Courtesy of Boulder indoor cycling association. (boulderindoorcycling.com)As my hobby of biking becomes more of an obsession, I enjoy continually thinking of ideas on how to fund my habit and help others understand how sweet things are when you are straddling a bike. My newest dream involves a velodrome and indoor mountain biking park.
Austin needs a velodrome. Austin is arguably one of the best cycling communities in the country (most certainly in Texas) but doesn't have the infrastructure to incorporate one of the integral parts of cyclism: track cycling. There are plenty of people that have been pining for a velodrome in Austin, and I am sure that there would be plenty of ridership to make the place profitable.
The problem with velodromes is that they are too specific. You can only ride track bikes on them. This means that it would be hard to have such a niche business. How do you make money if there aren't enough people to come and ride your track? Enter mountain biking. All you would have to do is build cool tracks and rock gardens around the velodrome track in empty space. So you have space optimization and more clients. Complete it with a retail space (coffee shop?) and a pro bike shop and I think you could have a pretty successful business. There is a business like this in Boulder, here's the link: Boulder Indoor Cycling. Ray's mountain bike park is another cool place that is mountain bike and bmx biking.
I don't know if this could ever come to fruition, but I think I will ask around and see if there is any interest. Any suggestions would be really appreciated.
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