RRC Archives

the lurkist wrote:Could someone please build a gym? ....

I'll build it, just need some sponsers.

Man, I love my wall. Anyone who wants is more than welcome to come boulder on it, but I give my props to Pigsteak, Ben Cassell and Ben Barnes for helping me build it. Without these guys, it would still be in construction.

....Oh yeah, I would also like to thank my WONDERFUL wife for her understanding and acceptance of my insanity.

Mj

I think the co-op problem is more related to finding a building where the lease isn't horribly expensive than anything else. It would probably work if you could find a place to have a gym and had co-op members committed to keeping it going. It probably won't work with students since they aren't in Lexington for jobs and families.

mcrib wrote:It doesn't seem like too many people are going to be willing to take on the brunt of the fincial burden in exchange for setting problems the way you and Ray have.

since i've never been down there, care to elaborate on the "setting problems the way you and Ray have" part?

Artsay's got a great point. in a co-op the people involved can't just want to climb, but willingly step up and contribute. a lot of people are looking for a gym to climb at and feel that the co-op would work well for them. however, it's the membership that takes on all the tasks...so you need people who will take action.

who designs? who builds? who cleans/vaccums? who sets routes? who does teardown? who buys holds? who changes lightbulbs? who cleans the bathroom?

the members, that's who.

agrigabe wrote:The co-op group came darn close to building a gym before disintergrating under the challenge of getting consensus from a 30 person group. But given all the reasons chriss mentions and more, I'm still convinced that the co-op model is the best business model for Lexington.

Lurkist, Pigsteak, Bram...we all keep talking about it. Forget organizing 30 people! Four or five people ought to just build it.

So, who else is ready to throw in $150 to join plus $40/month once we get this bigbird built?

yeah, forget the 30 or so consensus. break it down into managable parts. assign a smaller (3-6?) "team" of people with experience and vision that will both go out to find the space and design the wall. what they decide, they decide on behalf of the group. then have a buildout team (which can include the aforementioned team) of, hopefully skilled and experienced, people willing to put the sweat in to make it happen.

being a co-op, there shouldn't be anyone who doesn't take part in some fashion to help git'er done. panels need to be drilled. t-nuts hammered in. simple stuff for non-skilled laborers. putting up beams and building trusses can be left to the more experienced.

and the wall doesn't need to be all fancy, look at photos of ray & michelle's wall. simple does the trick.

I keep hoping that all this talk of a gym will spark some interest in a commercial venture around here, but maybe the fact that two gyms have gone under scares those less informed away from the idea.

As for the co-op idea, it still sounds good on paper (or an internet message board) but when the rubber meets the road it is tough to try and coordinate between 30 or so members. I'm with Busty on the location hump. After sitting through several co op meetings I was convinced that the people involved could make it work, but getting over the hump as far as location was concerned seemed to be big issue. I'm sure plenty of more 'issues' would have arose, but just getting a foot in a door to start building was tough.

While Jill and I built a little wall in our garage, we still hold out hope for some sorta gym in Lexington.

I don't think there was enough interest in Lexington to keep two gyms afloat at the same time. But, wasn't climbtime open for quite a while? The place near campus wasn't going to last regardless of customer levels because of the housing development boom downtown. I suspect that they would have been pushed out no matter how many customers they had. With a reasonable location, I think one gym in Lexington could make it.

neuroshock wrote:

mcrib wrote:It doesn't seem like too many people are going to be willing to take on the brunt of the fincial burden in exchange for setting problems the way you and Ray have.

since i've never been down there, care to elaborate on the "setting problems the way you and Ray have" part?

Yea, I think I'm a little confused on this one too. We have two people who come regularly and they have actually given a lot of money to the gym and, more importantly, time and motivation. We're not exchanging anything. We've actually given the opportunity to be a regular in our gym to many people at different times this past year and it simply didn't work for them. Not because they're bad people or selfish or anything...It's just a different kind of person that loves the climbing gym side of climbing. We all get completely psyched to do anything and everything involved with the gym...others could care less about anything but climbing good problems set at their level.

As far as the co-op goes...you can have a great location, great rent, free supplies, and cool people but if folks don't love the work it's not going to be any cooler than any other half-ass gym you've ever been to. It's true for anything in life, really.

Yes, Climb Time had been around since the early 90's and lasted for some time after Lexington Rocks opened. I think you're right on the pushed out thing, LR's location was too good to pass up for housing. Location, location, location. Although having a climbing gym in the neighborhood could entice some to live in the new development. You gotta have some retail, entertainment options where the people live, but I'm getting into some sorta urban planning tangent and am only hijacking a truely important thread.

WANTED: Someone to build a bunch of lazy climbers a top notch training facility in Lexington, KY.