OUR STORY

Built by a Frederick dad. Run by people who love a good game.

"I wanted to build the kind of place I grew up playing in — scraped knees, water-fountain breaks, real teams, real rivalries. Just with a better scoreboard."

Blast'D! Arena was started by Frederick native Jim Crane after a decade of watching his own kids' free time get quieter and less physical. The vision was simple: a real-play space where Blaster Battles and dodgeball matter, where 12 kids can show up, run, sweat, settle it on the floor, drink from the fountain, and leave better friends than when they walked in.

Two years of designing, building, prototyping, and tearing things apart — including a from-scratch custom sensor system, a live scoring engine, and an arena layout designed for rotating between five different games in one session — Blast'D! opened inside Francis Scott Key Mall in Frederick.

The pink, purple, and green stripes you see throughout the arena (and on this site) aren't just decoration — they're the brand of two competing teams: Plasma and Acid, with purple marking the gear-up area and the dodgeball boundary. If you've been inside, you've already learned the language.

"I want a family to walk out of here on a Saturday night and have an inside joke about something that happened in the arena. That's what fun is supposed to do."

In the news

• 📰 Frederick News Post — "Sports activity business hopes to bring back 'old-school games'" By Ryan Marshall · feature on Jim Crane and the arena build-out at FSK Mall.