IMHO as a club organiser... it's seriously not a sound investment unless it's shared with another non related profitable type of business and done as a hobby by a serious enthusiast with lots of time on their hands and not scared of some hard graft.
The following is not bitter or twisted, but trying to give you food for thought.
We've looked into doing this as we have a good sized plot of land, and more available with more £££, that would take the investment and is ripe for development in the same way, pretty much in the middle of country on the side of the A1 away from any Residential areas and next to a very rapidly growing popular MX facility owned by Chris 'Stalker' Walker (BSB superstar!)
tbh i don't know where to start with the harsh truths and there are sadly too many to mention...
There is no money in running a venue for this hobby, by no money i mean you will not realistically make a minimum wage living from it considering the hours you would have to work/pay someone to work so that it would be open daily and hopefully full of customers.
A good lesson is the train wreck that happened with Moto Arena... everything under one roof/venue/site... thousands an thousands spent, lasted a matter of months and was in recievership with scary debts within that time... based at Silverstone Circuit... the flagship venue for UK Motorsport!
The size of area needed is mammoth as mentioned and the initial outlay will be huge, as soon as you put a building on it you will be looking at paying horrendous business/council rates of some kind (plusplannig costs etc etc to get to that stage), add to that the need for power and everything that comes with it/needs connecting to it, running water, toilets, food provision, health and safety red tape you wouldn't believe, staff (unless you have lots of hands and can survive existing in the same building/venue permanently)
I you opened 7 days a week and pulled in say a very optimistic 60 drivers a day at £10 a head... you will not cover it, even if its the perfect venue.
Racers like to travel around different venues doing different championships and classes, so wouldn't be a regular source of income, you would have regulars but the novelty would fade as trends change with this hobby... you would probably be very popular for a few months whilst people come to try what you have built and if its good they will come and race there fairly regular, but its a hard thing to predict cos it hasn't happened and worked so far in UK.
getting sponsorship of related companies is something that you will struggle with too, as i've said there is not massive money in the hobby, we are a minority sport really and specialist but very broad with all the different classes... plus anyone that was involved with Moto Arena will have had their fingers burnt... don't get me wrong, the majority of the big distributors are very generous and keen to sponsor events and championships, will even donate very nice kit as prizes etc, but a couple of hundred quids worth of goodies is a small hit compared to the thousands you would need from them, plus they would rightfully want exclusivity for larger sums of investment, which would mean you get a lot less to work with.
I'm sure all of the organisers at big clubs, John at Ardent, James at RHR and some of the distributors would back this post up, knowing how much work it takes and how costs spiral by just building the venue and tracks, let alone maintaining them/improving them to keep interest!
I'm not even going into the work required, just running a medium size venue with 2 tracks for electric and nitro offroad classes is a full time unpaid job, trust me... i do it for the love of the hobby but it does wear thin sometimes!
If corporate angle is being considered (team building, hire cars etc etc) then this hobby is also very hard to crossover, its not as accessible as karting or paintballing, it's tricky and takes lots of time and practice to be any good at it which means it doesn't have the grab factor once people try it... people love watching the little cars fly around a track... but trying to do the same with no experience only ends up with smashed cars and embarressed customers, beaten by a toy!
The big question to ask yourself.... if its a 100% good idea, why has it not been done already?
it would be awesome and inspirational to see it done and be a success, will be a great step for the hobby in this country, i'm just being honest and straight with you matey.. we have the same dream... just we've already sat in the bank managers office and had the reality check!
A bank/investor will possibly be keen to throw you money if you owned the land... reason being they are thinking of £££'s of development potential from your prime land if/when it goes belly up.
If you sit and work out what just the timing equipment, track markings and pitting facilities would cost you will get a scare, plus all the big kit or landscaping an outdoor track... you mentioned dirt... well there is another full time job keeping that in a useable condition... RHR have (rumoured) just spent an lot of money building RHR Dirt, which uses specially formulated clay to make the track worth racing on and attract the racers in.
anyways, best of luck whatever you choose to do, sorry for the essay, unfortunately there is loads more on top of the above, but you get the picture! you are more than welcome to chat to me about what has been said... it's all straight up and would sooner save you hassle and expense than hear of another Moto Arena, which did cast a black cloud over the hobby for a while!
Mark
