Haygood Skating Center — Attraction in Virginia Beach

I hate to bash this VB icon, however, this place needs a lot of work and staff that actually does something or cares.

Here are some of the issues I've seen: This is no longer an issue, but this place was cash-only until recently. Nothing screams fraud louder than a cash-only business. While I don't have my own skates, the fact that the entry fee is the same for those that have skates and for those that need rentals. Why? The skates are garbage. Literally. First, I doubt they ever clean them. I see them go right back on the shelf after use. Pretty gross after sweaty, nasty feet have been in them. It's not uncommon to get skates with wheels that don't roll. When you try to spin a wheel and it can't even make a full rotation - that's an issue. The wheels are definitely not cleaned and usually have some sort of yuck on them. Consider yourself lucky of you get skates with laces that can actually be used. They either only go halfway up the skate, or if they are long enough, they are frayed and you can't get them through the grommets to actually tie them. I have never used a pair of skates there that did not have serious flat spots, so even where the floor is flat, it feels like you are on a road or going over sidewalk cracks every 3 inches. The staff is extremely rude and does not care about anything, especially the safety of their guests. There are no rules at this place, whether they have some posted or not. Got a hat? Go ahead and wear it. Want to put in headphones while skating? Sure, that's not a problem. You spill something on the rink that shouldn't be out there in the first place? It's all good. It will eventually disappear after being skated over thousands of times. You want to walk out on the floor and not pay any attention to people actually skating? Have at it. Want to block the exits from the floor in order to take pictures, videos or just stand there for no apparent reason? Feel free. Exiting the floor without having to dodge clueless parents/children is definitely overrated. Want to skate straight across the floor without looking or even skate the wrong direction? We have no problem with that. If you think rink guards are there watching over the floor? Think again. While you can't blame parent/child ignorance and incompetence on the rink, it is the rink's responsibility to mitigate this - not condone it. You can't blame the rink for their clientelle, but they can certainly do something about it. This place used to have pitchers of water at the pizza bar for when you wanted water. Now they charge you $3 for a dirty pitcher of water that looks like they were last cleaned during COVID. But at least they tell you that you don't have to pay for a refill - you can just use the water fountain (that didn't work). The bathrooms are straight up dilapidated. While I don't drink, their alcohol prices are insane. I guess when you drive parents to drink due to the conditions in which their kids must skate, you'll pay those prices. Fundraisers. I get the point of fundraisers is to raise money for the school or program, but why tell people the price includes two slices of pizza when you are actually giving them one cut in half? In our case, it didn't really matter because the kids said it was disgusting, but is that really necessary? Some parents probably expect that to be their child's dinner and for many, one slice of pizza isn't going to cut it. You put a play place in, but then charge for kids to use it? Why bother?

I understand that this place probably doesn't make a ton of money, making it hard to stay afloat and limiting the upgrades and repairs that can be done. I get it. But if you are going to offer poor service, poor facilities, and a dangerous skating environment, why bother? It is very disappointing to see this place like this. It honestly bums me out. It could be so...

First off, I typically don't write reviews because I feel that everyone's experiences are different, though In this situation I have to give praise and acknowledgement for the amazing staff and the for the great experience today, my daughter turned 12 today and she wanted to rollerskate and bring her friend, not a problem I had my other son in the play area, everyone was amazing to begin with I had gone to the bathroom and came out to a mother yelling at my special needs son for an accident that had happened in the play area, now me being the mom of course I asked her to stop yelling at my son and to let him speak so he could stop stuttering what he was trying to say... this mom the proceded to call my special needs son a jerk... a young lady saw this whole mess and told me to speak with Miss Shannon, sweet heart number 1, she was very apologetic and spoke to the other mom about not yelling at other people's children or calling them names, she also got the manager Sweetheart number 2, I was so flustered trying to get out of there I didn't catch her name, but she came out personally and spoke with me and was understanding about why i would be upset by another adult calling my son names and she made it right. This was the first visit for us and after the amazing team and how this was handled we will be back, great job and thank you all for being so understanding especially to kids with special needs!!!!!!!! If I could give more then 5 stars...

We went here for a Dominion Roller Derby game this past weekend. I had never been here before. We waited in line on the side of the building since we did not buy tickets online (if you bought tickets online then you would wait in the front of the building and get in first). I thought the staff was friendly - we only had interactions with the person who told us to go to the side of the building for people buying tickets and the staff inside once we were let in at 8pm that we paid for our tickets (we paid with a credit card). We had a good experience except for a woman standing in the middle of the aisle at the front of the row of seats yelling at the derby players. She blocked part of our view of the action. The place is old and run down but the toilets worked (the sink is on the outside of the men's and women's bathrooms in the middle and you share one sink. There was not any soap left. I think they can use some updates to this place. My boyfriend said the men's bathroom did not have any doors on the stalls so he didn't use the restroom there. That was very odd to hear that they did not have any doors. Please install some doors. They had pizza for sale, drinks, bowling, merchandise for sale, raffles, ice cream, etc. It is worth going here to watch the roller derby's.

3 stars for the center itself. 4 stars for my experience...