Ketchikan paintball? Ward Lake Road?

[freedom]

So, I was on a bus going to Harriet Hunt Lake, and the bus driver pointed out a defunct paintball field off the road and said something like, 'They don't play paintball there anymore since the gel from the paintballs is made from fish oil, and that attracts the bears.' The field appeared largely intact, and all the orange plastic barriers still looked serviceable. The sign on a dilapidated wooden shack along the road said "Hot Shot paintball". I'm sorry, I didn't get a picture.
Has anyone ever played there? And why would bears be the reason no one plays there? I think a government agency shut it down. Any info?
I would love to rent in Ketchikan for longer than 6 months to get residency. Would be a great place to get to play at or even start it back up...

[gabe]

I've never heard of that field. There was one in Kenai that shut down for the usual reasons mostly insurance cost and low player turnout. Paint certainly doesn't attract bears any more than the usual snacks and stuff people bring out to the field.

[iamthelazerviking]

I am not anywhere remotely close, but this is really interesting haha

[flyweightnate]

Well that's just great. You hear that Ed? Bears.

[iamthelazerviking]

I found this: https://www.facebook.com/share/1S7TkT32Ee/

[DocsMachine]

Never heard of that one, either. Not sure I believe the fish oil thing, as Gabe notes it was more likely any food or trash left behind. (Birds, however, love the gelatin shell for some reason.)

It's worth noting that that 'Pacific Northwest' area is, in fact, heavy bear country- they'd be a potential problem with or without any fish oils.

There was one in Kenai that shut down for the usual reasons mostly insurance cost and low player turnout.

-Insurance wasn't an issue, they had a pretty good deal, actually. The main thing was, as you said, low turnout. And that was in large part due to our absurdly short summers- there's a lot to do even if you're not a commercial fisherman or whatever.

The rest was the inability to do any meaningful advertising- No one paid the least attention to their Facebook page, radio ads were too expensive, no one checks any Craigslist "community activities" listings, the local newspaper was about to go belly-up because no one read it, there was no brick-and-mortar store to support the field, and being a business, people kept taking posters on 'community bulletin boards' down. The city wouldn't allow them to put up any sandwich board signs, and he couldn't park the truck with a billboard on it, literally anywhere- including at his own house.

Doc.

[gabe]

I found this: https://www.facebook.com/share/1S7TkT32Ee/

Interesting. Just goes to show how isolated these communities are. I've never heard nor seen that and I'd think it would be more popular. Their last post was 2019 so I have little hope they're still around.

Sadly the only field still open is the one in Anchorage. Bigger group of people, good advertising, does birthdays and stuff. Real shame the field in Kenai shut down honestly. I went there in 2021 must have been right after they closed up and it looked like a nice classic tubes style field. I feel like maybe places should offer field openings once every 2 weeks or a single big weekend a month so that people carve the time out to go play. I fall into the trap of "oh next weekend maybe" and never end up going out because the field is open every weekend. Lack of scarcity I guess.

On the bears thing: I work for a company that makes big aircraft tires and they are a real bear magnet. The bears love to chew on them, something about the squishiness of irresistible as a chew toy. I wonder if airball bunkers are a similar thing.

[freedom]

I found this: https://www.facebook.com/share/1S7TkT32Ee/

yeah, that's it. looks like a fun little field, too...