The meeting minutes from the MTA
December Board Meeting make mention of a project that I have started
to work on. The idea of a mini-Sparta type club in the metro area
was an idea that came out of a discussion I had with State
Representative Dave Dill from Duluth nearly three year ago. At the
time, we were discussing ways that state financial help might be
generated to help insure the Alexandria Shooting Park would remain a
viable option for our state shoot for years to come. The idea would
be to form a tax deductible, non-profit organization that would
receive state financial assistance to purchase Alexandria Shooting
Park keeping Alex as a shooting facility forever. I quit working on
this concept when the owners of Alexandria chose to retain
ownership.
It was after the recent deal
between the state and the University of Minnesota for the football
stadium that I begin to think the plan had merit, but for a
different location. The “U” was trading to the state a large
tract of land south of Rosemount, MN in exchange for the stadium
money. The idea was to see if we could create a tax exempt,
non-profit organization and get both financial assistance from the
state as well as a long term lease on enough of the property to
create a mini-Sparta facility that would accommodate not only trap
shooting but every other viable shooting sport as well. Skeet,
sporting, bunker trap, as well as all forms of competition rifle and
pistol shooting would be part of the plans.
I first felt it would be important
to discuss this with members of the Alexandria ownership group
before proceeding. I met with two of the individual owners and
discussed the concept and received positive feed back from both of
them. I then was allowed to present the concept to the entire Group
of Six board at one of their board meetings. They, as I do, felt the
idea of such a facility would be great for the shooting sports in
Minnesota. It was their input that if it could be built as
presented, they would support it and felt they could successfully
downsize the Alex facility leaving their investors satisfied. Next,
I presented the concept to the MTA Board to determine if they would
support my actions and allow me to speak on behalf of the Board
regarding this project. As the meeting minutes note, they
unanimously agreed to have me pursue the project. MTA participation
would eventually involve moving our state shoot to the facility,
member fund raising, and possibly cash donations to help build the
facility. All of these would have to be approved by the board at a
future date before they could happen.
I would envision the shooting
facility to require 250-400 acres depending on the terrain and
features built into the park. For our purposes, twenty-five traps,
two hundred camping spaces and a club house equal to or larger then
Alexandria’s would be required. The facility should also include
eight to ten skeet fields and one or two large sporting rings. A
bunker trap would help insure we met the deductible non-profit
requirements of the IRS. Rifle ranges up to 300 yards as well as
pistol ranges to include action pistol shooting would be included.
The club house would likely feature one or two designed training
rooms for youth firearms training as well as club meetings. A
firearms walk through course would also be part of the plan. The
club would likely be open for business six days per week and would
require a full time manager.
A question sure to be asked is
when this would all happen? First and foremost, the chances of
this happening at all are likely less than fifty percent. Much
hard work will be required before this plan moves forward. Other
states have, however, recently completed or approved much grander
projects; Sparta, IL and Las Vegas, NV are prime examples. A second
question would likely be, why leave Alexandria? The only thing
prompting the thought is location. There is a saying in real estate
that value is related to three things, location, location, and
location. The Alex facility is a great facility and it is run by as
good of a group as you’ll find anywhere. If we could move this
facility to the south metro along with the fine people that work
their butts off to put on our state shoot, it would be great.
Unfortunately this can’t happen. If it could, we would find
ourselves with a site almost perfectly located for our state wide
shooter distribution and we would find a bevy of motels with easier
availability and more competitive pricing.
In closing, I want to again
emphasize that the chance of this idea actually coming to pass at
this point is less then fifty percent. If it does happen, it
will take several years. For these reasons, the board has determined
we need to continue to work on a lease extension with Alex that
contains an out if such a new facility would come available. If it
happens that this project takes life, great. If it doesn’t, we
will still have one of the best state shoot venues in the country
with great people running our shoot at Alexandria. I will post
additional updates as this project takes shape or is unsuccessful.
If you have questions or comments,
I would be happy to respond. Markz@pride-eng.com
or you can leave a message at 763-427-6250 ext 302 and I’ll call
you back.
