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Thanks Mike for responding quickly with a reasonable answer that should put normal people to zip it.

It sounds stupid, but even more stupid would be to spend money on an enormous parking lot that would then be 2% to capacity post Pan Am Games.

For 2 years I said "Who cares about pan an games" and then I bought tickets to the women's soccer so we can take my daughter.. lol

I was going to buy tickets for the veledrome thinking it were similar price point ($80 for the entire fam dam of 4), jebus.. like $60/ticket .. kids too!. I'll watch it on tv thanks. No way I'm dropping $240 to see nascar style racing.

Not completely true. The price of tickets is dependent on whether or not you are watching qualifying/preliminary or medal rounds. Medal rounds, are obviously more expensive and rightfully so, you are guaranteed to be seeing the top competitors take home medals and get up on the podium. And like any event, price is also dependent on location within the stadium and how many people the stadium has capacity for.

I have 4 tickets for 2 different days worth of events. The preliminary rounds cost me $45 a ticket. You get to see 2-3 hrs of preliminaries for that cost. I actually think that is pretty reasonable. We also have tickets to a medal round (Mens Sprint finals, amongst others) and those were $85 a ticket. I am really looking forward to the sprint races, the cat and mouse/go slow and force your opponent into the lead strategies can be real nail biters to watch, even tho the races are very short. Can't wait!

The only thing track racing has in common with Nascar is the shape of the track...sorry!

If cost is an issue for you, you should go register for free tickets for this weekends event (Canadian Track Nationals). You can get a taste for the different styles of races, and it won't cost you anything (aside from a bit of temporary frustration with the parking/shuttle situation). Your whole family theoretically has the opportunity to see 2 full days of racing for $0 and a chance to see some of Canada's best/future Olympians.

If this venue starts churning out some top quality track competitors at the Olympics in the future (like the British Cycling team) it will be interesting to see people attitudes when athletes who train in their town start bringing home medals.

Mike's response was reasonable, just wanted to know how traffic was going to be handled.

Not sure where you are getting 2% parking usage post games ... we've been told by our town council that an announcement for the Laurier campus is to be made this spring and they are betting on Milton getting the nod, so with North of 10K students attending (plus faculty and other staff on top of that), parking will likely be required.

for those concerned there is additional parking at Lisgar station.

yeah, for real - if there is excess parking capacity at the sports centre, why not use the same set up to alleviate the current go lot situation?

After the games, no one will care.

i can't tell if you just like reading your own posts, or if you really just don't get it. i think it is probably a bit of both.

Had a chance to go tonight. The parking situation wasn't all that bad. Had to wait a couple minutes max for a bus. The dumb part was driving along Derry to Tremaine and seeing the velodrome, and then having to go North 6km only to come back the same way in the bus. Ah well. Very cool event. The facility looks excellent. Photos don't do it justice to see how tall the banks are. And they are pretty damn steep at 42 degrees. You don't really realize it until you look from up top and look down.

I don't ride the Go much but I have taken 2 times from 2 different locations. Both locations did not have enough parking for the users. Looks like this would be a metrolink problem. Both times I have taken the GO i had to follow a person walking from the station to their car. Once in Burlington and another time in Mississauga. I don't see any of the other cities providing alternate parking, and don't believe the City/towns should be providing additional free parking for any business. That said I do think the City/Town should force the GO to build additional parking weather via parking garage/or purchase land on other side of the tracks providing walking path under tracts or force them to purchase more land for an additional GO transit stop somewhere else in Milton.

i don't want to go on about this in this thread, so i'll just leave it at this. it's fine to say it's a metrolinx problem so they should fix it, but from everything i've read, that isn't happening anytime soon. i don't see the town "forcing" go or metrolinx to do anything frankly. so for miltonites who need somewhere to park every day, it's a problem that isn't getting fixed soon. if the town can fix it, for miltonites, and facilitate more people taking public transportation, then why not fix the problem in the short term instead of sitting around waiting for another government agency that doesn't seem too interested in milton? and it's not like the town would be subsidizing some private business, it's another government agency, and again - it's public transportation. heck - they could fill some empty milton transit buses with fare paying customers! if i only took the go twice in my life and never from milton, i might feel it's better to just wait for metrolinx, however.....

and one last thing - i don't know what is going on at every single crowded go station parking lot in the go system, or for that matter, what arrangements local municipalities have historically made during periods of rapid growth. i get that you haven't seen this happening, but really - does it matter?

Yes it matters! Like I said I only have taken it twice, and it drove me nuts. I couldn't imagine if I had to use this system everyday. It seems in my little experience, that this may be a common problem with metro-link across the board. I did notice in the Burlington/Appleby station people where parking in the neighborhood streets across from the station. This must be very frustrating for these homeowners too. I am sure if parking is this much of an issue, that if someone started some sort of petition/web page and passed it around on the GO, something like this could pressure on metro link to fix this so called on going problem. Anyways I am not going to comment much on this topic cause I really do not know enough about the issue on hand. If I was a regular commuter then I would have the right and more accurate knowledge to comment. Good luck with your venture, I really hope someone fights for more parking at the GO.

Nice picture of the Velodrome in action. Glad to see the event was well attended.

The logistics and turbulent weather this weekend definitely had an affect but still a decent turn out given the span of the event. It's hard to gauge how big the crowds are given you have 4 full days of racing with morning and afternoon sessions with different styles of racing throughout. Most people stopped by for 2 or 3 hours to see what was going on that I talked to. We had a great time. This was my wife's first time watching track racing and she enjoyed it. Lots of exciting photo finishes. The announcer was energetic and tried to explain some of the strategy throughout the race. The volunteers and people working the event were also really good. Was definitely a fun $0 night out of the house without the 4 month olds!

Judging from the crowds at the first event?

I think its going to succeed. A couple of friends of mine started an indoor bike park for mountain biking and BMX, and everything in between. People told them the same thing. The warehouse space to build this thing cost them a fortune. The building owners took a lot of convincing, especially with people hucking themselves off ramps on their property. The location is in the middle of nowhere in Markham. Their biggest competitor is in Cleveland. People through the winter were travelling from all over (Ontario specifically) just to ride at this guys park. In the summer, what does he do? Closes down. Why? Because who wants to pay to ride their bike inside, right? There was an article in the G&M about it.

The reality. They are busy as hell. Year round. Their busiest days are in the summer. They run youth programs, and summer camps. Now you have people like Red Bull hosting events at their park. People don't realize it, but despite not having the Alps in our backyard, Ontario is a hotbed for all types of cycling, road, cyclocross, mountain biking, road cycling, BMX, and now track. Everyone I know within the cycling community is pretty pumped about it.

While I won't be relying on the residents of Milton to single-handedly keep this afloat, the rest of the GTA will.

If it fails, I'll buy you a nice steak dinner. But before then, please come out to the track and give it a go. Sign up for one of the courses to get certified so you can attend the drop-in sessions. I won't even tell you wear lycra.

Let me know when you go. And you can make fun of my tight shorts. I will say, the shorts are a result of function more than aerodynamics. The first time I wore bike shorts was on a night lap at a 24 hour race because I didn't want to be seen wearing them...but wondered why so many people did. I was proudly wearing them during my morning laps!

When you climb up to the top of a bank, and turn sharp to sprint down the bank down and try to hold a lap of the track on the measurement/black line...it is a pretty amazing feeling.