BMX-ing the Metro

Although riders can wear any long-sleeve shirt and pants, many riders feel peer pressure to have an official race "uniform." Bike America says that at their store, jerseys start at $40, pants start at $70, helmets range from $50 to $250, pad sets for the bikes are $15 and up, and quality bikes start at $200 and go into the thousands of dollars.

Gillette says that not all good racers need high-end equipment to get started and that many of the items can also be purchased secondhand to help save money.

Standing the test of time
Blue Springs BMX has been in operation for 14 years. The track is located on parkland. It's operated as a nonprofit organization separate from the park board, which leases the track's land on a year-to-year basis. Smaller than the Raytown track, it's about 1,000 feet in length with at least 17 jumps. "We charge the same fee to riders as Raytown does, which is $8 per rider," says Eric Snyder, track director for Blue Springs BMX.

"It started out as a three-year experiment," explains Roscoe Righter, director of Blue Springs Parks and Recreations Buildings and Grounds. "It is an alternative sport for a lot of kids. We have gotten a lot of good press out there and even had a movie filmed there once."

Righter says there is a residential area at one side of the site and that the area has been used as a recreational sports park since the 1970s. "The people around there are used to the lights and activity," he says. "We have had complaints during some of the national events held there, and it does cause some headaches, but I think it has been well worth it." Snyder says it has been at least two years since a national event has taken place at the Blue Springs track.

Economic impact studies conducted by the city estimate that about $175,000 is generated for the local economy during the three-day weekend national events, which includes fees paid to the local KOA campground because the park board doesn't allow on-site camping, even during national events.

"We went around to the local businesses and asked them about their sales during the weekend period," Righter says. "All of the hotels in the area were sold out during the weekend, and we had businesses estimate their sales by giving them the times that the races ended each night."

The Blue Springs track was built at a time when the local organization was charged with coming up with all of the money and dirt necessary to build the track. Righter doesn't think that the ABA contributed to the construction. The Blue Springs Park Board recently paid for better lighting on 65-foot poles, like the ones in Raytown, with a grant awarded to the city. "The grant allowed for more points (money) if we made improvements to existing parks, so we did several things, like putting a new roof on the concession stand and adding the lights," Righter says.

Snyder is not the original track director; he has been into BMX for only about three years. He stepped into the position when the second set of directors retired two years ago. Snyder says he believes that the worst injury at the track involved a broken back, although he estimates that five or six injuries per year require a trip to the hospital.

Recently, rumors surfaced among local BMX enthusiasts that another track had been planned and approved in Smithville, Mo. "I can confirm that there is a track planned for there," says Gillette, who adds that the plans are in the preliminary stages. He says he thought an ABA representative would visit the site while in Kansas City to oversee changes to the Raytown track. "When a national event is held, we will usually go and make some modifications to the track to help relieve some of the 'home field advantage,' so to speak," he says.

The Louisburg track, if approved by their city council, would be the fifth track in the Kansas City (including the NBL track in Buckner) area and the sixth track, including Heartland BMX in Topeka, in a 50-mile radius.

Considering that competition was cited as one possible reason the track in Lee's Summit didn't make it, how many tracks are too many in one area?

"In southern California, there are about 40 tracks between Los Angeles and San Diego," says Gillette. "We do the scheduling at the national office and stagger the races so everyone can have a chance to race at each event and the tracks aren't competing with each other."

But Kansas and Missouri are not states with high ABA membership, unlike California, Texas, and Arizona.

Gillette confirmed that the proposed track in Louisburg has been assigned races for Monday nights, while Blue Springs holds races on Tuesday nights and Raytown on Thursday nights. He doesn't yet know which night the Smithville track would race.

Given the assumption that racers may travel to the different local tracks and race once or twice a week, the six tracks in and around Kansas City would need at least 100 riders per race night to financially support the track.

Snyder says his track in Blue Springs averages about 125 racers per week (racing one night a week) and the area has about 350 members total for all of the tracks. He adds that his track wouldn't profit without the help of the park board, and he didn't think any tracks in the metropolitan area could make it without the help and support of the municipalities they reside in. "I don't think there are enough racers right now, but if it keeps growing, there will be," he says.

Although some of the tracks are located in large cities, most tracks are in smaller bedroom communities that surround large cities. "If we say that a race is going on in L.A., it most likely is happening in one of the outlying areas. The bigger cities usually don't have the green space, and they are usually bogged down with more red tape than the smaller communities," Gillette says.

Of the controversies surrounding track openings on park land, Gillette says that the national office usually doesn't get involved in local politics unless it is to help the track developer by writing a letter. "We will do anything we can to help and support our sanctioned track operators, so if we have to sit down and write a letter, we will do that. We have been dealing with controversy for years. Our first track right here in Chandler, Ariz., was built years ago in the middle of farmland. Now that the housing additions have started going in around it, the homeowners want the track to go away. The controversy hasn't gone away, but we won't either. We have a lot of community backing; there is a lot of history there."