Originally Posted by
octopus magic
So what can we do to make it grow?
IMO Any area with an indoor velodrome should really hammer hard on the spinning crowd. I think the Detroit 'drome is a good step forward and trying to keep things fresh in people's minds. Some televised/streamed events wouldn't be so hard to do, but there's so much media out there that it's hard to keep track.
Be positive and try to bring more people in. Every one on the track should be kind of a mini ambassador.
Leave the BS at the door. Thankfully most track racing people are really nice and encouraging.
It's hard challenge with zero budget, and a lot of other activity competition.
Basically you can't rely on people finding tracks on their own - you gotta get it in front of them, suck them in, put them on a bike, see how they respond, and offer them the next experience. And you gotta do it in volume, to try to find the ones who want to keep coming back, to find the ones who become good (or great, or whatever).
Hitting up spin programs is a solid idea. I also think that tracks should have loaner fleets (that's a no brainer), and go hard in the paint with connections to schools - try to get field trips for a Try The Track Day, and offer kids (or, really, their parents) another program to sign up for if their kids are into it.
I could imagine something like that being run by the right volunteer but being a lot better if there were a solid handful of staff involved - and few tracks I know of really have the funds for that kind of staffing.