Where are you located? If your around me that would be cool cause im looking for 30 acres to build a track for personal use but obviously if you did this it could easily be a joint effort, but anyway...
- NOISE LAW'S - as far as the noise thing goes the law states that atv's must remain at least 1000 feet from all home at all times (may be different in your area, check with your local DNR Rep.)
- NOISE - Make sure to give yourself a couple acres around your house for a backyard (this should cut down on some of the noise) 197 acres is plenty of room for trails! Also, you would probably have rules stating when people can ride (so you dont get woke up at first light).
- FREE LOADERS - Hmmm. This is a tuff one. Maybe you could have some locals watch over it for trail credit, I.E. work 8hrs get 10 hrs free ride time.... or somethin to that effect.
- $$$$ - Now the question is to have membership or not and also what about non-members? Maybe have an anual fee for people who wanna be members (these individual's would either ride free or get discounted rides depending on the price of membership) and a daily/weekend price for non-members. The price for either depends on the benefit's. If your gonna have conssesion stands/porta poties I would shoot for the 20$ a day range. If not I would go for 15$ a day and after 5 days you get the sixth free(give them a card to be signed that shows how many days they've attended.
- DEMAND - This depends a lot on where you are located. How many like facility's are within a 2-4 hr drive? Also, you need to evaluate these facility's (EX. if you have 3 national caliber tracks within an hr or 2 it wouldnt be as good of an idea) Aside from that, with the constant land closures there are always people looking for some new trails to hit!!
- DISCLAIMER - Disclaimer disclaimer disclaimer!!! you have to have one, a good one too (not one you just wrote down off the top of your head). Now 'a' day's people want to sue for any & every thing they THINK they can! A disclaimer wont prohibit this, but it will deture almost everyone and once it hits the courts 99 to 1 it will get thrown out (this is why you need a good legal lookin one)
- INSURANCE - Insurance is something that needs to be looked at closely before you do anything! This can be very costly, once again depending on your location.
- MX\HS - Though I know you obviously dont jump, an MX track could be on only...say 5-10 acres and will bring just as many people as the trails, so it would realy double your business/income!
Whoa, you can tell I've thought about this a few times! :) My mom is an insurance agent so I can prolly get you some round-a-bout prices on that... I can make you a really good disclaimer if/when you get to that.... I hope you go through with it as our sport is always striving to find new legal riding area's (not to mention me!) You can email me at
www.itslimittime@aol.com if you have any questions... Hope this helps, good luck!!!