How AOer's Treated the Facilitys....

[shockman]

Do they not allow you to bring your own food and drinks to the field anymore? I know when it was at the old place it was nearly encouraged to bring your own stuff.

I have not been to the new place yet as I am getting back into the sport but to be honest it doesn't even seem worth it to go there. 1600 PSI fills? Everyone has been complaining about running out of AIR, there should not be any excuse for that. I wanted to be there so bad this weekend but prior obligations (and the lack of a marker) prevented me from doing so. It really baffles me on how much of a lack of detail to organization there was this weekend. If what you guys say it true should not someone be held responsible? I know everyone spent a great deal of money to participate, airfare, hotels, entry fee, paint...

The garbage thing is unfortunate as it does give a bad rep out. The bad part is that a bad rep on a group of players far exceeds a bad rep on a field, IMO. If there were not adequate facilities why should these guys cart garbage in their vehicles to throw away in a dumpster? If they left a complete and total mess w/o any regard to cleaning it up then that sure seems irresponsible. Hopefully everyone can look forward to the next event and put this behind them. Hopefully mistakes can be corrected and next time everyone is happy with everything.

Was the AIR problem a freak incident? Or does this field have a long going problem with that? If it is an issue that does not want to be addressed by them, then I will look to playing and spending my money elsewhere.

[manike]

Originally posted by shockman
Do they not allow you to bring your own food and drinks to the field anymore? I know when it was at the old place it was nearly encouraged to bring your own stuff.

Oh I forgot about that bit... You weren't allowed to bring your own food or drinks on site... !!!

Some guys with a coolade thingy got turned back! others got in with them.

They were forcing their own paint (not original intention) and own food and drink on people.

manike

[Tron]

Who won?

-Tron

[cphilip]

Sounds like we are going to have trouble seperating the Subject of trash at Paintball fields and the poor organization. Manike makes a good point, maybe there was not enough facilities here to do it. But it sounds like the other ones where able to do it. Well Well... this all is disturbing for certian. But heck let's air it all out then!!!

[Load SM5]

I also saw very few places to toss trash. I carried mine all the way back to the Airgun tent to throw it away in the garbage bag we had. And while I'm sure there were AO'ers to blame for the trash, there were other individuals who moved into our area.

As far as the air fills go it was terrible. I only left the field twice all day with hits. Every other time I had fought my way into a good position only to run out of air. That frustrated me beyond belief. Was it a surpise to CPX that we were coming? Did they think that we would just be happy with 16oo psi airfills, after paying $150 plus paint to be there? It seemed to be that they were out to choke every dollar out of us and give us nothing in return. I hope to make next year's Shatnerball but dearly hope it's in another location or that CPX gets it's collective crap together and learns the meaning of customer service.

[Skreemer]

As to the number of trash cans... when we showed up in the morning there were two trash cans per pavillion and at least a few more scattered about the general area... the AO pavillion had 2 trash cans and at about 11:00 a woman came by and checked the trash cans to make sure we had enough space in them. At the time the cans were mostly empty mainly because play hadn't really gotten going by then. By 1:00 the cans were pretty full but no one (myself included) asked someone for a trash bag or for a person to come out and remove and replace the bag that was there. I guess no one else was smart enough to notice that not 100 feet away there were the large dumpsters open and available.

After the day of play most folks went over to see what was going on for the closing ceremony. I stayed behind because I wanted to pack up and stay out of the sun. after packing all our crud I policed the area around the table I was at to clean up a bit... just then two refs showed up and started cleaning the area. I looked about and saw the utter pigsty that was left behind in our pavillion. So there i am with two refs cleaning up when my little crew comes back Nerobro, Pi, Erin and Azemoth... they see what a huge mess that's left behind and start helping the refs and I clean up. That's 7 people cleaning up and it took us 20 minutes. I was appalled. I have seen some people post a justification that the field "owed" us because of the difficulties they were having. Screw that. I say that if I ever come over to your house and I don't think the food is very good instead of throwing it in the trash I'll just throw my plate full of food on the floor and leave. I'll figure you owe it too me for serving bad food.

I am not going to defend the field, what happened was terrible. The air station going down due to the humidity and heat of the day I mean how dare they do that.

Not allowing food or drink onto the field. The nerve of them getting zoned as an amusement park and the board of health not allowing them to let outside food or drink into the park. How can they stand themselves upholding state law?

Now after all that here's some suggestions(see look instead of just whining I post suggestions too).

E-mail Challenge Park about your concerns. Whining on this board isn't going to help you much.

Pressure Brass Eagle. They own the largest stake in the park and make up most of the rules that the guys who run the field have to abode by.

Tell your sponsors and local fields about the time you had and let them know that if they are going to sponsor a big event such as this to make sure they have some back up plans in case bad things happen.


In the end to sum it all up, no matter what happened on or off the field there was no excuse to leave such a mess behind.

[shartley]

Yes that is right, using going over to someone's house to eat for FREE and paying $150 + paint and everything else is a good comparison. (not to mention travel and lodging)

And equipment going down, and acting like that was NOT their fault? That is why people have backups. You don't spend the amount of time they did planning, promoting, and such only to then do what they did (from what I keep reading).

Also, to mention that noone ASKED that the trash be picked up? Come on.... do you ask at McDonalds that they empty their trash? Some of you people seem to think what you went to was someone's backyard "fun day". They are running a business, and do I feel sorry for refs and other staff members having to WORK? No. It is one thing to be a courtius patron, it is another to seemingly expect NOTHING from the place of business you are at.

If they had adequate staffing, adequate prep work, and everything else that goes along with running even the simplest of events (let alone a mega event) none of the things I keep reading would have even been an issue.

I have been to enough fairs, air and auto shows, rodeos, car races, and other big events to know that it is often the little things that make the event run smoothly. And it seems that this time it was all about taking your money... and taking your money... and taking your money.

Yes, people seemed to have a good time in spite of the problems, but to now make a big deal out of some trash in an area designated to be a gathering place (and not out on the field or in the parking lot, etc.) seems a bit on the silly side.

But what the heck... SHAME ON YOU FOLKS! YOU PIGS! I hope you all send in an official apology letter to the owners and event coordinators.... after all, you made them have to pick up a bit of trash.... and I would bet it came from what they made you buy on location. How thoughtless of you.

I think some people are getting just a bit picky about 20 minutes of work.. compaired to all the other stuff people have been posting, they would have to work about a week to earn what they made off of the event VS what they provided the participants.

I know I would not have been very happy with crappy paint, poor reffing, low fils, and the other things I keep reading about. But maybe that is why Paintball has not progressed as far as many of us would like it to? You will only get what you demand.... and some should demand just a little more.

Again... you folks who left the trash... IDENTIFY YOURSELVES! Everyone else grab a rock!

[Tron]

Can I ask for my money back since I threw away my trash? People shouldn't have to justify such a crappy time by saying it was for charity.

I say if you do a favor you do it as you were getting paid. That is why when you ask for favors you don't do half a job or a mickey mouse job. You do it as if you were getting paid and you do it right. Same with charity. I have done a few charity events involving lan parties and have taken out of my pocket to make sure everthing was run right. I don't skimp because heys its not for us its for the kids...

Sucks there was a lot of trash but they should of had a lot more people dumping trash or put a dumpster right next to the pavallion.

About the outside food they should of set up a picnic area or something outside for people to eat. I read that someone had a BBQ how did they manage that? You can even bring food into disneyland if you eat at the picnic areas. I would get pissed if I was paying $1-2 for a small water or gatorade when I could bring 10X the amount for the same price.

-Tron

[RobAGD]

Too be honest, I asked several people in the area to police up thier trash. I made teh kids I brough clean up the bags and paper towles in our area and left the full boxes for a staff member to dispose of. The cans I went to were full and I didnt see a dumpster, So I left a stack of 4 paint boxes packed with litter.

The lack of Air and other problems in no reason to trash an area.

BUT !

for $150 + $60-100 for paint per case + $5-10 for parking and the consessions and the general crap youwould expect them to have freaking air fills PERIOD they had days to call in tank trucks or rent compressors from the PSP or Air Amercia. There was no excuse to not have air fills or paint.

WTF would they have done with 3000 people ?

Yes it was for charity, I did have fun in fact I had a blast. I like CPX alot for the fields but not the player support end. The Food lines & chrono lines were flat out un acceptable.

Funny thing is, I heard they part of teh reason for the cut back air lines were power problems and running all teh boosters and compressors made the stuff in the main building flicker and stuff off.

CPX made out well on this event, the sad part is that they felt the need to be so cheap as to not get the correct equipment to do things right, as THAT SHOULD HAVE DONE, just like players should have picked up thier trash.

-Robert

[TransMan]

Well i wasnt at the AO pavilion and I was lucky enough to have a Garbage can beside my table. I do have to say that I would go to another Shatnerball so long thats its NOT at CPX. I feel bad that a few people had to spend 20 mins cleaning up a bit of garbage. I would have helped but I cleaned up and left as soon as the game was over.

I will never go back to CPX ever again The air was horrible i was lucky to have a 114ci tank. Most of the time i was shot out on the feds side of the field so the 2500psi fill station was on my way back.

I put the blame on CPX it was there fault for not informing the refs or having enough refs. We had to pay 150$ and then buy way over priced paint and 2$ drinks. After paying that much for a drink I went out and got my cooler so i would have something to drink. I am sorry to hear about the trash but i ddnt put it there and I sure they wont have a problem with many AOers leaving anything there ever again.

[Azemoth]

My utter disgust for this injustice.

Ok, first things first, we paid a crap load of money to play at a scenarion game, BUT! lets break down the facts.

135-150 dollars for the registration. Lets get a little rough break down.

Custom jersey ~ $50 from animal paintball
Shatner's Appearance fee ~ $30 maybe?
Mancow's Appearance Fee ~ $10 maybe?
CPX's Field fee ~ 15 dollars.
Also that leaves approximately 30-45 dollars going to charity per registration. That sounds about right to me. Yes Shatner was doing this for charity, Yes, mancow and tom were doing this for charity but public figures still have appearance fees.

So, CPX might MIGHT have made a little more than their normal field fee.

Agreed, they didn't have the supply to meet the demand of the air at central park, but if you wanted to walk a little bit out of the way, or OH MY GOD!!!! Take a PROVIDED tram, you got a 3k to 4500 fill.

Paint, well...if you wanted good paint for 60 bucks a case, then I have some ocean front property in Colorado for ya. IF you wanted decent paint it was 80-100 dollars a case, big deal! The advertisment even said, paint AS CHEAP as $.03 a round, didn't say, unlimited supply , or Good paint for that cheap.

Now, to the main point of this post.

The staff IS paid to clean up their areas. And what RobAGD did was fine, I don't care if you guys would have left the boxes stuffed with trash, but myself and a few other people decided to stay and clean up your LOOSE garbage so that AO didn't get a bad name for ourselves. I like being part of something that has honor and respect attached to it. And from what I met of most of the people I would agree so do you. Hell, while we were cleaning up we even found a revvy that was left behind that we returned to the original owner because why?...Most of you didn't check your stuff to make sure it was all garbage before leaving it.

And, the point made earlier about the free meal being nothing like the day of paintball. That is correct. But, lets say that I go to a restaurant and spend over 200 dollars with dinner and drinks, and my meal is horrid. Do you think that It would be ok to throw the food on the ground, and dump the wine on the table , and leave the table I was sitting at a complete mess? Well if you do, then I guess the point isn't going to get made with you, and if you are that type of person, please don't respond to this because I have nothing more to say to you. If that type of person is you, you are an ignorant slob, and I hope that I am never connected by reputation with anything you do.

Point made. Moving on, thanks.


P.S. On a lighter note, I did have a lot of fun meeting the A.O. people that I met, and am not pointing any fingers personally at anybody. This is a general statement. I hope to be around you guys and gals again for a great day of paintball. I had a great time and would have not chosen to be on any other team or to play with anyone else.

Thx for your time,

-Az
Jared Sampson

[Skreemer]

Again... you folks who left the trash... IDENTIFY YOURSELVES! Everyone else grab a rock!

Never once have we asked someone to step forward and claim responsibility.

Yes that is right, using going over to someone's house to eat for FREE and paying $150 + paint and everything else is a good comparison. (not to mention travel and lodging)

so I guess it makes everything OK if your paying... hell I pay for the forest preserves in my taxes I should be able to trash and burn em down as much as I want right? They pay the forest rangers to be our trash collectors right? and hell I pay a hell of alot more in taxes than the $150+ incidentals...

And equipment going down, and acting like that was NOT their fault? That is why people have backups. You don't spend the amount of time they did planning, promoting, and such only to then do what they did (from what I keep reading).

If you noticed I did put a little peice in there about how they should of had back ups. Like I said in my first reply keep whining in this board what is it going to get you... absoloutly nothing...

Yes, people seemed to have a good time in spite of the problems, but to now make a big deal out of some trash in an area designated to be a gathering place (and not out on the field or in the parking lot, etc.) seems a bit on the silly side.

There was plenty of trash in other areas for example the parking lot and the road leading to the field was a mess. The problem is I don't know who made that mess nor do I know who to direct my comments towards... in this instance I saw who left the mess behind I know whose banner was hanging above the pavillion all day. I heard the comments from the refs "Those AGD guys left one hell of a mess." Notice the ref didn't say AO, he said AGD. Nice reputation you leave behind on a company you support...

[soulegend]

I went up to hear the final speech, along with the auction and point totals. By the time that was over, and I went back to get my gear, everything had been cleaned up. I'm sure I hadn't made much of a mess, because I was throwing things in the trash left and right. However, if I had left trash all around, I would think that the park employees are paid for certain things, like cleaning up. It always pissed me off when my teachers all throughout school told me to clean up trash around my desk (that wasn't even mine) and such. I think janitors should do some damn work to get paid. But okay, so people should usually clean up for themselves. But the fact that players were so damn screwed because of air, food prices, paint prices, chaotic game play, miscommunication in rules and such, does warrant some sort of reason to want to leave all your cardboard paint boxes around (which are so damn hard to pick up). But hey, after spending a rediculous amount of money to participate in all this mayhem, I can't be upset. I had fun, and it was all so sick kids could play with a few horses. So stop *EDIT* Apology below accepted. Army about having to clean up.

[soulegend]

oops.. sorry for swearing..

[shartley]