overcharging for races Options

[Jason F.]

What Football/baseball field is costing the groups using them 5-20million? What sports groups people are taking care of them? Cities and Counties workers are paid by our taxes.

And I don't know about road racing, but cross-country mountain bike races were a simple offer for a few people to clean/mark the trails and a call to a parks department and those races were more than I pay to race BMX.

Any built withing the last 10 years, even if its a basic park and rec set up, 2-5 million EASY, remember if its built on public property EVERYONE involved gets union market wages, in most states anyway.

[DaveT]

I don't even see how it is possible to compare a BMX track to a baseball or football field on public land. For one, those fields are paid for by the taxes of thousands of residents. Our facility is on county land (we are the only paying tenant in the entire county btw). Our county has a measly 200,000 people or so. If we could get $0.35 per county resident we could host races for free, trophies included...nearly all year long. We could also maintain the track, and completely rebuild it every two years.

That will most likely never happen for this sport. Continually trying to compare it to stick and ball sports doesn't work and never will. BMX racing is a unique niche sport. Stop trying to fit it in with other more common activities.

I think people would be surprised at what some of the expenses are to some of the top tracks in the nation and how many weekly riders they really need to break even year after year.

[bmxundergrounddo...]

I don't even see how it is possible to compare a BMX track to a baseball or football field on public land. For one, those fields are paid for by the taxes of thousands of residents. Our facility is on county land (we are the only paying tenant in the entire county btw). Our county has a measly 200,000 people or so. If we could get $0.35 per county resident we could host races for free, trophies included...nearly all year long. We could also maintain the track, and completely rebuild it every two years.

That will most likely never happen for this sport. Continually trying to compare it to stick and ball sports doesn't work and never will. BMX racing is a unique niche sport. Stop trying to fit it in with other more common activities.

I think people would be surprised at what some of the expenses are to some of the top tracks in the nation and how many weekly riders they really need to break even year after year.

The funny part is that everyone throws a fit at 8-15 to race, while the track barely gets by, while it's all predicated on:

FREE LABOR.

Given the participation rate for BMX, if you were to pay the volunteers minimum wage most tracks wouldn't make it.

[DaveT]

The funny part is that everyone throws a fit at 8-15 to race, while the track barely gets by, while it's all predicated on:

FREE LABOR.

Given the participation rate for BMX, if you were to pay the volunteers minimum wage most tracks wouldn't make it.

Yeah, I am already used to everyone throwing fits. That is just what people in this sport do.

In the fall, AFTER our flood, when we were still running split entry fees ($7/ribbon | $10/trophy or stamps) the majority (75%) of people would pay the minimum $7 and then...proceed to complain that we weren't running the races fast enough so they could get to a track that raced after us. If we took more than a 5 minute intermission, it was as if we were ruining their lives. W T F

We bent over backwards for people for what...$7? I, and the staff here, have never felt more unappreciated in our lives.

I think people need to reevaluate what their local tracks are actually worth to them.

[mxmug]

We bent over backwards for people for what...$7? I, and the staff here, have never felt more unappreciated in our lives.

I really understand what your saying. I have seen it for years. T.o's and their volunteer's are completely under appriciated. So much so that if I were a T.o. and some one offered to participate in the local program, The first thing I would ask is; can you "give expecting nothing in return"?

[Jason F.]

We bent over backwards for people for what...$7? I, and the staff here, have never felt more unappreciated in our lives.

I really understand what your saying. I have seen it for years. T.o's and their volunteer's are completely under appriciated. So much so that if I were a T.o. and some one offered to participate in the local program, The first thing I would ask is; can you "give expecting nothing in return"?

I volunteer a bit, not as much as I should/could as I have been pretty sick off and on for a year, but I do show up early and am usually one of the last to leave and honestly most of the "whinners" dont have a freaking clue as to what goes on. Nothing will change them other than actually handing them a shovel or a rake, but thats a fine line as they could get shamed and leave and never come back....its tough.

[PDePauw]

We raised our practice fee from $2 to $3 about 3 years ago. Our practice is 3 hours every Tuesday and Thursday for the whole summer. So we have had a $1 increase in practice in 19 years of existence at East Moline BMX. People still complain. I had one guy say i was lining my pockets. That was funny. Little did he know that heading into my 19th year as TO my skin is inches thick like tough old shoe leather. I am going to go out on a limb here, but my take is BMX is always taken for granted and that some users of BMX are extremely cheap and ungrateful. The 16OZ that cost almost 3 dollars is a better deal than the local BMX track. It boils down to people. Some get it and some don't. This you can count on. Some people are incredible buttheads. I am OK with that. Thanks for coming and racing at our track.

I think this season will be our best ever of all time. I am very confident of that. I will keep showing up sometimes despite and sometimes in spite and usually because i have a great time doing it. We open practice tomorrow and we race Sunday. See you there.

[RCain]

We raised our practice fee from $2 to $3 about 3 years ago. Our practice is 3 hours every Tuesday and Thursday for the whole summer. So we have had a $1 increase in practice in 19 years of existence at East Moline BMX. People still complain. I had one guy say i was lining my pockets. That was funny. Little did he know that heading into my 19th year as TO my skin is inches thick like tough old shoe leather. I am going to go out on a limb here, but my take is BMX is always taken for granted and that some users of BMX are extremely cheap and ungrateful. The 16OZ that cost almost 3 dollars is a better deal than the local BMX track. It boils down to people. Some get it and some don't. This you can count on. Some people are incredible buttheads. I am OK with that. Thanks for coming and racing at our track.

I think this season will be our best ever of all time. I am very confident of that. I will keep showing up sometimes despite and sometimes in spite and usually because i have a great time doing it. We open practice tomorrow and we race Sunday. See you there.

That post is chock full of awesome!

Some folks complain. Thats what they do. They're good at it and they practice often. I have developed over the years a rather complete counter offensive/defensive strategy.

I'm just as mad about it as they are. (Probably madder.)

I'll even often say, "I'm just as mad about that as you are!".
"Hell, I think tracks that over charge are killing the sport. but we had to do it." (insert bogus, yet believable reason here, something like... "Man the funnel cake guy has got us by the nads, he's taking away all of the hot dog revenue, and we're only getting a small scratch of his nugget. Crap, we gotta pay the Honey bucket guy this week. Man Im mad, don't even get me started.")
Then walk away.

It works great. First off, they respect that you are a smart person (You agreed with them, and they are the smartest people they know,which makes you smart by association.)
Their argument is gone. (Unless he decides the two of you need to go lookin' for whoever this funnel cake character is and we'll both give him a piece of our minds. That scenario may require advanced tactics that we just don't have time for here.)
They think you might be a little crazy with possible anger management issues.(A well practiced eye twitch can help pull off the effect.)
They typically go elswhere to get their whine on, which is the primary goal of a seasoned T.O. when dealing with these folks.
Good to see you!... See you again next week! With nothing in between. Utopia.

[Jason F.]

That post is chock full of awesome!

Some folks complain. Thats what they do. They're good at it and they practice often. I have developed over the years a rather complete counter offensive/defensive strategy.

I'm just as mad about it as they are. (Probably madder.)

I'll even often say, "I'm just as mad about that as you are!".
"Hell, I think tracks that over charge are killing the sport. but we had to do it." (insert bogus, yet believable reason here, something like... "Man the funnel cake guy has got us by the nads, he's taking away all of the hot dog revenue, and we're only getting a small scratch of his nugget. Crap, we gotta pay the Honey bucket guy this week. Man Im mad, don't even get me started.")
Then walk away.

It works great. First off, they respect that you are a smart person (You agreed with them, and they are the smartest people they know,which makes you smart by association.)
Their argument is gone. (Unless he decides the two of you need to go lookin' for whoever this funnel cake character is and we'll both give him a piece of our minds. That scenario may require advanced tactics that we just don't have time for here.)
They think you might be a little crazy with possible anger management issues.(A well practiced eye twitch can help pull off the effect.)
They typically go elswhere to get their whine on, which is the primary goal of a seasoned T.O. when dealing with these folks.
Good to see you!... See you again next week! With nothing in between. Utopia.

You had to steal that from a Bill Murray movie.... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[The Riddler Al-F]

You had to steal that from a Bill Murray movie.... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Perhaps a Bill Murray movie is a snap shot of Randy's life? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Think back to "Ass hat in clown shoes"...No apologies (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)