Want to Expand Paintball? Only one way.

[thorn]

i think that the only way they will get to jack down practice costs is reballs. other than that, rec games or tourneys u couldnt use them. but for speedball teams, like the one i play on, an indoor field that uses reballs and has a way of recollecting them seems to be the best option. but reballs are expensive.

[PBX Ronin 23]

Paintball, the only sport that embraces new technology while fearing change.

This has to be one of the best quotes that I have ever read about paintball. It's so apropos.

There's a couple of basic tenets that been mentioned that I do not wholeheartedly agree with.

From my experience as a store owner and field operator, the best way to grow the sport is to promote any means necessary to expand the incoming uninitiated players. Get them to the field more often, How? By making the field more accessible to major population centers.

Make sure their starter equipment is as cheap as possible and still be a reliable as it could possibly be made. How? By having the manufacturers design the best possible products and have them made to the highest possible level of quality for the least amount of money....Taiwan anybody?

By pushing the overall cost of playing as low as possible. Paint pricess have been steadily dropping in the past couple of years. The competitive nature of the industry practically ensures that while the economies of scale kicks in, better and cheaper means of producing paint will be developed. Who in this forum ever thought five years ago that some fields will be selling a case of paint for as low as $40? Who would have imagined?

Of course these things can only be achieved if no additional restrictive or prohibitive legislations are to be put forth by our government either on the local or federal level.

[PBX Ronin 23]

i think that the only way they will get to jack down practice costs is reballs.

Paintball as a game has always been predicated on marking your opponents. Does Reball do that? Considering the issues of cheating in paintball, where do you think Reball can help the sport in that regard.....

This is not intended as a flame and I hope that it is not taken as such.

[shatter_storm]

I think the paintball/skiing analogy is flawed.
Worst Case - casual play/ski:
Locally, lift tickets to any of the major mountains here will run you $30-$60. Rentals will be another $30. Food is way overpriced - $8 for a sandwich, $2.50 for a drink. You're looking at $100 a day if you don't own your equipment.
All-day play at my local field runs $15. $20 if you need to rent gear (that's $5 more, not $20 more). Paint ranges from $40 to $80 a case, price goes up slightly if you buy bags instead of a case. Food and drinks can be bought at the food shack for $2.50 a burger, $1.00 a drink (gatorade/water/soda). For a day's play, if you just have a small lunch and shoot a case of paint (!), it's going to cost $65.

Best Case - own your gear:
Seasons pass costs between $699 and $1200 here. I don't know what ski gear will cost you, but I'll assume lohman's got it right and it'll cost $1000 or so. $1700-$2200 for the season and you bring your own lunch.
My local field doesn't offer season's passes, so lets say you play every sunday for the whole year. That's $765 in field fees. Depending on your setup, you can play on $500 or $2500 of gear - I've got about $1500 invested between two markers, two sets of pants/jersey/masks, and two air systems.. so lets go with half that: $750. If you're still doing a case a weekend, you're going to spend $2040 on $40/case paint. Bringing your own lunch nets you a total bill of $3555 - *AND YOU PLAY EVERY WEEK*.

Run the numbers, paintball is cheaper where I live. Paintball has done nothing but get cheaper every year, and skiing has done nothing but get more expensive.

If anyone else wants to confirm the pricing, I'm using Sunday River in Bethel, Maine as the skiing location and Rogue Paintball in Standish, Maine as the paintball location. Links here:
Sunday River lift ticket pricing
Rogue Paintball Pricing