The side that does not have the walls yet is the short side.

If that previous shot is the Before shot, then this would be the projected After.

Despite the somewhat early stage of the construction during my visit, enough was done to be able to see where the different areas will be. There will be two tracks, one for 50s, 60s and mini-quads, and the other for full-size bikes and quads. There are some details to work out as far as total track capacity, but the idea is that each rider will have at least one 15-minute session per hour.

Initially, the two motocross tracks will be set up for motorcycles and quads. They will be listening to input from riders, and looking at what kind of numbers are coming in, to determine what other types of activities might also go on there. There are no plans for things such as rodeos, but are they are open to nearly anything that involves riding motorized vehicles in the dirt.

The owners wanted to emphasize that this will be indoor motocross, not a supercross track. They plan on making the jumps challenging, yet safe, using primarily tabletops rather than doubles and triples. The Shane Schaefer designed and built track will be well away from any walls or columns.

The other parts of the building include a large lobby, with bathrooms, concessions, and a branch of Bob’s Cycle Supply, a large motorcycle accessory shop based out of St Paul. People will be able to order parts online, or at the main store, and then pick them up then at the Arena if needed. The lobby includes a VIP suite that will be made available to series and other sponsors. There are also grandstands that can hold 3000 people. The last section of the building is the pit area, which will have enough space for 300 pit spaces (bike and tools). Besides the large parking area surrounding the building, there will also be a 14-acre grass field for overflow parking.

The tracks will be in that spot shown, but will not be configured like that or include so many supercross-style obstacles.

The building is scheduled to open by October, with the worse case scenario being November. As of this writing, things were proceeding on schedule. The opening will be the culmination of an effort that started early in 2004, when Rob Murphy initially starting pursuing the idea. The second partner, Donnie Vincent, would enter the fray a bit later. With a business plan and building drawings complete, all that was left was acquiring the land, finalizing the financing, and getting approvals from the municipality. Announcements were made at the end of 2004 about the indoor motocross track that would be coming soon. But getting those last factors to all come together would prove much more difficult than anticipated.

What has lead to most of the difficulty is that the building is so unique. None of the municipalities had ever had anything like it proposed to them, and even at the national level, only a handful of similar properties existed (most of which were visited by Rob). With those, the scope ranged from the largest one in the country, in Connecticut, to a few that were just basically pole barns with a big fan on each end. It was difficult to find comparable properties. They also found out that fear of the unknown is still a strong force in local politics.

The first site, which looked like a go, was north of the Twin Cities. Unfortunately, enough of the local townspeople spoke against it at a public hearing that it was basically shut down. It wasn’t so much that it was because it involved motorcycles, although some “Wild One” stereotypes were spoken aloud, but just the unknown of how much traffic and activity it would generate, and a strong desire for things to stay “country”.

The property site had to begin again and this is where Steve Kaufman came into the picture. Steve runs Cedar Lake Speedway, a dirt track that runs Nascar-style races. They bring in drivers from the Nextel tour a few times a year and get coverage on a popular Twin Cities radio sports station. The track is near New Richmond, Wisconsin, about 35 miles NE of downtown St Paul, close to I-94. There was quite a bit of acreage around the track, so Steve sold the 20 acres that is the site of the Sandbox Arena, and became the third partner.

There were several dozers and trucks working there on a Saturday. The piles in the foreground are not part of a gnarly whoop section.

Although the approval process was still long, nearly a year, St. Croix County has a reputation for handling things professionally, which was very helpful. Because a building of this type is so unusual, many municipalities have a tough time figuring out what to require of them. As part of the county’s contribution to the effort, the main road from County Road C (County Road CC – they love their letter names in Wisconsin) will be repaved this summer.

Another one of the challenges was the design of the heating and cooling system. Determining the venting needed to keep the air fresh, while also keeping the air temperature tolerable resulted in quite a variety of approaches and costs. With the help of someone who specializes in this type of HVAC work, the final result should provide more than enough ventilation to get rid of the exhaust. The temperature during sub-zero weather, hopefully worse case, will be about 45 degrees in the track area, 60 for the pits, and 70 for the lobby. There are also additional space heaters for the grandstand area. When it is warmer than that outside, the track and pit area will also be warmer.

They plan on having a 6-race summer series and 6-race winter race series, the quads and bikes running on separate days. The emphasis will still be on practice, as each series will probably only run about once a month. At this time, they are actively seeking sponsors for the race series and the building itself. They were looking into using transponders, with lap times being displayed on monitors, but at the moment, it is a bit unclear which transponders will be used with Trackside software, so they are waiting to see how that shakes out.

There are a variety of plans for the fees and they were still being formulated as of this writing. At this time, they were not planning on renting the track by the day, but an online reservation system is being developed to allow riders to guarantee themselves a spot for the day they want to ride. Details on that and other announcements, plans for an open house during the Millville national week for example, can be found at www.SandboxArena.com.

While there may still people out there that won’t believe it until they see it (they may also think that the “supposed” moon landings were all on a Hollywood set), indoor motocross is coming to the upper Midwest in a big way and will provide a motocross oasis during the long, cold winters.

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