I am co-owner of a new board that we just created a few months ago (right now, we are in the hole around $1000, but this is our first VB, and I think we are working backwards lol) We started the site before adding all the content that we really needed I.E. The personalized skin/theme, organizing each forum, etc. so now we are working on the site as 50+ members navigate it and post lmao (but at least its only 50 for now)
FlyBoy-You say leaders of each topic niche is pretty much covered, and this is very true, ALTHOUGH, competition can be swift in the coming. Think search engines

who was number one before Google seemingly came out of nowhere? Everyone has a chance to become the number one of thier chosen topic, it just takes alot of time, effort, luck, and a damned good marketing ploy! lol