Am I the only person who has no problem with paintball today?

[Triangle]

Another irony. AutoMaggot68, the guy who got perma-banned from AO for creating problems on AO, is here under a new name, and the one talking about "Am I the only person who has no problem
in paintball
".

Maybe you dont see the problems because you are part of the problem.

So do something about it, friend

[Ken Majors]

Locally, the paintball where I am is suffering. Most all of the fields near me (<50miles) have closed, are closing, or are under new management from a recent sale. There used to be a paintball store in the town I live in, but it closed this past year.
It is not that there is a lack of paintball players, because there are plenty.
Maybe the internet hurt business, maybe it was the fact that the kids that came to the fields/stores stole the guys blind if given half a chance.

The fields would sponsor teams, the teams would work the fields on the weekends as part of the sponsorship. The field owner would run the registration, and store part while the sponsored players worked the field. Common setup.
The problems arise when these "refs" would invite all their buddies to come out and hang out while they worked.
Smoking, cussing, and basically being smacktards. So...fathers would bring their kids out ONCE...and never return. Or a church group would come out ONCE...and never return.
These little hoodlums basically ran off all the self respecting people.
They would steal from the customers while they were playing, break into vehicles, and if the field owner came down to the field to see how things were going, they would go in the back door of the shop and take what they wanted.
This happened at 3 fields. 1 of which is still out of business and will never re-open. The other 2 fields are under new management by some pretty good people and I hope they can manage those issues effectively.
The store in town here suffered similarly. The owner was an older gentleman and was pretty gullible. He would take old beatdown markers in on trade. He would install parts free, he would fill air for nothing if you bought something. Overall a really good guy.
So the kids would come in and while one would distract him, the other kids would steal everything they could.
They broke into his store about twice a month and stole everything. The cops would catch them (sometimes), but the merchandise would have long been traded away on PbNation before they could recover it. He stayed open for 2 years keeping all his inventory in his basement. He finally realized that it was more trouble than it was worth, and closed down after many years of service to the local paintball community. He was an AGD certified airsmith and a certified Tippmann Tech. He was very proud of those certificates hanging on his wall. Probably in his late 60s or early 70s, his knowledge, and wisdom is a great loss to everyone.

These folks are friends of mine. They have talked me out of opening a field more than once. I had dreams of an indoor reball field. The main thing that keeps me from doing it is KNOWING that I will lose more money than I make, just in the reballs that walk out the door.

Paintball is fine. - Just not here.
I'm sure that this situation is unique to where I live. Nowhere else in the world could possibly have these situations.

[gruntbull]

I enjoy PB today more than I did 10 yrs ago or even 15 yrs ago when I first started playing. Its a little faster paced, and there are some people that do things a bit odd from time to time, but it has more people and that means more targets which means more to shoot, which means more paint... ok so I have a problem paying for a lot of paint.

Reading the post above mine shows something though....
To make it you need quality people around you, you cant get anywhere by yourself, you need to ensure to surround yourself with quality people. Whether just a player or a owner of a field, if you can not trust the help, then get them out of your way. Find family or friends or mature people to get your work done. Pay them accordingly, you wont make a ton, but you will not have issues such as that.

For a Reball field, I suggest an ID card for ball rental. Then you check their bags before they leave before they get their ID card back.

[don miguel]

im cool w/ paintball today. it sure brings up alot of conversations.