Hey Russell,
Was just surfing the net and thought I would give my nodding approval. I know this idea would be great - I am from St. Louis, MO - You know the Rams's new home. Anyway I am doing MOAB this year and if I knew there was a MTB park I would definitely show up for a few days of my vacation along with a few buddies. Our mtb facilities in the St. Louis are pretty nice but they are always shared with other groups - hikers - horses and what not. Thats not so bad, but a full blown MTB park only would be great - Safety would be the biggest factor for the insurance, and staffing the park with trained medical personel would cost a pretty penny. I don't agree with the other guy who said you don't need the magazines and the pro's, however, I think you would need to get major manufacturers involved to help with costs - that should not be a problem considering they would have a lot to gain. If it could be done - It would do everybody involved in mountain biking a lot of good. Oh yeah we want the Lakers now!!!
Thanks
D*H*
Thanks for your letter which I will immediately post at the website (without your full name and email address, of course) You sum a lot of the issues up in a brief paragraph.
Keep Riding! Russell Hoffman
P.S. I moved to San Diego, California five years ago from Connecticut, so I was just getting used to being a Raiders/Lakers fan after following New York teams all my life, and then they all moved! I'm left with liking the Chargers and the Padres, neither of which I'm finding very easy. I never had a chance to care about the Rams, but since Jeff Hoestatler came from New York, it was relatively easy to become--a fan of the Raiders?--no, but just to become somewhat more interested in them. I would never admit to being a fan of the 'bad boy' Raiders.
It is thus pure coincidence that the only pro football game I've ever attended was a Raiders game. My wife and I were next to the stadium having finished visiting the L.A. museums in about half the time we had devoted to them. (They're not very good.) We kept hearing these loud cheers--incredibly loud--and after the second or third one, I decided we better wander over and see what's up. (The stadium and the museums are both at Exposition Park.)
Everyone was pretty much seated by then so the cops outside the stadium outnumbered everyone else by about two to one, but one of the few 'civilians' whispered those magic words "need tickets?" and since I hadn't said anything, I figured I could always plead entrapment. I ended up having scalped 11th row on the 40 yard line at a nearly sold-out play-off-game-deciding come-from-behind everyone-stays-to-the-end victory! And paid less than face value too because the game had already started. Apparently he wasn't much of a scalper anyway, they were his family's season tickets but whenever no one could go, he'd take them down and sell them since he hates football.
Sorry for the rambling, but you DID mention L.A.--I mean ex L.A.--sports teams!
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Webwiz: Russell D. Hoffman
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