Originally Posted by
brawlo
Track is dying everywhere, not just the US. Sports participation in general is dying out from a combination of busy parents/people, cotton wool parenting, technology and costs. I've been involved in a number of sports between myself and my 2 children, and comparing to maybe 20 years ago, across the board numbers are down for everything.
Multi use facilities are definitely the way to go. We have a lot of tracks built in Australia of the flat track type around a cricket ground. In general, they are surviving, but only just. Lots of purpose built velodromes are gone here in Australia too, mostly due to lack of use. They stop being used, then not maintained and then just become white elephants, too expensive to even demolish. But compared to the US, we still have a lot of velodromes around. We are even getting a number of new velos built as part of multi discipline bike park style facilities.
I agree with a lot of this.
There are
a lot of factors that contribute to the fact that all sports seem to be less popular. There is no one smoking gun. Ask a dozen families with children and ask them why don't they participate in sport, and you'll get a dozen reasons.
Traditional sports still exist (obviously), but now they are ultra competitive...even at the earliest levels. This also drives casual players and families away.
What's more, cycling is a fringe sport compared to mainstream sports. And track cycling is on the fringe of that fringe.