World of Hobbies Cincinnati Closing?
 

I hope this is just a bad rumor but is it true that the World of Hobbies in Cincinnati is closing at the end of August? If true then another GREAT indoor track bites the dust. Very unfortunate if true. Please someone tell me it isn't!

Ugh.... Im sorry to hear that. Very unfortunate.

man what a loss. that was a sweet track to run on and super flat. see guys you don't support them they do go away.
just glad we have the indoor dirt track paying the bills so I can run on our carpet track with the 8 people we get. if we didn't have the dirt we couldn't afford the carpet.

so where does that leave carpet racing in our area?

Where is the next closest carpet track??

Maybe on-road really is dying in the US. I guess I'll play PowerBall this week so I can save it. :-(

There is a new carpet track in Monroe that is rumored to be expanding.

As far as support. There was a pretty heathy crowd just not during the summers. I will say I think the price hike ultimately did the racing in. The crowd was about 40-60% of what it was before the price hike. If they were banking on TC to keep them afloat though then obviously thats not a sustainable business model. Monster trucks outsell TC like 20 to 1. I know they did pretty well with the gaming. And of course we are assuming it was financials that did them in which I dont know is necessarily the case. Perhaps they just wanted to concentrate on the new store in KY.

I'm not going into details but let's face it tracks do NOT make money. For now all the inventory is being diverted to florence. We hope to be able to keep the carpet, boards and drivers stand for future use once a more suitable location is found. So don't be too concerned the track will re-open but most likely not until next year.

Tracks can make money when product and marketing are part of the business model. Sure a bunch of shops open up because the owner wants to have a shop and track. But lets face it how many tracks and shops have great businessmen to begin with as owners.

Example one...

I went into the WOH the week before the BRL race. Unless you talked to one of the racers on the Saturday before the BRL, one had no idea that a race like that was coming. No signs, no hints of a 100 plus driver race coming to the track.

Nice joint sorry to hear it's closing.

I know a bunch of guys that just lost their second home....

Don't give up!
 

Don't give up on on-road just yet. Everything goes in cycles. Right now off-road is bigger than ever. Maybe even reaching the plateau. On-road is about as week as ever. Maybe at the rock bottom.

The way I see it, we could be seeing a swing back in the dirrection in the near future. Look at the advancements in the electric market. As nitro is bigger than ever, here come the latest offerings in electrics we have ever seen (bats & motors). I truely believe things will turn toward on-road again.

I'm certain enough that I built a kick-ass new place. Check it out.
www.rchobbiesraceway.com

Well, Pit Road Raceway in Columbus is going to be opening back up in October for the winter season. So, that gives most of the Ohio guys a place to run.


http://www.pitroadraceway.com/main.php

Is Pitroad going to be at the same place? I heard of talks about a larger facility. It would be nice to have a killer place here in Columbus as it is centrally located for everyone.

The Gate in Cleveland is going to be a great alternative. The Raceway in Beaver, PA and CEFX Raceway in Michigan are also good options.

There are some rumors of a couple of people in Cincy opening up a "race track". Probably no hobby shop. We'll see what happens.

Columbus wouldnt be too bad. Cleveland is not something I could do regularly.

I cant imagine opening just a race track is something that would work long term. If tracks/stores can stay around then just a track would be mighty difficult. Unless they find a place that is rent free.

I wish Dayton or Cincinnati had a hard surface indoor track. :sneaky:

On-road is far from dying, but as many have said, it's a more challenging business to run an on-road track indoors than an off-road track or something where you are not paying for retail square footage.

The problem I usually see (and not saying this is the case here, as I am not overly familiar with the area) is that people start a track and a tiny hobby shop to support the track, and then put all of their effort into the track and expect that to drive the business. As difficult as the retail market is, it has to be the other way around. The shop has to be stable and big enough to carry a track or you'll just be bleeding money until it's unsustainable.

The most successful indoor tracks seem to be:

a) Club tracks that jump from place to place and rely on discount real estate
b) Tracks supported by large, established hobby shops
c) Tracks located in owned facilities

It can be pretty difficult to sustain any of those. Out here, for example, it's been close to 4 years now since we've had a stable on-road track, and this is a city of 2+ million people. There are plenty of racers here, but no one's been able to come up with a successful model that will sustain such a track.