BIKE POLO ARRESTS DRAW RESPONSE

PARKS DEPARTMENT,

WAREHOUSE OWNERS

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 THE SCENE OF THE CRIME

By Michael Horne

News reports, including a video last night that led off the WITI Fox 6 News, about the arrest of 10 bicycle polo players and one spectator by Milwaukee County Sheriff Deputies has led to offers of a possible indoor winter practice facility for the award-winning team.

According to Jake Newborn of the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin, who was not among the players arrested Sunday, January 10th 2010 at the County-owned O'Donnell Parking Garage, there may be a happy ending to the story yet.

The team has practiced in the parking structure for years, particularly during inclement weather.

The television news coverage, which includes file footage of a game taking place earlier at O'Donnell garage, included a request for property owners and the parks department to help find a resolution to the team's winter woes.

In a message to Milwaukeeworld, Newborn said the team has heard from the Milwaukee County Parks Department and from owners of private warehouses in the city.

Jeff Beaudry, a Parks Department employee could not immediately confirm if the department had contacted the team since the mass arrests, or the nature of the conversation.

But the Team and the County have had a long history of discussions on the matter of Bike Hockey at any time of year, with the players finding their locations thwarted at every turn by threats from Sheriff Deputies and intransigence on the part of the Parks Department, which seems unable to recognize the existence of an urban sport within city limits. 

The players also have had run-ins with the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department at Red Arrow Park, where the unused ice rink provides a durable, attractive and convenient playing field in summer.

However, a letter from Susie Devcich of the parks department to Milwaukeeworld in September vetoed that possibility:

The concrete is a special mixture for the winter ice rink.  Residue from bike tires, etc leave the surface contaminated which will impact the thermal conductivity of the rink surface.  The cooling coils that are under a very thin sheet of concrete are sensitive to any impact.  The cost to repair these coils would be  over $1 million.  The department is obligated to protect this area.

 According to Newborn, also writing to Devcich in September:

Another issue that seemed to arise in the discussion is that we are damaging the rink by playing polo on it.  I would like to clear this up as much as possible now.  Bike Polo is played on cement in many cities and we have traveled to many tournaments over the past 3 years as a club and we have yet to see a mallet, bike, or person do more than scratch cement such as a rock rubbed on it might do.  Polo Bikes have rubber tires, and rubber grips on handlebars, and most players have plastic pedals. The mallets are made of high density plastic and lightwieght aluminum skipoles.  They would have an extremly difficult time damaging several inch think concrete.

Red Arrow would be an ideal location for Bike Polo, Newborn makes clear:

We have played bike polo on that rink several times this summer. Each time we have had dozens of people stop, look, take pictures, ask questions, and tell us how cool it is and that they enjoy watching, or ask to play! People have stopped to get out of their cars and watch games on the parklawn while enjoying a Starbucks coffee drink.  Spectators sit in the chairs and enjoy the weather and a chance to experience a new sport that Milwaukee has to offer. Bike Polo is an unigue and growing sport across the world and it has, at least at Red Arrow brought something interesting and different to downtown on the summer weekends. 

Still the County refused to allow this photogenic activity to take place at this natural location.What about outdoor hockey rinks?

According to the club's letter to the county:

The County Parks website boasts three outdoor roller hockey rinks that we have considered for usage for bike polo.
-Estabrook- is a run down poor condition concrete dilapidated space, taken over by skateboarders
-Warnimont- has foot high weeds growing through the 3 inch wide cracks in the cement, and the fencing looks to be hazardous.
-Hales corners park has basketball hoops and only half a fence lining it. As well as being a 30 minute car ride from where the most polo players live on the Eastside.

None of these would be fit to play bike polo, or for that matter roller hockey.
The downtown area or Eastside nieghborhoods would benefit from a roller hockey/bike polo court to help support the growth of a worldwide new sport.

See the original Milwaukeeworld post here.