RRC Archives

if it aint open in a year im about ready to do it........

a lot depends on what you are trying to get out of the gym...trying to have a successful business that will support you (maybe a family) and employ a few other folks? Or a co-op style place that you never expect to make any money off of.

In my opinion, Lexington needs more than just another homemade co-op bouldering spot to be successful. All the current home gyms in Lex provide plenty of that.
What I would like to see is a place like Thresh Hold, an awesome gym I visited when I was out in riverside, california a couple months ago....it's 75% bouldering but also offers some toproping, yoga classes, cross fit and a small weight room...plus it had an awesome electronic tracking system for problems and had a mandatory every 2 month new problem policy. The huge 25 foot prow is also really sweet and unique. The whole place tops out.
http://www.climbthreshhold.com/?page_id=33

That gym also brought together a cool diverse group of climbers, something homegyms and co-ops rarely do.

Of course, something like that needs $$ (hard to get right now) and someone who wants to make it a career business.

When I was talking to the owners of Thresh Hold they said college towns were a prerequisite when they consider expansion....they are super cool too and I'd be happy to hook anyone up with them if you wanna pick their brains...

I think something like that would work well here - I would go to another plywood woody of course, for some more variety, but that's not really what I think Lex needs.
-niles

niles has some great ideas. yoga, climbing specific fitness classes, etc. would be a big win i think.

my plan would also include having a person dedicated to getting kids seriously involved in climbing. if karate instructors can get 400+ after school enrollment then a climbing coach located 1 hour from the best climbing in the world should be able to get at least 50.

50 kids have siblings, parents, friends, etc..

(insert math here) and viola!

a community organized around a teaching/training gym.

...

yeah, what they said.

always comes down to money folks....people say they want a gym (commercial or co-op), but now tell them it won't start until they each pony up $5,000 for infrastructure....then let's see the numbers.

and from the partner I have in this venture, a great commercial gym will take at least $250,000 to begin....the partner demanded 35-40 foot height, which is impossible to find in a space of 10,000 sq ft or less. you let me in on this mysterious building, and I guarantee you a gym will be started in 6 months.

that being said, I'd join any decent co-op.

I think the best gym would be one with a huge bouldering wall for the regular climbers, and then a fairly large vert wall for the gumby's.

A good gym is gonna make most it's money off of gumby's, kid's parties, and boyscout type crap. If you don't have that, you miss out on a ton of money.

I'm thinking of something more like Climb Time, not so much like RockQuest. I.e., not a high $ facility. Something like this:
2 sections:
Bouldering--
3 walls, each 40ft wide, 16ft high at three different angles
maybe 15 deg, 30 deg, 45 deg

Top Roping
8 ropes, 25ft high, more or less vertical

I was initially thinking about bouldering only, but points above about catering to the scout and b-day party demographic are true.

I think location is as important as the type of facility. It seems that one of the reasons that both CTOBA & RQ are successful is their location in the suburbs with close access off the interstate. In Lexington I'm not sure what that would translate to. Maybee someplace off New Circle?

like where climb time was?

Better yet, the Fortune Drive area, which seems to have a lot of empty buildings now.