Return Of The " Drive-in " !

Scientists warn that the Coronavirus may never be completely eliminated. We may never be able to return to the days when vast crowds watched sporting events or it was safe to dine in fuggy restaurants where patrons were seated close together.  We appear to be heading into an era of partial isolation where the wise will keep a safe distance from one another.

One of the casualties of this pandemic has been the movie industry.  A lot of money has been invested in movie theatres to create the big screen and big sound effect that attracts viewers.   At the moment they are shut and there is a big doubt that they will ever regain their former glory.  The movie industry has moved to a new genre of showing its wares to smaller audiences via television or smartphones.  The thrill and excitement of a night out at the movies seems relegated to a previous era.

Sixty years ago we experienced the phenomenon known as the " Drive in ".  The family car provided the seating and when you parked it in a designated outdoor theatre a rather tinny speaker on a post brought sound to your car.  The movies were shown on a giant screen and this became a very popular form of entertainment.

Those drive-in venues are mostly long gone.  Land costs and housing demand made them targets for developers but today's sporting venues are surrounded by massive car parks that could easily be converted to the drive-in movie theme and the modern car has an integrated sound system that could handle the movie dialogue.  That presents a challenge to the clever people who made movie theatres such a thrilling experience.  Science has moved a long way since the era of movie projection used in drive-ins so long ago.

The drive-in has a huge benefit in the era of virus infection.  The family sitting in a car watching a movie has no direct contact with other people or a need to use public transport to get to and from the theatre.  More to the point, those car parks deemed so essential to getting crowds to sporting events stand empty for most of the time.  The land value would be enhanced by a return of the drive-in venue on the nights no sporting activity is scheduled.

Once again this presents opportunity for the entrepreneur.  It will take investment to get venues ready for a drive-in role and the land owners will expect some reward for its use.  If their demands are too greedy it will impact on entry prices to the detriment of the project.  In particular, this may be the golden opportunity for the horse racing industry.  It is mainly a day time industry and it has vast car parking areas adjacent to race tracks.  Putting that to use as a drive-in venue would be a creative way to create a public benefit by way of making use of something that is normally idle.