official moto arena news

[mark christopher]

im sure if matt can do anything he will

[SlowOne]

I think you might try asking the Administrator about this. If those things were your property, and you have enough proof of that, then they should be returned to you. My view is that they are your property when they were handed over for the warranty repair, so they are not part of MA's assets.

If you can't trace it through Matt, I'd call the Administrator and have a polite conversation. Ask if they are considered your property, and if yes what do you need to do to get them returned? The Administrator will try to sell the business to regain the maximum funds for the creditors, but I believe that if you gave them your property to return under warranty, then they do not belong to MA and the Administrator could not count them as MA's assets for valuation. HTH

[Adam F]

If its Orca stuff its through Answer and they are very good with warranty issues.

Might be worth contacting them directly if you get no joy through the ex shop owners...

A few of the lads at the club are sponsored by them, so it might be worth asking them if you get problems...

[telboy]

Whats sad about this, is that, with the right ideas that place would work. it just needed to be aimed at the right clientèle.

[sosidge]

Originally Posted by telboy

Whats sad about this, is that, with the right ideas that place would work. it just needed to be aimed at the right clientèle.

Although it was undoubtedly badly run, I'm afraid there is no way that a for-profit model on that scale and in that location would work. If they had built the tracks to the right spec in the first place, and done a better job on the PR and promotion, it would simply have gone bust on the same date with slightly smaller debts.

Fortunately we have a number of clubs that are making permanent indoor tracks work. The failure of Moto Arena is not a failure of the hobby.

[mark christopher]

Originally Posted by telboy

Whats sad about this, is that, with the right ideas that place would work. it just needed to be aimed at the right clientèle.

Originally Posted by sosidge

Although it was undoubtedly badly run, I'm afraid there is no way that a for-profit model on that scale and in that location would work. If they had built the tracks to the right spec in the first place, and done a better job on the PR and promotion, it would simply have gone bust on the same date with slightly smaller debts.

Fortunately we have a number of clubs that are making permanent indoor tracks work. The failure of Moto Arena is not a failure of the hobby.

I agree with sosidge tel, the. Location was right the cost of the venue was never going to work. To many big big claims made and poor actions.

[Skye]

Thanks all, some good ideas here which I will certainly try.

How do I find out who the administrators are?

I have sent Matt at MA a couple of messages with no reply so I guess I need to go direct now.

As you say, strictly speaking they are not MAs possession as I had purchased them so they shouldn't count them as assets....

[mark christopher]

Contact Matt on here.......
Does the link not give any contact details

[lotussmart]

Originally Posted by sosidge

Although it was undoubtedly badly run, I'm afraid there is no way that a for-profit model on that scale and in that location would work. If they had built the tracks to the right spec in the first place, and done a better job on the PR and promotion, it would simply have gone bust on the same date with slightly smaller debts.

Fortunately we have a number of clubs that are making permanent indoor tracks work. The failure of Moto Arena is not a failure of the hobby.

I agree, it was just too big and grand and the RC market, the probably couldn't execute part of their business plan or simply lost sight of what they had to do to make it work, unfortunately they then relied on it being propped up by the RC industry and it simply isn't that big.

There are more people in the UK that do Bell Ringing than RC and I don't see the worlds largest Bell Ringers Mega Center being built with the view of attracting non-bell ringers to the fun hobby of bell ringing. Imagine if you had to kit yourself up with a grands worth of bell ringing kit to win competitions too!!!

I think if they had done indoor karting down stairs, RC upstairs and outside under a cover, run it as a club to get a lottery grant and to remove business rates then I think it could have worked, just! Providing there were no employees and it was run by volunteers.

Also it's a lot harder to run one of these than people think. Build it and they will come simply doesn't happen, you have to give them a reason, you have to become an events organiser. Ardent get 18-22 on a normal Sunday club meeting, it simply doesn't work just to build it and run it, you have to promote the ass off it and for no financial return, it's a hobby, that's what it is. That's why it hurts when people criticise it. At least we can no longer be compared to MA. Number of times I heard it being compared to us, better pit tables, better toilets, better shop, "why don't you put in a mezzanine floor? couldn't cost more than 10K". Here's why we have what we have, here's why we have goats in the car park, because a barn is all we can afford and all this hobby can afford. :-)

[DaveG28]

Originally Posted by lotussmart

I agree, it was just too big and grand and the RC market, the probably couldn't execute part of their business plan or simply lost sight of what they had to do to make it work, unfortunately they then relied on it being propped up by the RC industry and it simply isn't that big.

There are more people in the UK that do Bell Ringing than RC and I don't see the worlds largest Bell Ringers Mega Center being built with the view of attracting non-bell ringers to the fun hobby of bell ringing. Imagine if you had to kit yourself up with a grands worth of bell ringing kit to win competitions too!!!

I think if they had done indoor karting down stairs, RC upstairs and outside under a cover, run it as a club to get a lottery grant and to remove business rates then I think it could have worked, just! Providing there were no employees and it was run by volunteers.

I think your totally right, and all the more credit to you for running an indoor permanent track!

I looked at trying to do a dirt track at one point, with property far cheaper than I am sure they are in, and I couldn't even make the numbers get close form a pure business point of view!

It's a shame, but we need to accept it is a fringe hobby, and not be too grand around what is attempted! As Lotussmart said, maybe running a kart track and having the rc side as part of it would work better!

[F1END]

I've been thinking about this, and I reckon the only way it could work in anywhere near the way they wanted, is to have it in a big town or city, with rtr cars that people can just turn up and have a go on.

But I doubt even that would work, as it would need a lot of organising/running.

What surprised me when this venture first started was that they were unaware that there was already an RC club in Silverstone and didn't seem to know much about the RC community and what was wanted. Communication was also terrible at first. If the Silverstone club guys (Paul and Matt, etc.) hadn't got involved, I'm sure it would have closed down earlier.

[mattybucks]

They had RTR touring cars, however the were £20 per run/set of cells, and most of the time they were broken.

I said to someone at the start that I could an ex-employer who have a sports and social club hold and event there. Something like and endurance race and goes on the Simulators, but the never got that end of it sorted.

[RoyalCBR]

Yeah without the Tuesday nights and the other evening activities I think it would have closed earlier as well.

In my opinion what they didn't do is marketing the crap out of it and engage with the local community, schools etc - get the kids down there and I wonder how many Dads would have shown a possible interest?

One thing that I think holds alot of people back (and I guess it is the same of the Bell Ringing community ) is the start-up cost. Karting could have pulled people in, with some kind of regular club plus Scalextric could have pulled a number in too - and lets face it they did have enough staff to over see everything rather than just sitting behind a reception desk!!

[Neil Skull]

Originally Posted by lotussmart

I agree, it was just too big and grand and the RC market, the probably couldn't execute part of their business plan or simply lost sight of what they had to do to make it work, unfortunately they then relied on it being propped up by the RC industry and it simply isn't that big.

There are more people in the UK that do Bell Ringing than RC and I don't see the worlds largest Bell Ringers Mega Center being built with the view of attracting non-bell ringers to the fun hobby of bell ringing. Imagine if you had to kit yourself up with a grands worth of bell ringing kit to win competitions too!!!

I think if they had done indoor karting down stairs, RC upstairs and outside under a cover, run it as a club to get a lottery grant and to remove business rates then I think it could have worked, just! Providing there were no employees and it was run by volunteers.

Also it's a lot harder to run one of these than people think. Build it and they will come simply doesn't happen, you have to give them a reason, you have to become an events organiser. Ardent get 18-22 on a normal Sunday club meeting, it simply doesn't work just to build it and run it, you have to promote the ass off it and for no financial return, it's a hobby, that's what it is. That's why it hurts when people criticise it. At least we can no longer be compared to MA. Number of times I heard it being compared to us, better pit tables, better toilets, better shop, "why don't you put in a mezzanine floor? couldn't cost more than 10K". Here's why we have what we have, here's why we have goats in the car park, because a barn is all we can afford and all this hobby can afford. :-)

Well said

[Mad-Wolfie]

Problem i hear with Moto Arena was they focused more on the corporate market than to the RC market & listened to much to the corporate business advice rather than the RC.. i.e. they tried to make Moto Arena an alternative to things like Paint-balling & expanded on the corporate side of Karting which is popular with corporate business & tried to make Moto Arena a miniture motorsports complex so big businesses can came along with their management / staff & pretend to be Jenson Button on team building exercises & all that cobblers

[sosidge]

Originally Posted by Mad-Wolfie

Problem i hear with Moto Arena was they focused more on the corporate market than to the RC market & listened to much to the corporate business advice rather than the RC.. i.e. they tried to make Moto Arena an alternative to things like Paint-balling & expanded on the corporate side of Karting which is popular with corporate business & tried to make Moto Arena a miniture motorsports complex so big businesses can came along with their management / staff & pretend to be Jenson Button on team building exercises & all that cobblers

I don't think there is anything wrong with trying to bring RC to the attention of the corporate market.

From what I understand, Moto Arena weren't getting corporate clients through the door anyway. Their failure was due to a number of reasons, don't assume that trying to make RC appeal to anyone other than the small group of racers was one of them.

[RoyalCBR]

Just found this regarding the future development of the Silverstone site:

Crash.net

[PaulUpton]

Originally Posted by RoyalCBR

Just found this regarding the future development of the Silverstone site:

Crash.net

Looking at the plan there is no MA building on it