Champ’s Rollerdrome

I LOVE ROLLER SKATING! I always have and I think I always will. Champ’s has been one of those places I have frequented (both in Lexington and Louisville) since I can remember. I enjoy the novelty of this place. Remember when you were younger and would love to buy the cheaply made, glow in the dark, overpriced trinkets? Well, they still have those. And I am ok with that. They still host birthday parties here too. I know… I had one here several years ago! True story. They also still have concession quality food. Yum!
Directions for use:
–show up!
–pay money
–go pick up your skates from the guy who will ask what size you want. Order down, they run big
–put on your skates and for a few seconds feel like you forgot how to do it
–remember you are awesome at this stuff and go out onto the rink
–dance/​skate your butt off for several hours and enjoy every minute of it (and burn some calories too)
They even take song requests (with request tickets). They also still do fun skates like: black out skate, backwards skate, the hokey pokey, and all your other favorites that you will remember as soon as it goes down.
I hope they play Candy Rain for you while you are there. :)

We’ve been here a couple times during Christmas break over the years but this by far was the worst! The service is horrible, think it’s run by a bunch of teenagers… pathetic. We’ll come up with a better tradition next year! Upside, we had free passes, but that is the ONLY positive.

Are you kidding? This place is great for kids, especially during the winter. The prices are reasonable and the food is as good as any drive-​in concession-​stand fare. Staff is nice and pleasant. A great place to spend an afternoon. Might be nice if the concession stand offered a few different coffees for adults to enjoy (while they watched their kids skate), but then what’s wrong with adults snacking like kids for an afternoon?

Champs seems like a good place for wholesome family entertainment. The facilities are cleaning and I’ve never had issues with the staff. Besides, where else can you go to watch Louisville’s own Derby City Roller Girls? Even if skating is not your thing, I’d recommend checking out the next bout.

They keep making improvements which are nice, the staff has made it a point to increase friendliness and customer service.
Major money spent on the place and the bottom line is this is our kids favorite place.

I used to skate all the time at Champs, when I was 11. So a while ago. Absolutely nothing has changed about the place. Skate rentals are cheap, you can get a locker. The only thing that has changed is the crowd. The place used to be full of middle-​schoolers… now, it is a family/​adult hangout that plays great music on Fridays.
The only thing that would make it better, is if they somehow managed to aquire a liquor license. Hmmm.

UPDATE: Owner contacted me to address the issue. I appreciate that he took the time to find out what went wrong. It shows he cares about his business and his customers as well.
A bunch of thugs there calling my son names because they thought he pushed one of them. I saw what happened and it was an accident. Having his birthday party there soon and I am considering canceling it. Most of staff seems nice but management could be better.

1 Cool Roller Skate Shaped Car Outside + ($ 8.50 Admission x 2) +
4 New Gray & Blue Rented Roller Skates + 2 Extra Pairs of Blister Preventing Socks + Black Lights + Neon Max Headroom-​esque Wall Décor + 2 Twirling Disco Balls +
Pre-​teen Girls in Short Shorts + Break Sk8 Wannabe B-​Boys + Blinking Party Favors +
4 Air Hockey Games + 2.5 Hours + 1 Vow to Try Backwards Skating + 1 Walk Down Memory Lane + 2 Sore Legs the Next Morning =
NEPHEW-​AUNTIE QUALITY TIME

This place is a dump. A complete and absolute dump. Everything is run-​down, and I might need a tetanus shot after going there the other night.
But I like it. Rachel F. nailed it.
Roller City Derby Girls. Awesome. Went there for there game on Saturday, and it was awesome. Not nearly as violent as I expected, but awesome. The place comes alive and gets packed for the games. The parking lot was full, so we had to park across the railroad.
The event? SO MUCH FUN. Awesome. Worth heading out here for some Roller Derby action. Just ignore the place.

So, it is a bit out of the way for those of us ITW (inside the Watterson), esp coming from the Germantown area, but sacrifices for fun are often necessary! Decent rink, typical old school setup like when I was in middle school.
And the most exciting part? This is home to the Roller City Derby Girls! Every month or two they have a home match and the last one was packed out. Highly recommend getting there early (they weren’t kidding when they said doors open an hour early). Then they had a pretty smooth transition to regular skating afterwords. Really neat venue for it.
The bathrooms are definitely not the nicest, or newest, but then again most 12 year olds could probably care less, so doubt that will change any time soon!

I skated on the sidewalks as a kid with the metal skates with the key. I never got into the indoor roller skating scene as a teenager because I was ‘too cool’. Now, Mister wants to learn to roller skate AND ice skate. Champs is just up the road so we go there for roller skating. For $ 6, we c an skate as long as I want to make him. Once, I did make the mistake of renting shoes for of of us. But, once he fell and I fell trying to catch him, I realized we only have to pay for one skater.
Mister enjoys learning something new. I enjoy challenging him. I get to use the excuse of the learning/​exercise of skating to buy him a slurpee. Plus, I get to walk around with my son and catch him when he stumbles. What more can a Father ask for? Maybe some shoes that have strings the same length and no holes in the leather. Otherwise, it would have been 4 stars.