn’t been improving much. This year, during Occupational Hazards, I was so absolutely disgusted with the Corpse Show Creeps, that I ended up standing ouside the auditorium while holding my hands over my ears hoping the bad man would stop. The Corpse Show Creeps didn’t appreciate my comments and decided to copy the content of my blog onto their lame MySpace page and let their deaf fans comment like children.

I am sure that the budget is low but I would honestly rather see 30 minutes of people pulling bike stunts, jumping up and down on trampolines, or absolutely no one at all than put up with the Corpse Show Creeps or almost any of the other bands they have had recently. Keep the Alpenrose Polka Band and we can do away with the rest of this crud.

5. Line jumpers. Kevin’s family, Kim and I usually end up at the match at least 1.5 hours ahead of time and that used to net us a spot in the first 5 spots in line. Recently, probably due to the popularity of the kick ass t-shirts the MNRG have been giving out to the first 200 through the door, the line has been getting long — really long and we will need to start arriving at least 2 hours in advance to end up in the same location. That’s all fine, I have no problems with doing that (although, I’d be less concerned about getting there that early if I had reserved seating!) but the line jumpers are fucking pissing me off. Kim and I were about 60 people back in line at 5:00 for the 6:30 doors. At 6:10 we were about 150 back!

It’s not like there aren’t enough security people, who are constantly being a fucking pain in the ass about how we decide to line up for the event. Someone should clue the security personnel into the fact that they are not only rude and unprofessional but that they aren’t doing their jobs all that well.

6. Lack of communication about the season ticket process. We had to send several e-mails asking for timeline updates as they kept running over the deadlines they mentioned after we had submitted our form and fees. It was a little frustrating not knowing much and only being able to receive information after, sometimes, weeks of waiting!

Overall, I still enjoy going to the bouts and having something to do on random Saturday nights. I know the girls themselves have a lot of say about what happens with their teams and the entire operation. I really hope that they can implement some of the little things I’ve listed above and make the experience of those that are willing to support them all that much better.

Kim and I hooked up with Kevin and headed up to the Roy Wilkins Auditorium for the first Minnesota RollerGirls bout of the year entitled Occupational Hazards.

It was a Sunday bout, which I wasn’t a fan of at all, as I kinda wanted to stay at home and just veg but being that we’re season ticket holders and all, I figured we best just go ;)

We arrived just before 5:30 (I believe it was 5:27 as Kevin and I discussed the exact time) and were pretty damn surprised to see that the line was as long as it was. We are usually there about an hour ahead of time and are less than 5 people deep but today there were at least 50 people in front of us (and growing by the minute it seemed). Everyone wanted what Kevin and Kim explained as their favorite free t-shirt of the year. Kim wants the rest of the t-shirts for the season (if there are any) to be the remaining team colors. Personally, it was my least favorite but I’ll be wearing it to work none-the-less.

The opening act was the ALT Boys Freestyle Team who had a couple of ramps setup in a short little area with plenty of room to crash into people if something went wrong. Thankfully, there were very few incidents and those always occurred near the ramps so no one in the crowd was injured. The best part of the show came right at the end…

Something boring, back flip, back flip, something I don’t know, and a crazy fucking front flip:

The bout itself was extremely boring for me tonight. There were very little contact and the scores were crazy low. I suppose they are starting to become even more skilled, know how to operate more successfully as a team and keep the matches tight but for me, that makes it crap. There was only a few instances of any mean-spirited contact which included the inevitable pointless fist action right at the end of the entire match.

I won’t bore you with the video I have of any of the jams because, well, you can see them at any of my other posts here.

I was surprised at the number of people in the crowd on a Sunday but it wasn’t anything like the crowd they had on hand for the start of the 2007 season. I suppose that one wasn’t on a Sunday however. The crowd was pretty subdued and most left during the HORRIFYING and absolutely fucking miserably TERRIBLE half-time show by the Corpse Show Creeps (warning MySpace link, yuck).

The Corpse Show Creeps seriously forced me out of the main part of the venue to suck in the fumes from the smokers area immediately outside the venue that were sucked back in and available for all to hack on. I thought I was safe standing there but the Roy Wilkins now has video screens in the sales area so that you could witness the filth that those douchebags were putting on. Imagine a death metal band with 50s pompadours and you have them made. BLEH.

Anyway, we were home by 10 PM and I watched another episode of The F Word on BBC America and then went to bed. I suppose, in the end, it was better than vegging out on the couch all night :)