The Birmingham Crossplex

Hydraulic Tracks Offer Flexibility and Economic Advantages For multipurpose athletic and event complexes, hydraulic tracks offer a bevy of benefits, including flexibility of use and advantages for the local economy. Just the push of a button raises the track’s banked curves in minutes to the desired height for competitions or training sessions. Because it’s so easy to set the track to any desired incline, the track is extremely versatile and ideal for athletes from amateur to elite, and for all levels of competition. When lowered, the track is flush with the surrounding surface, so the entire area can be used for other sports or activities; the Birmingham CrossPlex, for example, uses the area for volleyball after track season ends. Hydraulic tracks also offer economic advantages to cities, enabling them to have other events on the same floor. Hosting prestigious track and field competitions and other events can significantly enhance the economy of the community, including by generating revenue for hotels, restaurants and other businesses from the participants and spectators who come to the city for them. The added revenue often reaches into the millions of dollars for a single event. During the first full year the Birmingham CrossPlex was open, the total economic impact was $20 million — and that was for hosting just a few events. ...... For more information about Mondo hydraulic tracks, visit www.mondoworldwide.com/na/en/ Email: mondo@mondousa.com Call: (800) 361-3747 arena, and our track, we estimate about 30 percent of those events are happening at the same time,” adds Crossplex Birmingham and Bill Harris Arena Director, Taunita Stephenson. When the facility isn’t hosting an official event, it’s still full with teams practicing. “On the pool side, we have swim practice six days a week,” says Kirk. “For example, when we’re not hosting a swim meet on a Saturday, we still have multiple teams that will rent lanes from us. Same on the track side, if we don’t have an event going on, we usually have two to four teams rent time throughout the day for practices. For volleyball, we have three leagues that will play in here on weeknights during the summer months. Things like that help fill up our calendar.” While the Crossplex is relatively new, Kirk reports that its indoor track has already experienced a great deal of wear and tear: “The Indoor track was fabricated by the Italian firm, Mondo, which is the supplier for all Olympic outdoor tracks. We had the rep come in this past winter and he said we’ve got about 20 years’ worth of wear on our track because of how many athletes use it during the indoor season. Just this past season, we had 42,000 athletes on our track. Considering the traffic we see, we are in the process of making upgrades. We’ve already replaced certain areas, but the goal is to replace our entire floor with a new track surface system. That would be a