[1] roller derby in key arena, bumbershoot 2006

With the Sonics blown out of town and turned into the Thunder, some of the space on the Key Arena calendar is going to be filled with another knock-down, drag-out sort of event. Starting the month, the Rat City Rollergirls ^[2] are making the move from a hangar at Magnuson Park to the heart of Seattle Center:

Their first bout, scheduled for February 7, 2009, will debut all four teams including the Derby Liberation Front, Grave Danger, the Sockit Wenches and the Throttle Rockets at Key Arena.
…  
“It’s rewarding to be part of such a competitive, high-level sport with truly dedicated fans and players,” explains Maeleeke Lavin of the Rat City Rollergirls’ Derby Liberation Front team. “As part of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA), we’re an organization run by women skaters for women skaters. Roller derby is not the female version of a male sport, and that fact, along with our do-it-yourself roots, gives us an authentic quality that many other mainstream sports lack.”

Tickets will run $19 for adults and $12 for kids, with season ticket packages available [ticketma$ter ^[3]]. In the new 5,500 person seating configuration, bloodthirsty fans will no longer be segregated from docile families (or vice versa) so that they can all cheer and puzzle over the rules [wiki ^[4]] of lead jamming together.