Field ownership?

[The Hobbit]

It looks like the opportunity to become an entrepreneur, within the paintball sphere, may present itself in the coming months. Does anyone here have experience with field management and able to discuss what needs done to potentially be successful? Obviously providing a safe and high quality experience is paramount.

[Nish]

I can say this much.

When things go right and you make a hobbies you love work it never feels like work. It can also suck your love of that activity out of you.

I know there are people here that have or do own fields and those that have worked at them that can answer your questions better than I can.

[The Hobbit]

Nish,

that is definitely part of the mental equation, I’m not sure how serious I am but I’d hate to see the only local spot get sold and repurposed. It is an indoor field so year round use is possible. Unfortunately parking isn’t great as it is in an old down town area. The play field itself couldn’t be used for any regulation air ball play. Though it does present unique play opportunities with 3 levels and done right I believe a local “scene” could be built.

[Ecapnation]

Do you enjoy having money?

Then don't do it.

The indoor field I worked with years ago basically made enough to function ok but never turned a significant profit. And during the hotter summer months barely made enough money to keep a full staff.

Nevermind the cleaning and upkeep.... We used to rent a huge industrial vacuum truck and suck out the paint fill from the turf once a month. Plus during the busy season we had to shovel out two dumpsters of paint weekly.

[Chuck E Ducky]

Do you have a business background? It’s a ton of work to do it right.

I would love to own a field. But owners don’t play much. It takes a ton of capital to do it right. Success in business model isn’t always best for the sport. (See Skermish’s model)

OSG paintball is probably the model I would use it’s good paintball. Dave owns the land (key IMO) Low overhead is key. He busted his ass to build what he has now. It’s come a long way from selling rentals out the back of a pick up truck. His model revolves around the player experience. It’s become a destination experience based spot. It draws from all over the US.

I would not invest in paintball honestly. They don’t produce much income with very few exceptions. Those that do got the market wrapped up. Can it be done yup but it’s going to be a fight the entire way. Lots of other investments that provide better returns. I like Rental Income Properties, and Land. Name of the game is passive income. A paintball field is far for passive, it’s a 7 day a week job that may or may not produce income on the weekends. Weather and season dependent.
Insurance cost, liability’s. It’s just not conducive in a downturn economy. I would stay away unless you are looking to replace playing with a paintball hobby business that may or may not pay for itself.

[Cyberpyr8]

Having managed a field myself for a bit, I quickly realized I was never going to have free time to play again. It's a lot of work to keep everyone else happy and going. I really think I could run a field and make it somewhat successful and as I proved in my time managing one, profitable. But it took all of my love for the game and focused it on making everyone else happy. But I didn't gain enjoyment from that. So you have to ask yourself if you love just being around paintball or do you love playing it? There's some that would be happy just making an environment for others to love paintball, and there are others that enjoy the social aspects of paintball but only as a fellow player.

To make a field successful, you will need to run it well and be on top of it constantly. You need great refs that are trained and also good with people. You will need to cater to parties and make sure they have fun and keep them moving. Being an indoor field, is there sufficient room to host parties while allowing the rec players to come in and have room too? Are you equipped to handle having parties take place with miserable parents and overly excited kids? Do you have something there to keep waiting parents entertained or fed? And while that's happening, whose is running your rec players? For rec play you need to keep the games going. There's nothing worse than lags in the day. Plus, if players are sitting around waiting for games, they aren't shooting paint and needing more paint. That cuts into your profits just having players sit around. There's a way to make money but it requires a lot of hustle. And you will need to make sure that's happening.

I had thrown around the idea of starting a field or buying one for a long time. But running an existing field sucked the life and enjoyment of the game out of me. I was more babysitter and manager than player or enthusiast. It is hard to do it right. But you need to understand all of this before putting money in and getting in too deep. I understand all about wanting to keep a local field running. That's why I stepped up and ran mine. But just know you won't really be playing much after you step into that role. If you have the time to play, you aren't running a successful field. That means there's enough down time for you to play and not enough customers to keep the lights on. I admire those that run great fields. It's a love of the game and people that drive them. But players that think they can run a great field usually don't understand to do so means they aren't going to really be players anymore.

[Ecapnation]

Worth mentioning too ....

Sales are up but playership is way down

[Cyberpyr8]

That's because 75% of MCB'ers are hoarding stuff but not going to the field!

[The Hobbit]

Worth mentioning too ....

Sales are up but playership is way down

That seems to be the case, just based on what people here say. The threads about playing vs building markers point to a common trend. It is easier to spend money online building markers vs playing. Now that doesn’t seem to be a financial issue as these people don’t seem to mind spending money to build markers from relatively cheap to crazy custom builds.

The common refrain I see, is lack of available places to play. People say about needing to drive an hour plus one way to play. I understand not wanting to drive that far for “rec” play on a regular basis. I would hope if good opportunities to play at a field exist, more people would make the effort to play.

Now is that a basis for taking a financial leap to try and offer that?

[Ecapnation]

I try to go to the field monthly... But sometimes I show up and it's just me and rentals. It gets boring really fast

[NONOBLITUS]

Follow your gut and desires. Could fail or succeed but don’t live with regrets because of a maybe you should have or shouldn’t. All great points up above but remember your only on this rock once so go for a dream even if it’s a small one.


* side not Ecapnation post up when your playing. I believe your on Connecticuts storm barrier Island. I would hop on the ferry for an event or come on over for some of our games.

[Ecapnation]

Ouch.... Yes that island.

Right now I'm working with management to push forbs day that's advertised as advanced rec play day.

[NONOBLITUS]

That sounds pretty cool , what field is that now. I played out on the island years back at the a big game a few times. Forgot the field name but it was close to the ferry and had a helicopter that would fly over the field distributing paint down from above.

[Grendel]

...But owners don’t play much...

This is why I sold out my share of Paintball Charleston years ago. There were 4 of us who started the field and within a year after the field was turning a small profit I got my partners to buy me out. I am a player first and owning a field was ruining the hobby for me. I have been a staff member of a successful field, scenario game promoter and a field owner so have a fair amount of experience with Paintball Fields. Running a paintball field is not easy it takes a lot of work and sacrifice just to get it up and running then you have to worry about maintenance and staff. It is a business and you have to run it like a business with all that entails. Even after selling out my shares I still helped out but as a volunteer so I could control my time.

Be realistic and develop a business plan and if you do not know where to start look up some Small Business groups in your area and get some help. Check out what support your local government has as well as the Small Business Administration. There is a lot that you need to do in the background if you want to be successful. There are people volunteers many times who are experienced/retired business owners who will help you put together at least a good outline of a business plan.

Some things you need to look into before starting:

• Zoning (this killed us on a couple locations and the field I was staff on had to go fight zoning changes several times) paintball and local government do not seem to get along.
• Who are your prospective neighbors and are they likely going to have a hard time or give you a hard time? Setting up a field adjacent to a housing development might not be the best place....etc.
• Utilities, what is or isn't there already and what it will cost to get them there if they do not already exist
• Insurance - paintball insurance always felt like paying for protection from a gang without any real protection, it might have changed since I was involved but I doubt it. Learn what it does and does not protect you and any Gap in protection make sure you cover with some other form of liability insurance (this varies state to state). Someone will get hurt on the field and it will involve EMS/Ambulance and ER at the minimum. It will happen eventually plan for it and thank god if it never happens
• Staff - volunteer vs. paid staff is usually the first consideration and volunteer is a horrible choice. You have no leverage to insure you have enough staff on any given day. Its a business treat it like a business and hire your staff and be clear they understand the benefits, pay and responsibility for them. Not everyone can be a good ref on the field but they may be great behind the counter....
• Plan out your fields, make sure you know what you can and cannot do to modify the field and make sure the plans are around that. You can use a lot of salvaged and donated material for making fields. It is one of my favorite things to work on when I was on Staff and as an Owner but whatever you do you have got to make sure it is safe and you protect yourself from liability.
• Safety - as part of the field planning you need to take into account safety. That netting is not free and can represent a significant cost
• .....

[The Hobbit]

Thanks Grendel, this information is helpful in understanding the business side of the game.

[Psycho91]

One of the best local fields to ever hit my state went through like what 5 owners in 2 years and all just had to give it up cause they wernt making enough to even keep the field going, then again when i was actively playing alot 10 years ago the scene was pretty good and then I noticed a slight decline and it got to where it was mainly renters with just me or maybe 1 or 2 other people that were experienced players, idk paintball isn't dead but for most there just isn't a local scene anymore

[Nish]

One more piece of advice I can give you, and anyone else thinking about this.

Buy and read this book: https://www.amazon.com/Selling-Out-Y.../dp/1542534828

~120 pages of great information and first hand lessons from a guy that turned a passion into a business.
My degree is in business, I've owned a passion project side business, and I have run organizations. This book is a must read and something I had when building my business plan.

[the_matrix_guy]

The biggest issue is the ever shrinking paintball market. A market which has always been difficult. And it’s always been small, yet its gotten smaller since the 2008 housing bubble recession. You have to consider the fact that you would be taking over a failed business essentially in a bad economy with difficult, if not, disastrous headwinds ahead with ever increasing inflation, income stagnation, etc. those are actually the biggest hurdles because ANY small business is sweat, blood, & tears especially in the first 5 years if you dedicate yourself to its success fully. The problem is the market. It’s tiny. And your hard work and time will not see much compensation. You have to ask yourself some very hard questions. Like what are you going to do differently from the previous ownership? You have to study your market. Your location. Perhaps a different location would be better suited. Perhaps better marketing. With a greater emphasis on .50 cal kid’s birthdays. .50 cal is growing at a bigger pace because it’s obviously more accessible and thus opens you up to a bigger potential market / younger demographic.

[Grendel]

The low impact market and "party" market definitely seem to be the most robust right now for supporting a field's bottom line.

[the_matrix_guy]

Grendel. Precisely, the rental parties are the life and blood of every field. And due to the small size of the market you have to do everything right: Your overhead, and cash burn, and accounting have to be impeccable. For one, maximizing deductions with an LLC is paramount in order to cushion operating costs / overhead. Also, owning the land as opposed to leasing (even if its a single net lease) would be ideal. This also depends on your local realty market and the price of the lease, etc. and even when all that is in place — and even if you are taking steps on the marketing end — running a PB field is mostly a labor of love with very limited prospects for financial freedom.

It is important for field owners to attract both the walk on and the rental birthday parties and doing the marketing investment to get your foot traffic goes a long way. That really is the bottom line. If you have clients then you have cash flow. And .50 is a multi pronged approach to both lowered operating costs / lowering cash burn — and increasing your client base. That is the only thing that would probably differentiate the new owners taking over a failed PB field business. There are other variables of course. Maybe the location is great and the field was just mismanaged (or a combination thereof) However that is unlikely given everything we know about the shrinking, tiny paintball market.

At the end of the day, if you have positive cash flow and have room to invest in marketing comfortably— then that will make your business viable. And it will make the day to day headaches feel manageable.

[The Hobbit]

Thanks for all the advice. Looks like there is a year or so to mull this over before the current owners want to sell.

On a related note this got me thinking. Instead of trying to get players to come to a field, could bringing a field to the players be possible?
Essentially a paintball field in a trailer. Rental equipment, some form of bulk air (SCBA), paint, bunkers, netting, etc packed into a 20ish foot trailer. A group, with land, calls and books then “you” arrive and setup the field. Netting and bunkers would rapidly eat up the trailer space.

Probably need some pretty serious liability insurance. Would an insurance company even entertain such a thing?


sorry, had the thought and I think my coworkers are sick of hearing me talk paintball lol.

[Ecapnation]

Been there done that.... Essentially it was a private function and fell under their homeowners insurance.

We got maybe three larger events a year then some laser tag gigs with the converted Tippmann s but ultimately we made more money with our mobile shooting gallery

[The Hobbit]

That’s about what I figured the end result would be.
I realize on an intellectual level that it anything paintball is an uphill battle. I’ve just been really running through mental exercises to find something that could be viable. Part of it is plotting ways to escape the doldrums of my day job, part is a desire to grow a local “scene” for the game.