Starting a Field

[Onryou]

I have a few questions that hopefully you guys and girls can aswer for me or can at least point me in a good direction to find my own answers.

Heres the setup. A friend of mine has recently come into a plot of land. It is 10 acres in size (is that big?) and he has asked for my assistance in setting up and operating a paintball field. So i'm trying to get as much info as I can about what goes into it.

1) Is 10 acres enough if I plan on having multiple fields of play?
2) How big should the average speedball field be? 3-man? 5-man? 10-man? Does it even make a difference?
3) What would be the best rental setup? I know Tippmanns are what more fields go with but I wanted to get other opinions first.
4) Sup'Air bunkers or EZ Bunkers?
5) Should we include woodsball? A Cityscape?
6) CO2, HPA, or both?
7) Should we have an actual storefront or just a field?
8) What kind of vendor discounts do companies usually give to storefronts for resale of merchandise?

[abunkerer]

id do an all airball fields, and get a nice hpa syatem that can do 4500 reliably
pay a flat rate to go on (field fee and all day air 20-25$)
and have it bring your own paint, but also sell both cheap and good paint.

get some good refs, start small and cater to the players

[BlackWeenie]

1) Is 10 acres enough if I plan on having multiple fields of play? yes.
2) How big should the average speedball field be? 3-man? 5-man? 10-man? Does it even make a difference? i would say 5-man is average
3) What would be the best rental setup? I know Tippmanns are what more fields go with but I wanted to get other opinions first. you could try to get your hands on some cheap mags, theyre cheap and just as if not more reliable than tippmans. you could always go the piranha rental route...
4) Sup'Air bunkers or EZ Bunkers? sup'air ball
5) Should we include woodsball? A Cityscape? a cityscape would be really cool, since it would set your field apart from all the others. might bring in more customers because its not the same old speedball/woodsball
6) CO2, HPA, or both? DEFINATELY both
7) Should we have an actual storefront or just a field? start with just a field, then when you can, go for a store.
8) What kind of vendor discounts do companies usually give to storefronts for resale of merchandise? no idea.

another thing to consider is your location. is it easy to get to? if its far away then people probably wont come (that is if there is another field in town thats easier to get to). unless you have something really original that would draw ppl out.

[BlackWeenie]

[QUOTE=abunkerer]pay a flat rate to go on (field fee and all day air 20-25$)
and have it bring your own paint, but also sell both cheap and good paint.[QUOTE]

forgot to add this in... DONT HAVE BYOP. this will severly cut back on profits and make it very hard to stay in business. just sell the paint at a fair price.

abunkerer's mention of all day air and field fee is good. that'll work just fine.

[professor_chaos]

I think Blackweenie summed it up pretty well and if I'm not mistaken you have to have a license for anything above 3000 psi. I also like sup' air fields but like the looks of the balzlistic bunker too. www.balzlistic.com shows some of the bunkers, they are a nice alternative and don't look cheap either.

[CoolHand]

blah . . . . blah . . . . . .
Answers are inline in red.
1) Is 10 acres enough if I plan on having multiple fields of play?
Maybe. Use the field sizes below, decide how many of each you want, and tally up the total. There are 43,560 square feet in an acre.
2) How big should the average speedball field be? 3-man? 5-man? 10-man? Does it even make a difference?
Standard 5 man (as far as I know) is 190' x 85' , we use 150' x 75' for 3 man, and I want to say that 10 man is 290' x 150' (I am not 100% sure of the 10 man though, I've never personally layed out a 10 man field).
3) What would be the best rental setup? I know Tippmanns are what more fields go with but I wanted to get other opinions first.
Tippmanns are pretty much bullet proof, that's what I'd go with.
4) Sup'Air bunkers or EZ Bunkers?
I'd skip them both, and go with hyperball tubes (thick walled, black, corrugated, HDPE (High Density PolyEthakine) drain pipe) for your speedball fields, and I'll tell you why. #1 - Airball bunkers are easily vandalized (just ask around on AO for a victim of that or two), and very easily blown away. #2 They are a pain to set up and take down, but they will UV rot if you leave them out (if they don't get cut up, or blown away). #3 Hyper tubes are cheaper than both Airbunkers, and the EZ bunkers. #4 The hyper tubes are heavy enough not to blow away in a storm, and usually too heavy to steal, and too hard core to tear up or vandalize. #5 The plastic won't rot, and is UV stable for like a century ( )
5) Should we include woodsball? A Cityscape?
Depends on your core clientel. If its mostly new folks, or army type guys with tippmanns and spyders, I'd have at least one, maybe many, woods fields. You might spend the time to build an urban assault course, if your main players are heavy into mil-sim.
6) CO2, HPA, or both?
Again, depends on your main clientel. If you don't have the high end guys, with the high end markers, then CO2 will get you by (at least to start). If you are going after the speedball high bps crowd, you'll almost be forced to have HPA. CO2 is cheap, so in that case, I'd say both.
7) Should we have an actual storefront or just a field?
That's a tough one, and really only depends on your capital situation. A storefront or proshop at the site will look much more professional, but buildings cost money. At the very least, you will need a covered area with a table or two, and access to electricity. Be it a collapsable shelter, or an open sided building (essentially a roof with four poles holding it up) with a either a drop cord and a generator, or a permanent service hookup and breaker box. Your $ supply will dictate how you handle that.
8) What kind of vendor discounts do companies usually give to storefronts for resale of merchandise?
That depends, but I wouldn't count on anything over a 3% markup. Some places are a little better, some a little worse. Best to plan for the worst, and hope for the best.

The damned 10 character filter doesn't like it when I respond inside the quotes.

[marfish]

Yea, what they said. However, since airbunkers are expensive, you might have other fields set up of scrap construction material and giant spools along with old or damaged ductwork(for the snakes). You could also have half-buried pipes, old cars, storefronts(building profiles for your town field).

By all means have both Co2 and Air. Sell paint(good proffit) but let them bring their own too. Think of maybe having it be a mostly informal and private field at first(no walk-on fees) where you can still sell paint and air. Let the guys "pay" their way by working at the field helping you build it and acting as reffs in return for free field time. That way they have interest in keeping it up and reducing vandalism. and they take some measure of "ownership" in how the place looks and runs. Ask your guys for their opinions on what they'd like to have and where it should go b/c everyone's opinion is is valuable(at least to them) and we all appreciate recognition for our ideas. On the same token, give credit to the guys(no one likes his ideas stolen )

As you expand and open up to the public, start with only a few rentals bacause most people will want to buy their own markers soon and there are usually several guys that bring a small arsenal of various markers and will let people borrow them if a marker breaks. As they pay for themselves, get more rentals if you need them. Tippman guns make good rentals b/c they are very trouble-free but cost more than Spyders. Call around to the various distributors to see what kind of deal you can get. Also, rentals should be simple since you gotta service them. With the renewed interest in pump/stock class play, you might have a few pump guns for the guys to try out.

Your official refs. are the backbone to a successful field. The mood on the field is largely influenced by them and you want paying customers to come back with carloads of friends. Stress to your refs. that they are to be watchful , and above all FAIR TO EVERYONE . They should get as much training as possible and conduct themselves in a professional manner. If they need protective shields I can hook you up with as many as you need.

Just my 2 cents worth,

Marlan

[RTDynaflow]

My opinion...

3 airball fields
3, 5, and 10 man, and it makes a big difference to what teams in the area that will start playing there.

1 or 2 speedball/hyperball fields

1 or 2 woods fields (if you have woods..). I would definately add a city or two.

I would say tippmans as well. The majority of people who come in and need rentals want to play "war". Run around in the woods and shoot each other. Tippmans would be best in this situantion. You don't see many rental tippmans one the airball fields...

I would say both. W/ a 4500 fill station. Sad when fields can only fill to 2000....

As far as a storefront/ just field... If you can swing it a nice indoor facility, fully climate controlled. Area for players to sit down on some couches. A pro store would be a huge attraction as will. Not to mention a tech, or atleast someone marker savy who runs the pro shop. Of course if you don't have the money for this, start small, and tend to the majority of players in your area.

Vendor discounts, I will let someone else comment here. I know nothing of the sort. I would assume you would need several wholesale contracts with different people. Try National paintball, or the likes.

Something else to look at, you will need insurance and what not. Atleast I would assume...??? I have no first hand experience owning/running a field.


Unsure if 10 acres would be enough. I think it would be plenty for 5, 6, 7+ fields. I would aim towards speedball the most. You make most of the money on paint, and speedball is the ideal way to waiste said paint.

Running water and indoor restrooms is a huge plus. Most of all, I would have a very laid back attitude. Get some refs that are young, but mature, and easy going. The field I play at, 95% of their refs are 13-18. Not to mention they will work for paint credits . Slave labor.... . Plenty of benches and for the love god, shade! Where I play, they have a nice little safe area w/ about 40 or so picnic styles tables and all of them have canopy shades.

Have a BYOP fee, but allow it. At first you may even try free admission as a grand opening hype thing. Just charge paint and air.



I even drew you a little picture... Edit: should have done it in paint... o well

Hope this helps. Goodluck!

BTW, where is this future field to be located?

[Onryou]

you guys are being a whole lot of help. please keep the opinions coming. its going to be in my hometown of hopkinsville, KY; provided all the paperwork goes through with the city. the closest competitor is 30 minutes away and alot of hopkinsville's players go there to play at least 1-2 weekends a month. I hate to take away someone elses customers but i also hate to make the drive, so i'm sure some of the other players are too.

[SlipknotX556]

Alright, well heres some tips from me about building a field...

I see you live in Kentucky, is snows in Kentucky, so some players might not want to play during the winter, so a indoor field would take care of you all year round, so even in those hot summer days you can play inside with A/C. If you cannot afford an indoor field, get an outdoor one, but ethier shut down for in the winter, or just play it. But then you would have to get winter filled paint, which I believe costs more. 10 acres I think is more than enough, now the fields. It really depends on how many people would show up, I would start with 2, see if over the course of half a year, if 2 airball fields, is not cutting it, purchase 2 more. The type of airball fields, I would suggest, is just get 5 man fields, get an Xball field, from what I hear they are very fun to play. Now, you should also get a hyperball field, so when people are all on the airball, the people that like the feel of the airball, will not just wait or hog the airball field, they will go play the hyper. Make it a decent size hyperball field. Now, for the first timers, or just come a couple times a year, you would need atleast 2 wood fields. Next thing you would need to do is get a friendly staff, FAIR refs, not kids that just stand out there and make the worst calls in the world. Next thing would be entry and paint, entry if the field is good and you charge them 25 for entry and all day air. Now do not do BYOP, if you do your field will go down, in a year. 60 a case would be good, if you have a nice facility. Now heres where you can get customers from all around, have a decent sized building where you have to go into, to sign in and pay entry and pay for your paint, get airfilled. Also within that building have indoor bathrooms with running water, vending machines, a lounge area with a big TV, run paintball DVDs on it, or what I think would be sweet, have cameras pointing to each of the fields, hook them up to the fields, so people in the lounge area can watch the people outside play. The staging area outside should be shaded area, for those summer, spring days.

Hope this helps, hope you do build your field.