Reviving paintball in your area

[Mr.]

What would you do to help bring paintball back in your area?

Im just looking for ideas that a avg 1 man show(atm) can do

[minimag03]

Secure air for people to play. Rather it's scuba tanks or CO2, you'll be able to play anywhere once you have it.

Ensure new people have a fun experience while playing. You'll want them to come back.

[iamthelazerviking]

Talk to the newbs. Hang out with them, don't just stick with the other scary looking "pro's" with their own gear. Be friendly, answer (and ask) questions. And also help them out during gameplay.

[Cdn_Cuda]

I often let newbs shoot my markers at the chrono station, and if I have a nice open shot on a clueless opponent I’ll call over a newb so they can take the shot.

[Ecapnation]

Make a dedicated day for "non-rental players"

I know counterintuitive but locally more serious players are mixed in with rental players and we often have to down play or play softer... Generally most of the players asked to play "nice" end up doing smaller games on speed ball fields amongst themselves.... It gets boring fast.

[Ecapnation]

JonM

And worse the ref hovers around you to "nuh-uh" you playing hard and giving away where you are against some renter because "grow the sport"

Sorry but chasing away veteran players in favor of fast cash renters doesn't work

[JonM]

Especially when said renters shoot their allotted 400 rounds then leave after a game or two.

[The Jayster]

I play at two fields: one is huge (easily one of the largest in North America) and on a slow day there will be about 50 members/equipment owners present. I think the lowest outlier I've seen once was maybe 25 players, whereas the number on an average day is closer to 80 to 100. Therefore there's no playing against rentals in any way.

I play at a smaller, more laid-back field where you may have anywhere on average from 6 to 12 members on a given day (anything above 12 up to 20 is remarkable) so we're often mixed in with rentals. Fortunately, almost everyone is very laid-back and care about treating rentals well. As a matter of fact, many will play magfed, pump or even stock-class (I whip out my Phantom).

That being said, I really don't like playing against rentals. I have nothing against them, in fact I'm glad they've chosen to play paintball, but I'll always go out of my way to play with fellow equipment owners out of fairness on one hand and for the challenge on the other.

[scottieb]

The biggest thing I've found is to get the youth involved. I am currently trying to get an intramural high school paintball league started. High school kids have a lot more disposable income and flexibility with their time. It's also great for the parents as you're seen as a coach/mentor.

After the intramural league takes off I'd like to start adult leagues. There are dart, billiards, and bowling leagues so why not paintball?

[lhamilton1807]

I’ve been doing this for a couple years. Not league ball, but outlaw. I’ve scrounged blowbacks to loan out and have grown the local church/high school crowd to get near 16-20 players to outlaw games. Many saw my nicer gear and have sprung for their own - I’ve helped get mid range deals with Rize, Axe/Mini GS, and Crossovers as the base gear. Things really started picking up steam after some kids joined me for SuperGame.

Loaning out gear is a lot of work though - I’m always filling co2 tanks, topping off my scuba tank at the local dive shop, and cleaning my loaner gear so they don’t feel I’ve left them with trash for their first games.

We play semi auto or pump only, and I tell everyone to shoot 3rds at a time before waiting to see if someone is calling themselves out before blasting again. Helps limit PTSD out of the gate.

I’m a stickler for safety rules - masks, barrel bags, dead zones, and a 15ft Rambo Rule so people aren’t popped from close up on their first day. Bunker busting means yelling BINGO when you’re close. Once they’re used to it they don’t mind. I’ve found growing the sport this way helps get dads & sons out together, and since they come back only slightly bruised but smiling, moms let them keep attending 😁

[Jonnydread]

Consistency is key. Develop a core group, play on the same day every week/month and engage as much as possible with local players and walk ons.

[Mr.]

Ill prob have to talk to a lawyer but do waviers work, everywhere i played in ca you always had to sign a wavier.

so im thinking donation based would be best around here, theres alot of lds people is idaho. I bet if i get in with the wards i could get the ball rolling. Mabe donations and fpo

[Jonnydread]

From my understanding waivers are a pretty weak defense for liability. If you are planning on setting up an outlaw situation choose who you invite very carefully. Donation based could work once you are established, but in the beginning it may be more sensible for people to basically bring their own shit and some folks could share on an as-needed basis.

[minimag03]

Waviers don't mean too much. If they did fields wouldn't need to pay so much for insurance because the waiver would have them completely covered from liability. So choose your players and field location wisely. Def wouldnt invite any personal injury lawyers lol

[TF_Aloha]

Results will vary by state, but waivers DO work. Not for everything, but they often are very valuable in court.

Note that they will not prevent you from being sued. Anyone can sue for anything, but a waiver gives your insurance company's lawyer a valuable tool. You NEED insurance though - even if you are 100% in the right, you might not be able to afford the legal battle to prove that, and if you stop submitting the proper legal arguments at any point, you lose by default (think Alex Jones). If you have insurance, someone else takes care of the legal bills for you.

Waivers establish that a player knows that the sport is dangerous and accepts the risk. It also establishes that they agreed to follow instructions and properly use safety equipment. If your nets are bad or your masks are garbage, the waiver probably won't help. If an employee instructs someone to do something unsafe, like put oil in a tank or shoot at an inappropriate time, you're also in trouble. But the waiver will be useful if a player removes their mask, shoots someone in a staging area, or runs face first into a wall.

Don't worry too much about your waiver now - your insurance company will be very clear about what you need to do. And do not do anything without insurance. Again, if someone sues, it doesn't matter if you're right if you can't pay a lawyer to show up.

[Mr.]

I guess next year ill be talking to alot of people

[Morgenstern]

Honestly getting shot at with anything faster than a stock Tippmann 98 with a shake and bake hopper is going to ruin it for most newbies. Even a tuned mech cocker with a Revvy is way too much for casual play. Technology hamstrung the hobby’s growth pretty early on in my opinion. Most newbs want a fun war game with a lot of moving around and not to be pinned in a bunker getting PTSD. “Laning”, air bunkers, and agitated loaders are kind of anti-fun unless you’re part of the very small group that likes that style of play. It has zero mass appeal.

I’d be comfortable inviting out new people if rate of fire was seriously limited, even modern mech play is a very anti-newbie experience. I’d love to do a newbie friendly outlaw game that limited everyone to 50 round hoppers or stick feeds. There’s so much early footage from paintball where there are a lot of normal folks out having a blast. Getting overshot even a little is going to scare off anyone who isn’t a masochistic adrenaline junkie

[Mr.]

I remember the first time i played, autocockers, automags, spyders ruled the field. Automags were rentals and field paint was bigball. We had a good time tring to shoot as fast as we could. But i guess i fell into the masochistic adrenaline junkie side of things.

Id love to build a speed ball course but honestly id rather not have mine or someone elses property look like a junk yard lol

Im planning on building a small plastic pallet field(i have 40x80ft to play with atm) and figure out a way to get some retired air bunkers later so ill be able to clean it up and it wont look like sanford and sons paintball.

Im doing all this for my daughter so its gunna be 1v1 for a bit lol, ill see if some people show up later on.

[Refoogee]

This guy speaks the truth. Right now, the only people I can get playing regularly are only interested in magfed/pump games (mostly just for the magfed). Last time I was at a field where I was the only one of two people playing who wasn't renting, we had to call the last game of the day early because of overshooting. Some girl really freaked out after getting badly bonus balled by rental mech players, and the ref had to jump over her.

[freedom]

I’d love to do a newbie friendly outlaw game that limited everyone to 50 round hoppers

that's how i started the FP&PL with 50 round hoppers.
i brought my own hoppers for peeps that didn't have one. this was a pump league, so i brought several pumps to loan out, too...

[cellophane]

Find a location that allows paintball, probably private land at first.
Make sure the safety aspects are taken care of. Netting, masks, clear rules on when a mask is required (I learned it as if you are inside the netting your mask is on unless it is clearly declared a dead field), remove debris / tripping hazards, etc. Have spares of important things like masks available.

For the scene in general- I would start hitting the internet, probably facespace. I don't use it much, so I'm not much help on that end of things. Also start going to fields around you and figure out where people are from. You might find a few that are close that would be interested in getting something together.

[cellophane]

After the intramural league takes off I'd like to start adult leagues. There are dart, billiards, and bowling leagues so why not paintball?

I would love to play intramural paintball. I think the two biggest issues with it are cost and alcohol, with location(s) being close behind. Bowling, darts, billiards, kickball, etc are cheap and you can drink while playing, which helps with the social aspect of things. I just looked and the local intramural league is $50 for a bowling, about $100 for flag football (8-10 weeks), and everything else falls into that range and here aren't any other costs unless you buy food/drinks.
The location(s) are also convenient. There are parks, rec centers, and bowling alleys everywhere. There is one paintball field here and it is +/-30 minutes from downtown, not accounting for traffic. I realize that is a lot closer than many fields (I know people who drive 2+ hours each way every weekend), but it can be a deterrent- especially if you are coming from work.

There would also have to be rules in place about self-equipped players, particularly for RoF. While I'm totally fine playing pump or using a mech, there will be people who come out expecting to run full-auto, and it would ruin things for a lot of people (as others have mentioned.) And I would 100% want to use my marker, not a rental marker, regardless of type restrictions.

[The Hobbit]

I’ve been thinking of seeing if the local indoor field (old parking garage) to try and do a very simplified mech only “beer league “. I figure there are probably lots of guys with spyders and tippmans sitting around that would possibly be interested.

Set it up where instead of a one day tournament, teams play once a week for however many weeks ( let each team play every team twice). Then maybe do a tournament at the end of season.

more or less something to do in late winter months and get weekly opportunities to play. Try and keep it pretty casual, competitive but more about getting out to play. Maybe try and take some of the few money to buy gift cards to a beer distributor.

[Mr.]

I met a guy today that has a lil field be built, says they try to play 5 times every summer. Says he had 30 people out last time, has a compressor and 20 tipmanns. Pretty crazy how random it was

[SmokeyMcPot]

While not exactly paintball, having gel blasters or low impact would definitely help make it more ‘family’ friendly for the youngest players. In turn this would bring in more people

If you have a local field, maybe organizing 1v1 tournaments or local small scale tournaments (if the player base can support it) could be cool!