Very well put concerning flying sites, club and outside participation
flying sites can be difficult due to the cost to maintain them. The CL circles here at Buder Park are guarded and maintained by the Lafayette Esquadrille here in St Louis. St Louis County Parks dept likes us and GSLMA (Greater St Louis Modeling Association) maintains the park. GSLMA provides the funds for the materials, St Louis county provides the labor. GSLMA does the day to management of what needs to be fixed and replaced at the park for both the RC and the CL flying site. We have a yearly park pass fee that everyone pays into, all of that money goes back into the park. The $30 yearly park pass fee that I pay is lumped together so that we can afford to pay to have our square pad repaved and sealed. I might add that that pass applies to the RC and the CL group as a whole. GSLMA just spent a considerable sum to fix up, fill cracks and seal the RC runway and pit area and the CL circles, this included repaving the square pad (150' x 150'). The Cholla Choppers might consider coming up with a similar arrangement with the County parks there to see if there is anything that can be done.
We have heard all of the complaints about the $30 fee for Buder Park (local residents only by the way) but that is really cheap when you consider what you are getting for that $30. It took GSLMA several years to save up to have enough to pay for the major updates that happened in 2017. The $15K estimate for the Tucson site sounds about right. Start up a non-profit organization to maintain the park that coordinates with the county parks dept. We had a double hit in 2017 with a major flood that had to be cleaned up and getting the square pad repaved.
I think you are right about people not wanting to travel to out of town contests, it's expensive and anything more than one's drive it has to be really special. We also tend to forget about advertising for our contests. Between Stunthanger, facebook, the AMA magazine (columnists, district VP's and the calendar) there are so many ways to advertise our events, but I rarely see official contest information or announcements posted.
You can promote and advertise your events with a club website and an youtube channel, again all of these take work from someone inside the club that has the time and energy to do that. Also remember that the information on the website has to assume that the person visiting your website knows nothing about the flying site, where the contest is being held or anything about the contest. the website needs to answer all of that information including what events are being held. The Lafayette Esquadrille uses Word Press which is free if you do the right things.
Every event hosted by the club needs a person that promotes and organizes the contest. They are the person that advertises all year long and where ever possible. You have to stand up to the arm chair pilots who have never been to the contest who think that the rules should be done differently. In the end you can not satisfy everyone. We have had the same challenges with the Fox 35 Speed event that John Moll started here in St Louis. We have been consistent with the Fox 35 Speed rules and publish them on our website with only one revision.
you might consider a
go-fund-me campaign to get that one circle fixed up at the park in Tucson. Get someone to shoot some video and pictures, put that on Youtube. show pictures of what it use to look like, you might get lucky.
Fred Cronenwett
Lafayette Esquadrille CL Club
https://lafayetteesquadrillecl.wordpress.com/