Opening RC arena

[randomguy1]

So, since i was a kid i always liked RC cars but never had money to buy them, live in balkan and from village. Now I'm around 20 and have some money saved and family that support me. I really love any kind of cars, and I'm thinking like what is my town missing for kids that i never had. Oh yeah rc cars arena. So my question is for all of you do you think its worth any time or are there many people interested in those things today, i saw somwhere that production of these cars is rising. Also I'm not like somone who needs money and want to open it just for that, i want people to have fun, kids to do something i coudnt and obiosuly make tournaments and play with people too. So, as i said I'm just being curious on the possibilties with this kind of things... Any comment is big help .
Kind regards to all of you!!!
edit: i didnt say, in my town there are no rc arenas or carting

 

[Tunedfrog]

Sounds fun but there would be several things you need to be aware of.
It would take alot of money and equipment to maintain it.
Restrooms, concessions would be a good thing as well.
Renting the arena would be expensive and most importantly, the insurance wouldn't be cheap.
Electricity and water I'm sure would be included in renting the facility but that's why it would be expensive.

 

[DavidB1126]

What @Tunedpipe said above

A couple of my buddies opened up a place called RC Underground Arena. We only lasted 9 months before we had to close down because of rent, new owners of the property, and fire code (due to lipos and fire exits) We had 1/10 carpet offroad, 1/10 and micro drift, and we did Mini Z racing. We had huge things planned, but didn't went well as we thought we could make it longer. Also not to mention since the place we were at, it used to be an old Safeway 10 years ago, the place is basically hidden and somewhat underground. Not to mention there are other bigger, larger, and more well known tracks in the area too.

It takes alot.

https://www.rctalk.com/forum/thread...ne-racing-1-10-off-road-carpet-racing.137429/
https://www.rctalk.com/forum/thread...al-hobby-shop-struggle-and-close-down.135952/

 

[randomguy1]

Sounds fun but there would be several things you need to be aware of.
It would take alot of money and equipment to maintain it.
Restrooms, concessions would be a good thing as well.
Renting the arena would be expensive and most importantly, the insurance wouldn't be cheap.

Yeah i though the same, no way i will return money i spend in right?

 

[DavidB1126]

Yeah i though the same, no way i will return money i spend in right?

If you get the people and attraction to the arena / tracks, and make money, you might make some profit.

But for just RC Tracks, its a non profit, and what I told above, we couldn't get the people in. Ideally you need a hobby shop along with a track/s to do well, and get people too. (The owners of the place I talked about above, they really didn't enforce people paying for their race fees or practice fees so there's a huge loss of money there, cause the locals didn't want to pay. But I paid mostly every time I went. Just to help out, also since I'm a teen and don't have a lot of money, and since I went there daily, the owner lowered the fee for me so thats also nice of him too.)

Also, if you try to put out ads, that can could possibility help out, but ads are expensive, right?

The track / Hobby shop I started out RC with, they opened up in 2016 and had to close back in late 2022. 7ish years. Had to close up due to the rent being super high.

If you strictly want to focus on RC Racing, most of the places I been too are RC Racing (mostly offroad) , thats a whole different level, as you have to pay for the surface, prep surface, timing system, transponders, everything, drivers stand. Indoor vs outdoor.

Now, the track I go to now, which is an extra 30 minute drive from home since 2 of the previous local ones closed up,
That is a indoor offroad dirt track with a fully stocked shop seen here: https://www.rctalk.com/forum/thread...rsburg-full-hobby-shop-and-clay-track.136946/

The only reason that she is still open is that she has lots of people coming in, fully stocked hobby shop, it is highly known and popular, and she has been in business for 31 years now.

 

[Tunedfrog]

You would be better off getting involved with a local club and volunteer.

 

[DavidB1126]

Just googled that place and your overseas in Europe, thats cool!

Look up HUDY Arena and XRAY R/C, those might give you some ideas.

 

[violet604]

Just thought I’d throw in my 2 cents

This doesn’t seem to be a particularly high margin business, so you might want to approach it differently without risking your hard earned money.

You should convince the city/politicians that this would be a positive for the kids in the community, and if you can apply for some grants or funds to build this on a public park or city property, then slowly maybe some local businesses might sponsor the project too.

There’s a track close to me that was built like this. A group of people approached the city council (local politicians) and convinced them to build the track. I think they made an agreement where the group that initiated it could run a RC club at the track for races every few weeks, but when the races aren’t scheduled, the track is open to the public to bring whatever rigs they want. Might not be the most ideal situation as I’ve seen people bring 1/5th scale trucks and case the jumps, but it is what it is.

It’s definitely doable, but don’t invest your own personal money into this project.

 

[WickedFog]

The local hobby shop here closed, and along with it, the track. So a bunch of guys here started their own track. It takes s group of people, unless you're absolutely loaded.