+1000

Yea, I'm not really sure where those numbers are coming from. Interestingly, you can see the # of "views" this document has by digging through the website. Clearly the "trihabitat" site has been shared quite a bit but these documents have not (at least online), which sort of speaks volumes. The capital raise will also be a combination of equity and debt. What will happen to that debt, I wonder?

If they don't skimp on the "lodge" I can see them doing a decent special events business (wedding receptions, parties, etc.). They will have to come up with a better name though. Most women wouldn't be too excited about printing "TriHabitat" anywhere on their wedding invitations.

Um.....never said he was a troll. I said he's beating a dead horse. He doesn't like set up, doesn't like anything set up related. That's all fine.

I just don't understand the need to criticize everything. If a new tri shop was opening near me, I wouldn't go on an Internet forum and start speculating on whether it will be profitable, how long it would stay open, and what it would do to other tri shops in the area. I would go, check out the shop, prices, customer service, etc, and form my opinion on whether I will return. That's what I plan to do here. And I still say it looks awesome.

I hope this doesn't come off as being abrasive or trying to shoot a person's dream down, but looking at this project from a pure consumer of triathlon view point, I tend to struggle to see the true "value-add" proposition that would suggest such a huge upfront investment into this project. If we take a strong un-biased look at the White Lake Sprint and International Races at the FFA Center in both May and September, I am not seeing a tremendous amount of difference between the two facilities. White lake is crystal clear with a sandy bottom, the FFA center has lodges and cabins, a more than adequate transition area, full court basketball, the FFA center has a nice slab of concrete for awards and after-race festivities, and the bike and running terrain is very similar. Inside-out even sets up a retail store on the camp grounds for last minute needs. I understand that White Lake is 50 miles outside of Wilmington but it also gives folks from the Triangle, Fayetville, and other parts of Eastern North Carolina the ability to Drive down the morning of the race. If you take all three white lake races together, you don't even hit 1500 participants. Like others have suggested, our North Carolina Tri market is already completely saturated so I would be very interested to see the market research that TriHabitat has done to suggest that this project has a very good chance of Success.

I guess the only metaphor that I can come up with that illustrates my thought process on this project is that you can take a Honda Civic and put an exhaust system, ground affects, a custom paint job, super-charger, big boom system, and 22's that keep on spinning on it, but at the end of the day you still have a Honda Civic and people will always put the most value on the car itself and not all the other stuff that makes it a little bit cooler. I hope Tri-Habitat makes me look like an idiot and they kill it because it does look Super-cool.

I think you are missing, a bit, my point in posting - what you call - "criticism." You are also assuming I "don't like" Setup or anything "Setup related."

I have done a lot of Setup Event races. North Carolina Series, South Carolina Series, (formerly known as) TrySports series, VA series... I've done a lot of Setup races in my 5 years in triathlon. Setup Events kindly contributed quite a bit of $ to my bank account last year, surely in appreciation of how much money I've put in their bank account since 2009.

I am not CRITICIZING "Setup." Setup is not really involved in this anyway. This TriHabitat project is BS's baby. I am sure that people involved in Setup currently will be tasked with running this facility upon opening so in some ways yes, Setup is affiliated.

My point in mentioning Setup earlier was to explain the context of the regional triathlon market. Not to criticize Setup Events.

I think you are missing the main point here...... it is NOT "opening", but rather seeking major funding to try and open. That is a major difference. And the financials look like a total nightmare. Some of this confusion is probably due to all the press releases that make it seem like it's actually happening, when in fact they are merely in the fund seeking stage.

At this point it looks like an "if I win the lottery this is what I'll do" pie in the sky situation. If some rich person wants to donate the money to this project, then good for them..... but as far as an investment strategy goes, it looks like a very obvious money hole. The idea that they will get $10-20mil in revenue each year for the first 4yrs is laughable.

I think we can all agree it would be a cool place to have, and I would love to see it happen, but making a sound investment on it is a totally different story. That's not being pessimistic, it's being realistic

Because we're sitting at our boring ass desk jobs and picking apart someone else's $30MM investment pitch as if we're some sort of big shots with enough money or influence to make our opinions count for anything is more entertaining than getting back to the grind. That's my reason anyway...

Bike shops don't require near the investment this does. When have you ever heard of a bike shop needing $30 million? Logic and numbers NEVER lie. Bill Scott wants investments to open it. He has to pitch the idea to people who make ALOT more money than we ever will. Then comes due diligience. No one gives up their money without due diligence. They want to see a return on their investment and how long it will take to get their money back. Yes, we don't know everything about the financials and who is involved. However, we can and we will sit here and debate the probability of this place succeeding because anyone who sits back and cuts through the marketing BS can see this place MAY have issues. That's not criticism, that's real life. When some races in the North Carolina area don't sell out anymore, than that's an indicator this place may have a problem.

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Make Inside Out Sports your next online tri shop! http://www.insideoutsports.com/

Thank you to everyone who has posted in here, and I mean everyone.

As usual, a Slowtwtich forum has not disappointed and allowed those with an opinion to air their thoughts, questions, concerns and support.

While this post is not to address each and every comment made here or debate the naysayers, we want you to know that we are listening/reading.

We are excited about the potential of this endurance sports facility to introduce more people to the activities we love (swimming, cycling, running, obstacle course, triathlon, SUP, kayak, etc.) in a safe and non threatening (no traffic, controlled ‘open water’, etc.) environment so that they gain the confidence and ability to race at TriHabitat or wherever they choose to enter an event.

We also look forward to being a venue where collegiate teams, training/charity groups, clubs, corporate groups, USA Triathlon and other governing body/association athletes and others can come and stay as a group or visit on a daily basis to focus on training and racing, team building and socializing without the hassles of a lot of the logistics.

We look forward to hosting organizations, like CAF and Wounded Warrior, to aid their missions to give people and our veterans with physical disabilities the opportunity to pursue a healthy active lifestyle and learn to use the equipment that will give them the ability to do so in a safe environment.

Obviously, we will put on events, not limited to triathlon, if you have thought of it or think of it be sure it is on our radar and in the plan to utilize this amazing piece of property and its facilities to the fullest extent.

We have a lot of work to do, and yes, that includes a capital raise, to bring this vision into reality.

I know I have not addressed everything and maybe thrown some fuel on the fire, but know we have a dream, a vision, a plan and the input from the fine people on this forum and elsewhere to provide input, direction, guidance, praise, criticism and keep us on our toes.

Keep it coming and I hope to see everyone at the grand opening!

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http://www.thebouker.com

I was wondering if you'd post more than what you did above about B2B.

Who will run the facility on a daily basis?

While I would love to see this plan succeed, I think making this a triathlon focused (and named) facility is surely the death blow to the project. Seems like the focus is completely bass-ackwards to me.

With some slight modifications I could see a complete 180 in the success of this facility...... change the name to something like "Wilmington Sports and Convention Center" or something like that, with the focus on community events that will actually generate high revenue (rather than tri). For example:

Weddings, concerts, corporate outings/conventions, ToughMudder/obstacle series races, major CrossFit tournaments, community fairs, tradeshows, 4th of July celebrations, soccer tournaments, running races, car shows, etc etc..... and oh also would be a cool place to host triathlon camps/races (after-thought). ie the focus is pretty much on everything other than tri, but it would also work great for tri. Likewise this would generate infinitely higher positive support from the community and city council types, infinitely higher number of potential investors, etc etc. Plus some of this stuff needs to be booked and contracted in advance to help guarantee the funding (and make investors feel secure)

The name TriHabitat implies that it's mainly a triathlon facility, and honestly I think triathlon would be the least important source of revenue for keeping such a facility open. As a community type facility I could see plenty of investors getting interested, as a tri focused facility I see investors running like hell

Can I just put in a word for Duathlon? I promise we'll cool off in the lake afterwards. :-)

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"Honestly, triathlon is a pussified version of duathlon on that final run."- Desert Dude

teekona wrote:

Can I just put in a word for Duathlon? I promise we'll cool off in the lake afterwards. :-)

Wow, reading through this thread about Trihabitat, I'm glad some of you folks weren't around the inventors of Velcro, Duct Tape, and Tupperware. Those products would have never gotten off the ground. Kudos Setup! I live in Atlanta and Wednesday evening after a group ride we got to talking about this place. I think there were 13 or 14 of us and to a person we all said that without question, we would all travel to Trihabitat to race. The only question became a matter of how times a year we would go. My wife and kids love Wilmington so this would be an easy deal for me. I can't wait!"

Nice first post!

If you had $50,000 disposable monies lying around would you invest in building the facility?

I'm replying to you so the other people don't think I'm singling them out.

I am amazed that unless you proclaim "OMG this is the best idea evar!!!1!1!" then you must be vehemently opposed to something. That's such a simple-minded view of life. "If you're not with us, you're against us."

This is a great looking layout. Beautiful. There are some constructive criticisms about it: it needs a pool. You're not going to get a lot of people who *want* to do multiple days of swimming in low 60* degree water. It's tough to get an accurate distance in open water swimming, so doing any kind of swim tests aren't particularly relevant.

The actual financial aspect of it is up for debate. It's going to take a lot more than a few people saying "oh, I'd go there *all* the time." What does that mean? How much would you pay? How many people need to go there "all the time" to make the numbers work? Happy thoughts don't generate revenue.

Honestly, the more I think about some of the dumb responses here the angrier I get. Goddamn.

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Yes, I know it's grammatically incorrect. Blame AOL and their 90s-era character limits.
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Thank you.

I find it odd that giving constructive (or non-constructive) criticism and maintaining a pragmatic viewpoint for a company such as WTC is a generally agreeable thing in this community. Make a remark that can be perceived as negative towards a "small local business" (and for all those who doubt, this company in question does NOT operate like that or see itself that way FYI) and all of a sudden you're the bad guy.

I agree, it is an INCREDIBLE idea. To have a facility like that would be UHMAZING, especially in this region. But am I allowed to maintain a realistic viewpoint in the face of what seems too good to be true? Apparently not.

There's no place for pragmatism in triathlon. Haven't you been here long enough to see that?

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Yes, I know it's grammatically incorrect. Blame AOL and their 90s-era character limits.
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It was my word of the day; I wanted to believe in it.

I think this would be amazingly cool. So amazing that I ran through the numbers a few years ago because I would love to do something like this. My thought was to include related businesses. Include space for a bike shop and running store. Studio space for massage therapy. Training facilities for winter training. Etc.

But no matter how I looked at it, I could not see my way to where it would work.

I'd love to see it work. That would give me hope. Until it does, I'll wait until I win the Mega Millions. Hey, I may have won last night. I'm on vacation so no idea if the work pool won.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

Hopefully they can work out the bugs and make it work. Looks like an awesome place.

Any updates on this project? Is it moving forward?

Well its June of 2015, and there hasn't been any talk since the announcement back in October. The FB page responds to everyone's inquiry as more information to come. As good of an idea as it could have been I would lean on the side of too good to be true.

Articles from the local papers:

http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20150604/ARTICLES/150609853


http://www.jdnews.com/20150612/big-projects-ahead-for-pender-county/306129956


Things move VERY slowly here in NC. . . . .