| Subject: | RE: Indoor Velodrome?? |
| Date: | 01/29/2006 12:40 PM |
| From: | mike.m-@obra.org |
|
I don't mean to be a wet blanket. After all, I have been the principle proponent of the idea of an indoor velodrome here for many years. Unfortunately it is something that I have been unable to accomplish. That is not to say that it is impossible or that there is not someone else that could do it, just that there are considerable hurdles to be jumped and that I have a reasonable idea about what those are. A couple of points that come to mind reading Rick's note: - An indoor velodrome in Oregon would not be a first. There is an indoor velodrome in, of all places, LA where they really don't need one for weather reasons. It is fairly new and is heavily supported by AEG. They are struggling to keep afloat and meet the mandates of their owners which are more oriented to producing occasional high level competitions, like the Worlds last year and the up coming World Cup, as opposed to being used as a local training or racing facility. There is a long story about how the LA facility came to be and it remains to be seen if it will last. There are also now 2 indoor facilities in Canada. The closest is in Burnaby, BC near Vancouver. They seriously struggle to keep open and to remain in good graces with the volleyball group that they share the facility with. There is also a new tiny velodrome in London, Ontario which is, by reports, going great guns. I do not have much info on the back story to that facility. Historically there were very many indoor tracks in the US during the heyday of the Six Day, including a temporary one in Oregon, although there were also many buggy whip manufactures then too. - The idea that a single day bike ride might raise a large amount of money is not at all far flung. In fact, there are several that raise large amounts of money. We are routinely contacted by people that wish to put on a bike race to raise money, which is a much dicier proposition. - Drawing an analogy between an indoor velodrome and the Oregon Symphony is a bit of a stretch. Corporate support of symphonies is routine. Although corporate support for sports is also fairly routine there is not much for bike racing in general and essentially none for track racing. Outside of Air Products at T-town and AEG in LA other support from commercial concerns is limited to small amounts and small companies. This makes sense as the number of participants, not only racers but also spectators, officials, fans, etc., is pretty tiny in the grand scheme of things; far lower then the number of people involved with the Symphony. I would bet that tickets sales for a single Oregon Symphony performance are close to the total annual spectators and racers combined at Alpenrose. It is estimated that there are only around 2-3,000 active track racers in the whole US. Even if we could aspire to the ticket sales to total cost ratio that the Oregon Symphony has that would only net a budget of around $100,000/year with the current market which is below the projected costs. - Although there appears to be a lot of support for Major League Baseball that is a project that has really not yet got off the ground. Support is not enough, money is what is needed. Once again, I don't want to be too discouraging. I just want to be realistic and make sure that people know that even what is currently happening with track racing in specific and bike racing in general is only happening because a small number of people are investing a large amount of effort as opposed to being driven by easy availability of funding or the possibility of profit. There are also a few funny points on this subject: - Many people do not understand the economics. Every year there are several people that contact me or USAC or other people running track racing in the US to tell us of their plans to build a velodrome, run a big program and generate lots of money. If this were possible there would be velodromes like there are Starbucks instead of only 20 struggling facilities. - Many people already think that Alpenrose IS indoors. Every fall I get contacted by several people who have been riding in the sunny summer weather and now want to ride indoors at Alpenrose. - Most of the posts to this list on this subject have come from people that don't use the velodrome that we are already lucky enough to have. The first step in supporting the idea of an indoor velodrome would be to come to events at the current outdoor velodrome. Even better would be to support it by helping with organizing programs or finding sponsorship. As use of the current velodrome grows the possibility of supporting an indoor velodrome becomes much more likely. Mike Murray -----Original Message----- From: Rick C Johnson [mailto:RCJoh-@attglobal.net] Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2006 11:43 AM To: mike.m-@obra.org Cc: ob-@topica.com Subject: RE: [OBRA Chat] Indoor Velodrome?? Quite the wet blanket there Mike, but a good reality check. But with your points in mind I'd still like to offer a few encouraging words. Oregon is a land of firsts. The first state to protect public access to beaches and waterways. The first to address widespread littering of beverage containers with our bottle bill. The first to seriously attempt solving the problem of seeing every citizen receives health care coverage. The list goes on. Perhaps there is a way to make this idea viable and in doing so accomplish another first. But it truly will be impossible if everyone believes it is. How many would have thought that raising 1.3 million dollars for cancer research with a single day bike ride was impossible? But it happened. There are many civic institutions that were born in red ink, and some continue inspire of it. The Oregon Symphony covers just 41% of it's operating costs through ticket sales. The rest comes from corporate and individual sponsorship. There has been considerable effort invested at both the city and state level in creating viable financial conditions for bringing Major League Baseball to town. Those dreams survive because there is a group of people that believe in them. So, that's the question - are there enough people that believe in this particular dream? Are they ready to sustain the years long effort to keep it alive? Mike is correct, the financial reality is a tough issue to overcome. Just thinking it's a good idea contributes little to actually making it happen. But maybe there are enough people willing to make this dream come alive. If so, I wish them luck. Rick mike.m-@obra.org wrote: I have been trying to keep quiet on this subject but find I can't. There are several reasons why we don't have a indoor velodrome but the biggest one is that there are no indoor velodromes in the world that actually cover their operating expenses. In the US few outdoor velodromes cover expenses. If anyone wants any more particulars, cost estimates, revenue projections, etc. send me a note. Mike Murray To respond to the whole group send to ob-@topica.com. To respond to the list manager send to cmur-@obra.org To unsubscribe send to obra-uns-@topica.com |
