My Family is thinking of opening a 4wheeling park...suggestions?

[Palmettobay_recon]

We are looking for land to get this thing going.  It is going to be around the Immokalee area most likely. It'll be a motoplex kind of a thing but further South for those of us who can't travel to Madison. So what kind of things would you like to see there? We are open to all kinds of suggestions.

[crom A zone]

would like to not see another park open. we already have 3 parks in south area fighting for people to come when they open on same dates and now u wanna make a 4th?


i rember when l cross and c and r where only ones open and you no what they both were slammed busy everytime they opend

now we have redneck yacht club. triple canopany ranches. and l cross and it makes nothing but hard decsion on where to ride.

so i say instead of opening  a atv park or what ever u should just go to park thats already open

[greenmachine]

We are looking for land to get this thing going.  It is going to be around the Immokalee area most likely. It'll be a motoplex kind of a thing but further South for those of us who can't travel to Madison. So what kind of things would you like to see there? We are open to all kinds of suggestions.

if you can afford to do it then I say go for it.  Just keep it family friendly is my opinion.

[LakeMaryKid]

would like to not see another park open. we already have 3 parks in south area fighting for people to come when they open on same dates and now u wanna make a 4th?


i rember when l cross and c and r where only ones open and you no what they both were slammed busy everytime they opend

now we have redneck yacht club. triple canopany ranches. and l cross and it makes nothing but hard decsion on where to ride.

so i say instead of opening  a atv park or what ever u should just go to park thats already open

The 3 places you named off have nothing in common with the Motoplex. They are pay to attend mudholes and that's it.

I think the OP is thinking of something with multiple motocross tracks, harescramble loops, rock garden, mudhole, flat track etc.

-Curtis-

[Chillinthemost]

I thnk that the hard core mud riders have plenty of places to go but if you open a park with tracks and hare scramble type courses, maybe hold sand drag races there is a lack of that kind of riding in south florida. Of course you need some mud too for those that like both.
 If you have not been to the Motoplex you should take the time to go. It is a great example of what a riding park should be.  The only thing that it lacks is hills but this is Florida so that is hard to come by.

[OPowersports]

We are looking for land to get this thing going.  It is going to be around the Immokalee area most likely. It'll be a motoplex kind of a thing but further South for those of us who can't travel to Madison. So what kind of things would you like to see there? We are open to all kinds of suggestions.

If I was you I would contact Paul (owner of the Motoplex) and let him tell you some of the things you have to go through and deal with to run an ATV park.

[Palmettobay_recon]

Crom a zone- As much as I love mud, I like to do other kinds of riding as well. Trust me, I love the mudfest type of atmosphere but I believe there should be more diversity in a park.  L Cross does bring some of that to the table, but not as much as I would like to develop.  The motoplex is what I would like to model this after.

I will try and get ahold of Paul to get some advice and ideas. Thank you everyone! I will keep you all updated.

[asmart82]

I wish someone would do that in eastern Central Florida.  That would nice

[crom A zone]

u asked for feedback and i just given some if u decide to do it good luck 

[gearhead400]

If you could get a hold of some property with a good amount of elevation changes and such and make your main "attraction" a national's style MX track, that would be awesome IMO. As far as I know, Hardrock is one of the only tracks in florida with nice elevation changes...for florida lol. I could be wrong though.  Harescramble trails would be awesome too. Especially if you throw some really difficult obstacles in there for more experienced riders! Good luck!

[trx#9]

If you could get a hold of some property with a good amount of elevation changes and such and make your main "attraction" a national's style MX track, that would be awesome IMO. As far as I know, Hardrock is one of the only tracks in florida with nice elevation changes...for florida lol. I could be wrong though.  Harescramble trails would be awesome too. Especially if you throw some really difficult obstacles in there for more experienced riders! Good luck!

There's not much for elevation changes in south florida though.

[Palmettobay_recon]

u asked for feedback and i just given some if u decide to do it good luck 

Thank you for your input.

[Palmettobay_recon]

I wish someone would do that in eastern Central Florida.  That would nice

We are still looking for land, so this is not out of the question! I will also look in this area.

[trx#9]

I wish someone would do that in eastern Central Florida.  That would nice

We are still looking for land, so this is not out of the question! I will also look in this area.

Between tampa and orlando would be ideal. 

[Paul_S]

Hi Tori

I will happily pass on some of the things I have experienced since opening the Motoplex.

I think the best thing you can do, if you want your family to still like you, is to open up something else, like a Burger King or something. My wife still isn't talking to me lol. I won't harp on about the reasons, I wouldn't do it, as I don't want to come off like I am trying to stop you for selfish reasons (like additional competition), I will just say that if I had the offer of an azz whooping or an atv park 3 years ago, I wish I would have taken the azz whooping.  

That said there are some good things about it, you get to meet some nice people and have a great place for you and your friends to ride.

First off, how much land you looking at buying? That is quite important, if you don't buy enough you will suffer 2 problems, first off the locals will get bored with your place pretty quickly, second you have a problem drawing people from a greater distance if you don't have the acreage.

Oddest thing in the world to me is the amount of people who drive past my park to go to places like Durhamtown (for the sport guys) and say Creekbottom for the 4x4 guys. Both are great places and much bigger than mine, but we would love to expand. I am not going to expand unless we get more customers and without expanding we can't get more customers.

I really wish people would support us a bit more, the thought of sinking another few million gambling that a larger place is going to stop Florida based ATV riders from going out of state to ride is too risky. With just a few more customers......I would expand in a minute. Unfortunately, we are not going to expand until a few more people make the effort to support us. Durhamtown is a good 6 hours (12 hour round trip) north of us, but we still get members of this, and other sites driving right on past us to go there. If we got a little more support, everyone benefits, we get more business, and the riders get a larger aka Durhamtown sized atv park in the state they live in.

Moral of the rant....make sure your place is big enough from the start.

The next thing is location, once you have targeted your audience you need to figure out the best location. I am hundreds of miles from Croom and I still lose a lot of riders to it. I think it's 5,000 acres for like $60 a year or something. So if your targeting sport riders and you are going to build in the center of the state, make sure you have more than 5,000 acres and are cheaper than $60 per year.

If you are going for the mud guys give it a lot of thought. They seem to be broken down into 3 main categories (sorry for stereotyping anyone..no offense meant), first and biggest category IMO is the mud park guys (of which I have enjoyed being one on occasions), who enjoy drinking beer, looking at hooters & generally sitting on the side of a mud hole watching people in trucks and other atvs getting stuck. This is a massive market, one I don't have the facilities or desire to tap into.

There are also a number of mud racers, but truthfully, the days of putting up a few posters advertising a local mud bog and having thousands turn up, are over. There are a few organized race series, but truthfully the racers are so few and the payouts so large it is VERY hard to show a profit. The races work best if you have a large customer base coming to your events anyway and you just view the races as a distraction/show for your customers.

The third group are the people that just like riding in swampy conditions. Seems to be a much smaller group, but that is the group we really try to appeal to. We have had wars with wetland issues, fortunately we have hammered out a workable arrangement with our water management guys, but be warned, the further south you go, the worse they get. If you keep your water features on dry land and flood them yourself, this negates the wetland problems, but you need a lot of customers to justify turning on the pumps, this goes back to the category's above, you have to decide who you are trying to appeal to.

There are also groups of family riders, that don't like mx & don't like mud. They just like driving their atv's around. Truthfully it is going to be hard to snag them, it's pretty hard to compete (with these customers) with the national forests. They have hundreds of miles of trails. Bores the cr@p out of me, but some people love it. I tend to not try to hard to attract these riders, I am looking for the guys who don't like the ridiculous attempts the forestry guys are making to take all the fun out of riding atv's. Our place is small...but fun packed. If you are not going to buy a lot of land, try to think what makes the park fun.

Why do you want to combine riding styles, truthfully I wish I hadn't. People are very hard to please and if you are trying to please 2 separate groups, it is twice as hard. I wish I had chosen one or the other. I ride sports and 4x4's though, so it was natural for me, but like I said, my advice would be to pick one.

MX is another category, most mx riders ride dirt bikes. Dirt bikes hate quads. So if you have quads, you are going to alienate most of your potential customers (dirt bike riders). That doesn't mean you are not going to get mx riders, it just is something to think about.

Me personally, if I was going to open another park and I lived down south, I would open up a nice mx/trail facility..as far from Croom as possible. You might do well. Don't get swayed into opening up too far from your house, people asked why I built the motoplex so far north...simple answer, it's close to my house. I looked at land further away and I am glad after seeing how many trips I make between my house and the plex that I chose it.

The other main thing to look out for is making sure you can exist without camping or you get a place that is by city water and sewer. I am in the middle of a major battle with the Fl Health Dept about the need to have an RV Park License. It is going to cost about a 1/4 of a million to comply and that's with my little park (having just 50 RV style campsites)...I can't fathom how much it would cost for some of the bigger place like RNYC and Triple Canopy to comply, probably many millions. The states argument is that "free primitive camping" is in fact not free at all, but wrapped up in the gate fee. If they prevail, it's going to have some serious ramifications for the larger parks. I have none other than our favorite attorney/moderator slapping around the state guys, but who knows how it's going to end.

Anyway, you can always call me at (727) PlexMx2 if you have any specific questions...I would be delighted to help

[zman03]

paul, fyi croom is 2600 acres and thats some good advice you gave!  Environmental issues seem to be the biggest factor south of lake okeechobee where the everglades restoration project is going on. 

[Paul_S]

paul, fyi croom is 2600 acres and thats some good advice you gave!  Environmental issues seem to be the biggest factor south of lake okeechobee where the everglades restoration project is going on. 

Thanks Jose   

[zman03]

I hope to get that video we talked about!

[bseckel]

Paul, I agree it sounds like great advice you gave. for the part about people going to Durhamtown instead of the plex here is my opinion. I belive its just a the dirt and change of pace for the sport guys. I have been up to the plex alot but a couple of times a year I have to do a Durhamtown trip. Its what keps it interesting and the diffrent terrain is nice also.

[Paul_S]

Paul, I agree it sounds like great advice you gave. for the part about people going to Durhamtown instead of the plex here is my opinion. I belive its just a the dirt and change of pace for the sport guys. I have been up to the plex alot but a couple of times a year I have to do a Durhamtown trip. Its what keps it interesting and the diffrent terrain is nice also.

I understand Brian, and you are definitely a guy who rides a lot..all over the place. You sir are a good supporter of the motoplex.

I wasn't directing anything at guys like you, who like to ride all over the place. I reread my post and perhaps I could have worded it better.

I just wish a few more people who won't come because we are too small or whatever, made the trip, supported the place like you do...everyone who knows me, will know that we put EVERY dollar plus more that we take back into the Plex and make it bigger, better, cabins, hook-ups  etc and eventually we will all end up with better riding facilities in this state.

Sorry Recon didn't mean to hijack your thread.

[Dixie Normous]

Not that I know anything about atv parks, but I'd like to add something to some of the guys "rants"....I for one love to ride at the motoplex...I think Paul is a great guy and offers one heel-ova park for the riding experience. Now, with that being said, I also like what the other parks have to offer as far as being different. Each park has something different to offer the different types of riders not to mention the ability to meet other riders at the different parks too. I like the change of scenery from park to park....its makes riding more enjoyable and ya don't get bored of doing the same thing week in and week out.
Sooooo....if ya wanna open an atv park, GOOD LUCK!
Paul...keep up the good work at Motoplex sir...my son continues to bug the living pisss out of me every weekend about going riding..I am glad your park is one of my options for riding!!!!
Keith

[DALEQUAD]

to me, the biggest thing is location of riding area and size, i am a sport quad guy, i rarely get on an mx track but love trails and hare scrambles. Paul make some great points, but even those other riding areas he talks about (croom and durhamtown) the same people dont go every weekend to the same riding areas. people that go to croom (me included) also go to other areas, but i think the more centrally located you are to the better chance you have of drawing more people. for example. i live in lakeland, croom is a 2 hr round trip for me. i can shoot up there in the morning get a few hrs of riding in and be home before i get heat stroke. the more land you have the less chance you have of people getting bored with the riding area. also if you have enough property to hold a FTR santioned hare scramble, that is a great oppurtunity to make some extra cash, plus if you have a big mx track you can set yourself up within some race series within the state, but then there is the extra cost of equipment needed to maintain a mx track. IMO a off-road park is a high risk financial endevour, the thing about it is that once the land is purchased and even if the park fails you can alway resell the land to recoup some of your loses,

[sugarsand007]

I think you should try and model a park like Durahamtown. If you build it they will come. You have to have cabins or rv camping i think to be successful. Durahamtown has something for everyone that is why so many people will pass the motoplex and drive that far. You have to appeal to everyone. If it was cheap you would see parks everywhere. It will take alot of acreage to get people to travel far distances. But the ameneties will keep them coming back. Even Croom has power in there campsites. I think the only thing that would be a added plus would be a nice swimming hole or pool for the whole family.  Havent been to the motplex yet. Seems to be for the mudder type.

[bseckel]

The Motoplex is so much more than a mud park. It also has great trails and 4 MX tracks. there is something for every rider. Also I will be up there for the weekend coming this fri after work. cant wait.!!!

[DALEQUAD]

The Motoplex is so much more than a mud park. It also has great trails and 4 MX tracks. there is something for every rider. Also I will be up there for the weekend coming this fri after work. cant wait.!!!

what time you headed up