New backing set to drive RampFest Indoor Skate Park to multi venue operations

Impacted by the Coronavirus closures of last year, Melbourne’s RampFest Indoor Skate Park is looking to expand multi venue recreation and sport facility business.

One of Australia's best known indoor action sports venues and brands, RampFest Indoor Skate Park has a track record of developing top athletes who have gone on to compete at Nitro Circus, X-Games and various World Championships.

With a solid foundation at its facility in the Melbourne suburb of Braybrook, co-Owner and General Manager, Chris Bierton, is looking to expand into new locations and create the country's first group of indoor skate parks.

Having recently secured backing from on Select Contracts, an international sport and leisure management company, as a partner in RampFest, the business is currently exploring Brisbane and Adelaide as its next locations.

Founded in 2008, Bierton took over the business in January 2014, fulfilling a long-held dream to run a skate park,

Growing up in Brisbane with a passion for action sports from an early age, Bierton started riding BMX at the age of 12.

Now aged 33, he has been a competitor, coach, event organiser and most recently, a National Selector for the Australian Freestyle BMX Team. It was this wide variety of industry experience that gave him the drive to take over RampFest, which was struggling at the time.

Bierton explains “I had always dreamed of an indoor skate park, and when the opportunity arose, I couldn’t help but feel like I was perfectly suited to it. I knew the industry, and I felt like I knew what the business needed to succeed.”

The hook that action sports had over Bierton is not unique, with young people across Australia and the world are falling in love with activities of skateboarding, BMX, scooters, surfing and snowboarding.

Commenting on the rise in popularity of these activities, Bierton advises “I think action sports present a unique combination of skill, athleticism and expression for participants.

“You become addicted to the progression - and that never stops as you get older. You never have to become a mere spectator - you can keep riding or skating at all ages”.

This growth was identified in the 20134 Australian Sports Commission/CSIRO report The future of Australian sport, which recognised a “megatrend, owing primarily to the unstructured and participant centric nature”.

Recently, the largest endorsement of the growth was the inclusion in the Summer Olympics. Freestyle BMX & Skateboarding are both set to make their debut in Tokyo 2021, which will no doubt bring a level of exposure to the sport that has never been seen before.

Bierton feels that RampFest is well placed to capitalise on this growth. Far from being a mere ‘passion project’, he has applied a systematic business approach over the last six years that has completely revolutionised the way RampFest does business, with detailed programming, all levels of events, structured coaching, high quality retail and a world-class venue.

The RampFest skate park includes training aids such as Foam Pits and ‘Resi’ Landings, as well as many other elements that don’t exist in public skate parks.

Aiming to create lifelong participants in action sports by supporting every step of the journey – from learning to stand on a board, to elite level competition, Bierton notes “I believe that it’s this goal that drives our success.

“We’re trying to be more than simply a ‘transactional’ business. It’s about getting every kid as excited about action sports as I was, and still am.”

With Select Contracts’ backing, Chris Sutton, Chief Executive of Select Contracts, sees the company becoming a multi-venue business, adding “it’s an exciting business model - we love the concept and the whole strategy behind what Chris is doing in Melbourne and we are working to expand the business into the North American market next, with multiple locations under review.”

With a secure business model and a brand that is known nationwide, RampFest aims to keep building venues that become a hub for a thriving action sports community, in doing so, RampFest will bring plenty of ‘stoke’ to youngsters and adults for many years to come.

For more information or to express interest in the business opportunities with RampFest, email: Chris@RampFest.com.au.