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I bet someone is already trying to slide into the old park.
Can ww host the olympics?
Is it difficult to defend a trademark when someone else has been using the name for 20 years before you show up?
The Shop
A bit of speculation here, but from what the article says, it sounds like the "new generation" of owners are Jeff Leivonen and his sister. So they inherit their share of the land, see it as a potential money maker (especially with the MXGPs plans to host an event there), and since their high-dollar demands to renew Unlimited Sport's lease didn't work out, decide to try their hand at running major motocross events at the now-abandoned track that sits on their property. If that scenario is true, that's a shitty way of doing business and I hope the events that have historically run at Gatorback move elsewhere. I also hope that the two aunts - who now have zero lease-income from the property - whip their nephew's ass for presumably convincing them that this was a good business decision.
As for the name, it is my understanding the trademarks are claimed by USE of a name, which Unlimited Sports has been doing with "Gatorback Cycle Park" since what, the 80's? 70's? To draw a parallel, you can't own a plaza and have Publix (grocery store) as a tenant, not renew their lease, and then open your own grocery store called "Publix" in the same space with hopes of retaining their customers and capitalizing on what they've built - oh, and keep their sign up while you're at it.
You know who else it means a lot to? Wyn Kern, the City and business owners of Newberry, and the families that have raced there for generations.
If the business owner retains and owns the rights to the name as indicated by filing a trademark, the landowner needs to get permission to use the name.
"The business owner has the Gatorback Cycle Park name trademarked, and wants to open up a new track in southwest Newberry off of CR 337." - From the article
Even if the name existed before he owned the rights, in the past however-many-years he's owned the name, he's built the business associated with that name and isn't necessarily obligate to forfeit the use of the name even to the land owner.
The land owner could use the name but would need to pay the business owner a royalty of sorts to use the name. The landowner should have never relinquished the rights to the name.
Wyn mentioned a few of the family members were fine and accommodating (probably the Aunts) but one guy was horrible to deal with, probably the guy quoted in that article, Mr Levionen. Wyn mentioned that years ago Bill West had similar problems over lease terms with that guys father and now "it's just more of the same". He said the city was great to work with and were expediting the process for permits etc. He seemed very confident on the way things were going. This interview was done sometime before Mondays show, looks like things didn't go as smoothly as Wyn thought.
From what I gather Wyn took over the track and promotions from Bill West and at some point also took ownership for the Gatorback trademark name? So I don't think the landowner people have any case for continuing to use the name. I wonder if they will try to find another lease holder to run the track?
I would be willing to bet that when wyn bought worldsports the naming rights for the mini olympics, winter ams, gold cup, and gator back were all included.
I worked for the wests back in the late 80's/early 90's. Bill was a shrewd and smart guy. The guy I remember them dealing with at gator back was "big gene". I am betting that is mr. Levionen's dad or uncle. Bill didn't talk specifics about their dealings but even I could tell it was a contentious business relationship. I remember him being pretty mad several times after gene visited.
They are in for some hard lessons if they think that they can step in there and run races. I could see somebody trying to slide in there kind of like the deal with ponca. That would be interesting to watch.
I am sure there are all kinds of deals going on behind the scenes. The big questions are how obstructive can the old property owners be to the new park getting permits. Perhaps they have convinced officials that they are the horse to bet on.
Also how supportive will the motocross community be to the owners running events. Even if they get experienced promoters involved I don't see them getting much support from the industry or riders.
I am not sure that they could convince any quality existing events to come there. They already have aquired a reputation for being difficult to deal with, And certainly look greedy in this episode.
I don't think that with a lack of experience there will be any qualifiers or regional in their future. Even though mx sports was not directly involved in what transpired I doubt they will want to be a part. MX sports also tends to be fairly loyal to people they deal with, which they have done with unlimited sports for several years with LL qualifiers, atv nationals, and bringing the usgp to the states this year.
I doubt even the gps would deal with them after this year's fiasco.
I don't think the property owners were ever involved in running or naming the facility.
It will be interesting to watch.
Pit Row
The committee is only an advisory committee, so technically the city commissioner can say "screw it" and still sign on for a special permit. If that did happen, I wouldn't be surprised if it became a legal mess real quick.
Sad state of affairs for Florida motocross. Wyn is in a tough spot, little time to plan ahead of Mini-Os and few places that can host it. Hopefully MXGP goes off well this weekend; still wouldn't be surprised if Mini-Os still do land at WW.
If I was wyn I would be calling Florida Tracks and Trails.;...Perfect place for his events. Problem is they spend zillions of dollars on that place, so they probably wanna get paid big bucks. Based on the sad condition of gatorback, if they made any money there, it didn't go back into the facility. My guess is also this is part of the story.
The new promoter of the old track will have to create something new on new race dates, that's not easy!
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