Originally Posted by
crowie03@gmail.
Not sure where to post this..
As you know Sydney no longer has an indoor carpet facility for rc cars. The only way I can ever see this happening is if its run purely as a non profit organisation/club. This would require atleast 150 members as a miniumum paying $30 per month in order to lease a warehouse type space in order to facilitate and cover costs of rent/expenses etc. In return menbers would get a key/code to use the facility any time. It could also be used as a venue open to the public with funds earned going back into the club to help cover costs. Looking for feedback as to whether you think this would be possible and also whether you would be prepared to commit $30 per month for full access 24/7. It can only be possible with a large number of members.
Cheers
Mark
A subscription based model is great, there'd be some people that would be prepared to spend $50 a month however the facility has to be inviting and continually evolving the "racers' experience to entice them there as often as possible. And the investment to do so is substantially higher than the $4,500 you'd generate a month unfortunately. [QUOTE]
Originally Posted by
96smith
The problem is that there was a facility not 4 months ago, open everyday and you could drive to your hearts extent for $20, had on road and off-road available with a hobby shop, and food and drink. yet people weren't willing to pay to go to that and subsequently it closed down. I am all for a carpet facility in New South Wales, unfortunately i was also on of about 10-15 people who actually supported the last club until the end.
By all means had a lot going for it, and it was sad to see it go. It ticked a lot of the boxes for an inviting facility, Drinks, Snacks, Clean Toilets, Shop, however failed on the most crucial aspect of a proper surface that the rest of the world use, and it made it virtually impossible to "enjoy" driving a touring car around there and perhaps I'm wrong but TC would be a little bigger than 12th scale in terms of numbers right?
It's like FB targeting the 80 + demographic vs 16 - 40 demographic, you need to cater for your audience and unfortunately, RCA didn't do that. And sadly even if they did, I don't believe that would have made any difference to its survival anyway. But it would have had a lot more foot traffic than what it did.
Originally Posted by
Radio Active
I'm familiar with it. There was lots of interest when it opened. The problem with full time permanent facilities in Sydney is that they have to race very often to try and pay the rent. This burns the racers out and the numbers fall off. When the numbers fall off it's less fun for racers, meaning fewer again turn up. It's a death spiral.
Racing any more than weekly, even if it is two different disciplines is really too much to maintain the numbers that are needed for a healthy racing scene.
I think you summarize it very well here Dan, only thing I would add is that in order to remain attractive, you need to keep innovating and improving the racers experience. But yes very hard to be viable.