Mountain Biking Otago and Sports Club Management: Case Study and Conflict Resolution

Postponement of Field Trip and Lecture Introduction

• The field trip to the base of Signal Hill at Logan Park was postponed due to poor weather conditions including cold temperatures, several days of continuous rain, and slippery, muddy tracks.
• A decision will be made by the tutor and the lecturer at the end of the week regarding whether to reschedule the field trip for the following Tuesday.
• Today's session serves as a case study for the local area and the specific sports club responsible for the Signal Hill Reserve area and Dunedin’s mountain bike tracks.
• The principles discussed regarding this specific club are applicable to other sports clubs and disciplines, as the operational models are common across many New Zealand sports organizations.
• The session includes summaries and content from Lecture 14, which focuses on sports compatibility and conflict management, as it is highly relevant to the case study.

Mountain Biking Otago (MBO): Club Structure and Operations

• Mountain Biking Otago (MBO) has been operating for several decades in Dunedin.
• The club is primarily overseen by volunteers, featuring a volunteer committee and various other volunteer-based sub-groups assisting in specific areas.
• MBO is a not-for-profit organization; all revenue and income from various sources are reinvested directly into the trails, with no individual earning manual profit from the club.
• In 2023, the club recorded a total of $742$ volunteer hours dedicated to the upkeep of its resources.
• The club employs one part-time person to help manage and maintain the trails, specifically addressing weed and bush growth, and fixing damage such as ruts or water erosion.
• Total infrastructure overseen by the club includes $144$ trails totaling $122\,km$.
• Membership numbers currently stand at approximately $433$ members. Keeping fees affordable is a priority to avoid deterring participation, though this limits the total revenue generated through membership dues.

Spatial Arrangement of Dunedin Trail Areas

• The club manages five primary trail regions in Dunedin:
  • Signal Hill: Contains $38$ trails spread across $28\,km$ of terrain.
  • Folly Flats: Features $68$ trails across $68\,km$. This area involves complex management because it is located on land used for commercial logging. The club must manage participant safety in an active forestry environment where pine trees are regularly harvested.
  • Wakkari Creek (The Wakkari Trails): Consists of $17$ trails and $7\,km$ of riding. This area is multi-use, shared by mountain bikers, horse riders, dog walkers (sometimes off-leash), runners, and orienteering participants.
  • Bethune Skelly and Forrester Park: These two adjacent areas are linked by a road and contain $18$ trails across $10\,km$.
  • Nichols Creek: A single track winding up a key hill in Dunedin, currently consisting of $3$ trails and $9\,km$ of track.

Data Management and Digital Infrastructure (Trailforks and Strava)

• The club utilizes international platforms for data collection, mapping, and member interaction.
• Trailforks:
  • Provides trail mapping, condition updates, and usage statistics.
  • Generates data pools through user check-ins and shared information.
  • Demographic data shows that the highest usage categories are the $30-40$ year old and $40-50$ year old age groups.
  • Statistics indicate that $68.4\%$ of users are visitors (traveling from more than $35\,km$ away), rather than local residents (within a $30\,km$ radius).
  • Visitor data tracked by country includes: New Zealand ($10,000$ rides), United States ($125$ rides), and Ireland ($1$ rider).
  • Difficulty statistics show that only $9.1\%$ of riders use "Double Black Diamond" (Red) tracks. The club can use this data to implement training or coaching systems to "upskill" riders, moving them from "Green" (Beginner) to "Blue" (Intermediate) or "Black" to reduce congestion on easier tracks.
• Strava:
  • A fitness app used for mapping tracks and tracing paths for biking, running, or walking.
  • It allows users to track personal bests and compete with others, generating virtual medals (e.g., gold medals for the fastest time on a specific loop).
  • Provides heat-map data showing how many users are on a trail at specific times of day, which aids sports committees and boards in decision-making.
• The "Virtual Clubroom" Concept: Digital apps are increasingly acting as the modern "clubroom." Unlike traditional physical rugby clubrooms, these apps allow for fluid, non-fixed meetups and convenience, catering to a demographic that values customized schedules over fixed training days.

Infrastructure Development Case Study: Signal Hill Easy Down

• Problem: The "Big Easy" trail at Signal Hill had too many users, leading to a high risk of collisions between those ascending and descending. There was also high user conflict between bikers, dog walkers, and children.
• Solution: The club decided to build the "Signal Hill Easy Down," a track specifically for downhill riders to separate traffic flow.
• Construction Details:
  • A contractor was hired for the initial "rough out" of the track through native forest.
  • Volunteers contributed $2,100$ hours of labor to shape and finish the track.
  • The track is $4.5\,km$ long.
  • If built entirely by commercial contractors, the cost would have exceeded $\$200,000$.
• Safety and Accessibility:
  • Increased high-speed usage necessitated safety infrastructure, including the construction of helipads for emergency evacuations of serious injuries (e.g., broken back, broken femur).
  • Existing four-wheel-drive tracks were widened and the gradients were reduced to allow ambulance access.
  • To prevent overflows into the Logan Park High School car park used by students and parents, the club built its own dedicated car park and access roads.

Facilities, Sustainability, and Environmental Management

• Sanitation: Providing toilets is one of the biggest challenges for New Zealand clubs. MBO laid water pipes during road upgrades to facilitate bathrooms. The cost for these facilities was in excess of $\$150,000$.
• Bike Wash: A timed bike wash was installed to help users clean mud (specific to Dunedin's clay soil) from their bikes, enhancing user satisfaction.
• Sustainability Initiatives:
  • The club recycled and compressed $2,000$ tonnes of old road millings (asphalt) to create a hardy car park surface.
  • This provided an environmentally friendly solution while meeting budget goals as the material was donated (free).
  • Extensive planting of native trees and shrubs was undertaken to improve aesthetics and soak up excess moisture in the soil, helping to maintain trail structural integrity.
• Maintenance Logistics: Due to the length of certain tracks ($8-9\,km$), gravel must often be transported via wheelbarrows or dropped at specific locations by helicopters, significantly increasing maintenance costs.

Future Revenue and Growth Strategies

• Data Sovereignty: A proposed strategy is for New Zealand to develop domestic apps to retain and monetize local data rather than exporting it to overseas apps for their advertising revenue.
• Events and Marketing: Running competitive and social events serves as both a revenue generator and a marketing tool to attract new participants.
• Network Linking: High-level planning is underway to link the Central Otago Rail Trails to Waihola, Mosgiel, and Dunedin, with a further northern connection to Waikouaiti. This creates a cohesive network that increases accessibility and attracts more users.

Sports Compatibility and Conflict (Lecture 14 Summary)

• Compatibility Classifications:
  • Compatible: Sports can coexist and use the same space without conflict.
  • Partially Compatible: Sports use the same land or water but at different times.
  • Incompatible: Exclusive use is required. For example, hunting/shooting on Signal Hill is fundamentally incompatible with biking and walking due to safety risks.
• Elite Sport Specialization: As athletes reach higher levels of competition, compatibility decreases because specialized facilities and highly managed training schedules are required.
• Social License in the Built Environment: Events like a marathon or Formula 1 in Monaco are compatible if they are temporary (once a year). They would lose their "social license" (community acceptance) if they occurred daily due to disruption.
• Types of Conflict:
  • Symmetric Conflict: Both parties feel mutual conflict from the presence of one another (e.g., skateboarders vs. scooter riders on a track). This is often managed by scheduling specific days for each group.
  • Asymmetric Conflict: One group is adversely impacted while the other may be unaware. For example, a hiker in a pristine DOC hut feeling conflicted by another user's intrusive use of mobile phones or loud YouTube videos.
• Social Impacts: Most conflicts are short-lived inconveniences, such as light pollution from hockey turfs in winter or noise from one-off parties. These must be managed to maintain the community's social license.

Questions & Discussion

• Question: Should clubs in New Zealand have to rely on volunteers, or what is the alternative?
• Discussion Points: Traditional rugby clubs struggle to maintain expensive, fixed clubrooms that younger generations may not want to use. Younger participants prefer fluid, customized schedules via apps. There is a debate whether dying clubs with shrinking numbers should be kept afloat or allowed to be replaced by newer, specialized sports and digital-first organizations.
• Alternative Model: "Park Runs" were cited as a successful new model where users don't need to sign up or pay unless they want a recorded time, attracting thousands of participants globally through a low-barrier, transient structure.