BMX NIRVANA
NewRockstar Energy Bike Park aims to be largest facility in country while serving area riders
It takes a certain level of grit to dislocate two toes, break your hand twice, suffer multiple minor concussions and a torn medial collateral ligament — all in the span of five years — and still want to be a professional BMX rider.
Eli Kravetz’s passion for action sports has grown from the time he built his first bike at age 15. Since then, he has become a sponsored bike rider for Lone Star Action Sports and has performed stunt shows across the country at various schools, festivals and rodeos. He has also led bike demonstrations at local schools and NRG Stadium.
But it all started in a skate park in the Houston suburbs. Kravetz would spend hours there with his friends and members of the Houston BMX scene, which for decades has been spread out from the dirt jump riders at the Ant Hills biking trails to street riders across the greater Houston area to small groups in The Woodlands/Conroe area.
“There’s definitely a long history of BMX in Houston, which is nice,” Kravetz said. “All of the BMX riders are pretty laid-back and just enjoy having a good time riding bikes.”
The Rockstar Energy Bike Park, which opens Aug. 16 at Kuykendahl Road and Interstate 45, will incorporate all the things local bikers love while also catering to a national and international bike community.
When it opens, the bike park will be one of the largest in the United States. It will host the 2020 UCI
BMX World Championships in May 2020, and will be certified for professional and sponsored riders to gain points toward qualifying for major competitions.
Sally Bradford is known as the vision behind the bike park, as well as the North Houston Skate Park and Dylan Park, a place for people of all abilities. The executive director of the North Houston Development Corp. has been at the helm of the three major projects in that 30-acre area for the better part of a decade.
When the two first parks opened in 2014, bicycles and BMX were not part of the design. A group of bikers showed up at the opening to plead their case, and Bradford did not need much convincing. She knew they needed to have a place of their own, especially since there was remaining land to develop.
From the beginning, Houston’s biker community was part of the project, by way of a bike committee, to give knowledgeable advice on what would be needed for the local BMX community, but also for competitive bikers across the country.
There is a red-clay racetrack for competitions (with bleachers to seat approximately 2,000), asphalt pump tracks, street courses, freestyle areas and bowls on the 20-acre tract of land. It’s not only for BMXstyle bikes, but all pedal-driven bicycles.
The park will also feature biking trails to connect to the other parks and surrounding wooded areas, as well as a stage and grassy knoll that could seat thousands. There will be an event center available to rent, an educational area, native trees and original sculptures on-site. A dirt pump track will be maintained by local bikers, who can change up the hills as they see fit, Bradford said.
Kravetz was one of the bikers protesting at the opening of the new skate park five years ago when the BMX community learned that bikes weren’t going to be allowed. He believes this new park could help further the progress of his career.
“The park is going to provide new ramps and obstacles to practice on and learn new tricks,” he said. All the parks I currently ride are kind of old, so I feel like I’m struggling to progress … With the new bowls and street course, I will be able to push myself harder than I previously could, and I expect to learn new tricks and combinations much faster than I could before.”
It was a long design process, but it’s time to show the world what Houston has to offer for extreme sports, Bradford said.
The park was paid for with funds derived from the tax increment reinvestment zone, or TIRZ. Planning, design, construction, construction management and equipment cost $26 million by the time of completion, Bradford said. Sponsorships, including the naming rights bought by Rockstar Ener
Eli Kravetz, BMX rider
gy drinks, will go toward operation and maintenance.
Five local entities make up the TIRZ, including the city of Houston, Harris County, Aldine ISD, Spring ISD and Lone Star College.
The Harris County-Houston Sports Authority will program the BMX track and was instrumental in attracting the attention of national and international biking organizations to the park during its construction.
The sports authority is a governmental agency that was created by state legislation to collect taxes to pay for sportsrelated projects and facilities, said CEO Janis Burke. It oversees $1.2 billion in debt services and acts as landlords for Minute Maid Park, BBVA Compass Stadium and Toyota Center and the professional teams that use those facilities. It also holds the bond for NRG Stadium.
“Houston has a great reputation for hosting marquee sports events,” Burke said. “Because of our relationship with USA BMX and with putting bids together as a sports marketing agency, we can go out and sell it, bring in events and media attention and make a positive economic impact through our efforts.”
The bike park and skate park will be the sports epicenter of north Houston, she said.
Once the sports authority was brought into the project, it turned from a typical bike park serving mostly locals to what will be an international training and event site for bikers. The facility won the bid for the national competition months before it was completed.
In addition to lending expertise as a sports marketing agency, the authority will host the major events and do daily programming and on-site classes in STEM. There also will be bikes available for people who don’t have their own.
“It will almost be like a library park, so people can try it out,” Burke said. “Our goal is 20,000 kids in 2020. That’s a pretty big goal.”
The sports authority is also going into area schools with a trailer and bikes to teach elementary students how to ride. Burke said that a number of children at the schools haven’t had the opportunity to ride, so they will be taught a curriculum that has been provided by USA BMX.
Bradford said they are working just as hard for the kids in the north Houston neighborhoods as they are for riders coming in to use the park. She wants it to be a place where parents feel safe dropping their children off for the day, and security will be in place during business hours.
For Kravetz and the rest of the BMX community, he said it will be a place to meet up, hang out and swap ideas for bigger and better tricks.
“There are so many different styles and types of riding, and the new park is really going to cater to everyone whether they like racing, street or park,” Kravetz said. “I’m really excited to see all the new riders that will come out of this park, as well as the older riders I’ve never had the opportunity to meet.”
“There are so many different styles and types of riding, and the new park is really going to cater to everyone whether they like racing, street or park.”