Starting a skatepark...hopefuly
 

Hey you guys, my friend might be able to get a deal on renting out a warehouse because his grandpa owns like 3 or 4. So we(besides us two like 7 other people are on on it so far) we're thinking about building some ramps so we could ride through winter, maybe have a few contests, only have to pay a couple bucks for all day session. My question is, do we need a license to have a teer 2 skatepark that you have to pay to get into? Another question, since we have it open where the public can pay to come and ride(or skate)how much would that effect the insurance on it? Any extra information you have would be great. Thanks a lot.

well, you need to make the ramps, buy the wood for them, clean out the warehouse.

and that is ontop of getting a papers, if you are opening it to the public. and if someone falls in there and gets messed up you freind is going to take one heck of a hit.

dont open it up to the public, i can see you want to make a little cash but i dont think it is worth it.

see what other people say.

Key word, "INSURENCE"!

got spellcheck?

Fixed.

We don't want to make "a little cash", all we wanted was to have place to ride that is over teer 1 and that allows bikes. The only reason we would open it for public to pay to come in, is so that that income can take little off the amount we have to take out of our pockets to pay for rental.

Also, would insurance be any less if we had the same ramps, same warehouse, but we did NOT open it to public?

I don't know what "Teer 1" is, but liability insurance will be very expensive. Go find an adult to discuss this with locally. Most of the kids that are on the forum wouldn't have a clue. You're far better off keeping it private, and having everyone sign a waiver releasing the owner and or tenants from liability.

if it's just you and your friends why get insurance?

Because if they're minors, the owner is opening himself up to a huge liability.

I doubt that his friend is going to sue his grandfather. Also, if you sue a skatepark or somebody because you fell on their property, you need to quit riding or stop being a *****

Exactly

It's all well and good, but if you broke your arm on someone else's property, from something like a poorly built ramp, and you were under 18, your parents wouldn't be too keen on paying that bill out of their pocket. Happens all the time.

If you have any aspirations of opening to the public you're going to need to talk to two people first:

1. An accountant
2. An attorney

Privately owned and operated skateparks don't make much (if any) money, thanks to free public skateparks popping up all across the country, and the headache, red tape and expense of running, insuring and staffing one are most often greater than the meager profit they bring in.

It's never about how well you know your friends. It's about how well your friends' parents know the person responsible for the building. Your friends may have nothing against you or you against them, but their parents don't know or care who Grandpa is...only that their kid busted a collarbone on a ramp in HIS warehouse. Even if it never happens, ONCE is all it takes to financially ruin someone, and it's a risk not everyone is willing to take.

me and some friends are trying to get some money together and rent a warehouse for a month or two during the motivation obliterating winter season, and just put all of our backyard ramps in there but kids just dont care enough around here

Once again, check with the property owner / manager / company. That's a good way to get yourself and them in heaploads of trouble.

well if we were renting it, it would be temporarily ours, it would be invite only, and if anybody that didnt help pay for it wanted to ride that we didnt really know, they'd be charged and have to sign something

So if we have it invite only we don't realy need insurance, not even on the building itself?

This is for both of you:

When you rent, it is not temporarily yours. You are using someone else's property. You cannot insure the building, as you have no interest in it. You must have liability insurance, in case someone gets hurt inside. Even for an empty warehouse. The owner may also have to have some liability coverage. The owner will also need to insure the building against peril. What do you think his insurance company will say when he tells them it's being used by a bunch of kids with BMX bikes? The risk of there being some kind of loss, either fire, damage, vandalism, etc, is quite high. Now consider this: You own a building, and you let kids engage in a dangerous sport inside. The odds of someone getting hurt are very good. How do you think the insurance company will view that?

So it's back to the waiver question. You'd need an attorney who knows liability very well to write up your waiver. If the user is under 18, their adult or guardian would have to sign for them. Over 18, that user can sign. And even then, that won't stop anyone from suing. The building owner would need a copy of that waiver, and he'd still be stuck with legal fees. Got it?

http://www.metroped.org/Skate/CalBill.htm
I came accross this, not sure if it would help.