Indoor track space with membership

[CrashRecovery]

I got talking with a few colleagues who after seeing my assender started to reminisce about their rc days. One thing that kept coming up in almost every conversation was the lack of dedicated rc tracks in our area. Some guys liked the scale carpet racing stuff others wanted the off road racing courses. So the thought of renting a large, wide open warehouse where different tracks could be positioned throughout the space, pit areas, "tool rental" area, small hobby shop and the best of all was that it could be setup for different rental options and memberships.
So my question is has anyone seen anything like this? I have seen one shop in Enfield CT where it had crawler courses inside but they were fixed courses and couldn't be redone every so often.

[Inspector86]

I have thought about the same sort of a business plan. We have a huge former supermarket building which has been vacant for nearly 5 years. My thought is to equip it with the various tracks, a crawling area, pit tables, a full service hobby shop and also a snack bar/grill. Just have not been able to pull the funding together. It is tuff to compete with the internet for a hobby shop.

[kincer]

There has to be some draw that the internet can't compete with in order to be successful in something like that in my opinion. There is no way to compete as far as selling parts at something like that, I wish I had a good idea for that myself. Having a place with a crawling section and different tracks all in one place would be great but there needs to be something else to keep people coming. People will come at first but like anything else it dies off. Just look at all the stores closing, the Mall is a thing of the past around here. I'd love to have a place to go to like that, there is nothing around me anymore, carpet track I used to race at is gone, couple other places are gone as well. I honestly don't know how my local little hobby shop makes it but they're still kicking, I bought my Gen8 there, I had to wait but they give me the same price as everywhere else.

[Ragenwraith]

I go way back to 1986. I started racing with the Omaha Nebraska crowd. It started in some of the local city parks where they built some nice dirt off road tracks. Then people down in Lincoln Nebraska started doing the same thing as well as other towns around the area. Racers started traveling around to the different tracks so there was a lot of interest in the sport. When winter set in there were some local community buildings and auditoriums where the races were held on carpet. Then a group got together and found an old supermarket building and formed "Ground Zero". So now everyone had a great indoor dirt off road race track and a very nice road course track too no matter the weather. They had a nice parts store as well and kept the entry fee prices down so everybody could afford to come and race. Hobby Town was just getting started back then too. Merl and Tom had a great store in Lincoln(you should see it now,google it) and had a great following of racers. The competition was great and very intense at times but everyone had a lot of fun. The key to it was finding the right location and managing it so it was not over priced for the racers but brought in enough funds to pay the rent.

If you can find a building in a good accessible location for a reasonable price and you can keep the prices low people will come. Ask for volunteers to help build the tracks and crawling course. Get there ideas on how to set it up, have them bring in or donate building materials to keep the initial cost down. Get people involved to make it there favorite place to come and hang out. It might be your building but it would be their track or course. This is an ageless sport where young and old enjoy getting together with the rigs they have built and get to prove how good they are at places like you are going to put together.

Good luck you are on the right track to making a great place for all to come and get involved in this sport of RC!

[Mike Flea]

Having the funds for a space is one thing, competition with the internet for parts, if you have a snack bar, it has to pass a yearly inspection by the Health Department, so vending machines are the better option there, and Liability Insurance is a must, besides Renters Insurance, unless you outright purchase the property, which you'll still need Personal Property insurance.

[CrashRecovery]

I'm not entertaining the idea of doing this but I wanted to know if others had the same idea or have been to one. I know each year up in Harrisburg PA at motorama they have an rc section. But that is a temp track but it always looks insane in every video I have seen. My problem is I enjoy my full time job. I'm a Confined Space/ High Angle Rescue Technician. Some of the locations I have been assigned to work at are quite interesting. Boggles the mind that the human race can build stuff like what I see. Granted I stand/sit around a lot but I understand I'm an insurance policy.
I'm not sure I could take the leap to start a business like an indoor hobby center. I mean I probably could but there would have to be a ton of research done to understand the rc demographic in my area. The one lhs by me closed its doors a year ago and there in nothing closer then an hour away for people to go to a local shop to get face to face help.

[zohn]

Chitown RC has an indoor crawler course that opened this winter in rockdale. I havent made it down there yet as all my weekends have been been spent ice fishing. Once the lakes around here thaw I will check it out. They are on Fakebook and have some piks of it up but I'm not on that platform so havent seen what they have up about it.

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[Levi]

I love the whole idea of some large building where you could have a crawler course, dirt track and a snack bar. Selling parts in a place like this could work, but like some said it's
tough to compete online stores. The best I got it is there is a diet track close to me that's indoors and one the other direction that's outside summer time only. They are fun to go to, but when summer rolls around I love going up the mountains with my trucks and do a trail run with them. It's funny cause some friends and me talk about this same subject from time to time. There is a few large buildings that are empty and say wouldn't that make a killer crawler course and some dirt tracks to go with it. So your not alone in the idea.

[CM9000]

I would do this if I won the lottery for sure.

I would have to leave out the carpet track though.. I wouldn't want the negativity in the shop (they all have a bad rep around where im located)

2 separate crawler courses (scale, and comp)

2 dirt tracks (1 outside loamy track, and indoor clay)

drift track and mini fpv flight course combined.

as far as the hobbyshop goes... id leave it to the local chain close to me. probably partner with them. id even be right down the street. (my second job at a dealership, one day I came to work and they closed up) its been 9 years since that place closed down and is still vacant.

[Jim85IROC]

I think by far the biggest issue is how to develop a sustainable business model around RC racing/crawling. The massive size of the building you need for this sort of thing is going to have a huge rent/mortgage bill, plus very large utility & maintenance bills. I can't imagine how many people you need to move through your doors to turn a profit in that kind of situation.

[CM9000]

It takes quite a bit of traffic to keep your buisness out of water. My local track maybe gets a $40 dollar profit by the end of the day. Amd they only run it on saturdays.

But like i mentioned.. For me anyways.. I would only do it if i won the lotto.

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[Jim85IROC]

Originally Posted by CM9000

It takes quite a bit of traffic to keep your buisness out of water. My local track maybe gets a $40 dollar profit by the end of the day. Amd they only run it on saturdays.

But like i mentioned.. For me anyways.. I would only do it if i won the lotto.

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That's the thing... it's really got to be a labor of love, and even then, you can only love something for as long as you can afford it.

[Nova's Ark]

Mike's Hobby Shop was in Dallas, Texas. When the city expanded the freeway out front the store, they basically declared imminent domain and did not want to pay Mike the fair value of his hobby store and many tracks. Mike's had an indoor clay track, indoor crawler course, indoor on road course, out door off road, flight nights, private room rentals for teams or individuals, indoor small cafe, and it is 100% gone now. Mike had hoped to re-open a state of the art RC center, but that has never manifested.


Photo from Mike's:

[Mike Flea]

That sucks...City Bastards