Comments on: Velodrome backer sees perfect opportunity in Memorial Coliseum

By: Garcia

Garcia — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:07:51 +0000

Long live the Alpenrose Velodrome!

BTY, Mike Murray says…

“After the Cross Crusade visit the Alpenrose Velodrome it will be time to
get the track ready for the winter. The sponsor signs need to come down and
get put away for the winter. Electronics and other weather sensitive stuff
needs to be put away where it will stay dry.

This will be a quick job if I can get a few people to help us. I am
planning on going to the Velodrome at 4:00 PM on Monday 10/5. It will
probably take 2 – 3 hours depending on how many people show up to help.
Hope to see you there.”

By: Curm

Curm — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:06:59 +0000

Is there enough market to support it? Is there so little it will collapse under the weight of its costs? We can argue until the cows come home, but there truth is … no one knows. We should all understand that. No one knows. A more productive discussion would center on how we move forward: put numbers to the market … revenue from participants and ticket sales, merchandise, event food+drink, level of subsidy (other in the form of sponsorships or public support), less costs for startup/operations/capital maintenance and improvement. Don’t guess based on our individual biases (pro and con). Quantify it. Then decide.

By: Phr3dly

Phr3dly — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:23:52 +0000

I like the idea of an indoor track. But just as I don’t particularly appreciate my taxes paying for others’ pet projects that I’ll never use, I suspect most would not appreciate their tax dollars paying for something that a vanishingly small number of cyclists will ever use.

If the cycling community were to get behind this and pay for it without, I think that would be awesome. Otherwise it strikes me as pork.

By: toddistic

toddistic — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:03:11 +0000

I bet most of the nay sayers have never even ridden on a velodrome or watched a race outside of youtube. There are lots of sport specific venues that are built by cities for a subset of the population, golf courses, baseball fields, running tracks, hell even boat launch ramps for fishermen, the list goes on. An indoor velodrome sounds so very Portland!

With the increase in track racing the past couple of years – I don’t think this is asking too much. This would also continue to stimulate the local bike ecnomy with more people building track bikes for racing.

Ask the volunteers at Alpenrose such as Steve Garcia about attendance at the Wednesday night beginner track lessons in the past couple of years, there has been a noticable and significant increase in ridership. High schools could develop their own teams and race against each other and develop future professional racers.

By: Dabby

Dabby — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:20:10 +0000

Polo neither has, nor needs a spokesperson, though others (not me) are trying hard to fill the position.

My point early in these coments is that bike polo does not need to be involved in any venture, even such as this, that is not wholly controlled by those who play the game.

I am sure Phil, that you realize the changes, such as paying to play, paying for the league, insurance, too many players, pads, helmets, restrictions, and un-needed regulations that would detract entirely from the style and type of experience we have in the park now.
(and those are only some of the problems)

We would just end up pissed off and playing back where we should be..

By: revphil

revphil — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:12:43 +0000

i remember going to the MC as a kid. even then all i ever wanted to do was to ride a loop around the concourse.

im all for increased functionality. If possible make it so that we can have a variety of events. Roller Derby is kicks serous ass.

dabby, the last thing polo needs is for you to be its spokesperson.

By: Steve Brown

Steve Brown — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:24:10 +0000

The track in the rendering has been raised to put the rail at street level. All renderings were done to print, meaning a 200M track fits as depicted. The city has already supplied us with the drawings of the building. With a reasonable amount of portable seating a track with these dimensions can host a crowd of 3000. The track actually rests on the second level of seating, not the floor. Using the floor only allows for a 167M track. Plans for the lower level are open. What is shown is a depiction of generic use of the open space.

By: wsbob

wsbob — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:32:49 +0000

Steve Brown #43 says the velodrome depicted in the Jeff Mitchem/Ankrom Moisan Architects illustration above will allow a 3000 seating capacity. Correct? The MC arena in its current configuration has somewhere around a 12,000 seating capacity. With the addition of an upper level velodrome, the lower level seating capacity, using simple math, would be reduced to 9000.

Very little details are offered about what such a lower might be like or what activities might be proposed for it, so that seating capacity is assuming a lot.

With a lower ceiling on the lower level, and the windows blocked out, there goes the signature, airy, natural lit interior for events on the lower level.

If the illustration above is reasonably accurate, and what people have mentioned about 200m and 250m velodrome tracks is true, the track seems to be too big for the MC, unfortunately. I hope though, that these guys continue rounding out other details of their proposal, to complete the picture. That will help to build interest in a centrally located velodrome.

By: amanda

amanda — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:03:33 +0000

+1 to Roller Derby in the Velodrome — does that work?

By: Blah Blah Blah

Blah Blah Blah — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 01:08:27 +0000

I have an awesome idea…Portland could tax the income of the cyclists attending races to pay for this.