Roller derby players are on the lookout for a new home to host local games.

Dozens of women wear helmets, knee pads and skates, training for their next game. These members of Monterey Bay Roller Derby spend two nights a week at the Monterey County Fairgrounds.

The MBRD (previously named Monterey Bay Derby Dames) is a local roller derby league, started in 2010, and is a member of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association. For years, the organization trained and played at the Water City rink in Marina, which closed during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Last year, while Water City was preparing to reopen, Marina city officials found a series of code violations including accessibility shortcomings and problems with ventilation, electrical and heating. The building was red-tagged. Dozens of people protested on May 22, 2021 demanding officials keep the building open for roller sports, to no avail.

With Water City closed, MBRD members had to look for alternatives to keep its league alive. “We no longer have a home base where we can host games or scrimmages,” says Amber Dodd, a player who has been in the league for 10 seasons.

At the fairgrounds, they don’t have enough space for a derby track, so they can train there but not compete. Instead, home games (known in roller derby parlance as “bouts”) take place in locations like Sacramento or Angels Camp. “It was really hard to make the commitment to go to games that are three hours away,” Dodd adds. The junior team, the Dread Ponies, dismantled due to lack of a home venue.

MBRD is currently paying $450 a month for space to practice at the Fairgrounds, and is looking for alternatives on the Monterey Peninsula, Salinas or Castroville. The space has to be flat and at least 120-by-78 feet, or about 10,000 square feet.

“The fairgrounds is just a little too small for a regulation track, and they hold a lot of events there so it’s difficult to have consistent practice during more popular months,” league President Ali Hough says.

Water City’s home, the Marina Sports Center, will eventually be upgraded. On March 21, Marina City Council approved the Dunes City Park Project concept, which includes transforming the building into a multi-sport facility, including a pavilion for outdoor sports like roller derby.

“We’d love to have a permanent home,” Hough says. But she notes an outdoor space won’t be ideal because Marina has unique weather conditions – fog and relatively lower temperatures – and they practice at night.