How many fields have you "outlived"?

[DocsMachine]

In my area (podunk, backwater Alaska) fields just don't last very long, there's just not enough market. The latest local place, which lasted about six years- one of the longest of the bunch- closed down a year or two ago for lack of business.

And again, I wound up with some of their leftovers. (A couple guns, some loaders, lots of tools and spares, a small box of retail products, etc.)

And that made me think- that's like the fourth time that's happened, since I opened my biz. And that made me try to think of all the local fields I'd been to, but aren't around anymore. Had to limit myself to legit or at least semi-legit fields, though, 'cause if I included places I've played outlaw... well, let's just say you could throw a double handful of darts at a local map and probably 75% of them would land within half a mile of a place I've played.

Anyway, I've "outlived" a full ten legit fields, including two indoor, since I ran my own back in the late 90s.

How about you?

Doc.

[Interl0per]

Funny enough my very first field from the early 90s still exists albeit in a different location due to idiotic moral panic by local zoning authorities when people still thought paintball was being used to train militia members I've heard rumors of many and personally aware of a few that have risen and fallen in the last twenty-mumble years in the immediately adjacent counties here in Okiestan, most tend to be amateur hour with no reffing or safety enforcement, so I usually don't get in a hurry to go see the latest roped off collection of stacked debris calling itself a paintball field

[SETHZILLA!]

In my county, 3 legit fields have come and gone since the sport started. There were 2 outlaw fields that went away back in the early 90's, one of which happened to be the first place i ever played and coincidentally happen to live about a mile from now.
Took my kids down there recently and played in the seasonal creek. I spent most of the time looking for old oil based paint stains on trees but couldn't find any.
Our newest field has staying power. Its on it's 3rd owner and resides behind the community college next to a National Guard base. The field has 20 acres and 8 various fields. I reffed there for about 5 years when the original owner had it, but wife and kids took over my spare time so now i just play when i can.

Hey Doc, i sent you a PM too.

[Havoc]

I've been playing since '98 and I have had two fields that have called my home field close and 3 others I played at for certain games close. But without straining my brain I can think of a dozen other fields that have come and gone.

[Hp_lovecraft]

I've been playing since the late 80s, and when I tried to ,make a list.... it got long. 30-40 fields. So many commercials fields have come and gone, in waves. Good economy, fields open. Recession, fields close, etc. It is a very tough business model. Very small margins due to high overhead.

But I mostly miss some of those early, quirky 80s fields. The first one I played at, "Van Houtens" in 87 or so. It was built in a damn swamp. On purpose. The owner was a vietnam vet, and he wanted to simulate rice patties. I hated that muck so much, but looking back, now I miss it. Triad (NH) had a field full of trenches, called gopher ball because to shoot you would have to pop up and down. Pre speedball. Paintball Passion was an indoor field built in an old stadiium. So..damn... scary.. to go and clear out rooms.

[MrKittyCatMeowFace]

Just one, where it all began for me. Cpx sports in Joliet. I still see mis information about this closure. owners after scott got made a offer by the local government they couldn't refuse for the land so a new bridge could be be built over the river. Made sense, near the end the place was nowhere near as jumping when I started.

[Toestr]

Soldier gear paintball for me. It was run out of a milsurp store near a military base. They had 2 locations; an indoor (which is now a gym) and an outdoor (which is now a Delta Force). Sad they're gone. By far the best place to play an organized game of paintball on the cheap. But when compared to other local fields, it was just too small and lacking details.

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[Siress]

My first home field closed up during the '09 recession, but it was due to the property owner dying and his kids who inherited it being some of the worst specimens humanity has to offer. Several fields that attempted indoor near urban areas whose names I didn't have a chance to learn. Every one of them had too much overhead and headache to make it profitable, usually not lasting more than a season. Several that couldn't weather the 2009 recession. Several pop-up indoor/airball fields after that craze started, which just started setting up less and less frequently until they basically became permanent fixtures in someone's backyard for personal use; 75% chance of there being a cargo container on blocks adjacent to the field. Those were actually some of the most fun because it was someone passionate about the game, usually 2 or 3 kids that played, and had all the amenities of home. Every day ended with beer, grilling out, and either an amazing display of a supportive family or some amusing 'disapproving wife' antics. I'm guessing, in total, 20±5 in the past 18 years, ~8 of which playing at least once a week.

[gabe]

Doc, this list is short and you probably know all of these but here's the list:

The Sandlot
Splatterhouse
Paintball Hell

Never got a chance to play at Sector 7G or the fields on the peninsula so I won't count them. Guess it's just two. How many have we even had in Alaska? I can only count maybe a dozen total fields that have come and gone up here which is really sad. The current Alaska paintball scene is decent but pretty toxic unless you just fully adopt the tournament paintball ethos and go full on speedball agg boy.

[punkncat]

Too many to recall, or account for owner changes that may or may not have changed the name but the dynamic of the field in such a way as to become a different place.
Surprisingly the first field I ever paid to play is still open. If you don't mind possible several hour drives there are quite a few spots left around this area that have been operating for a long time.

[MrKittyCatMeowFace]

Fox paintball out of newark IL is still around and started in 1990. AGD runs their business at the fox paintball store location in yorkville IL

[Fossilhead]

I'm at about 10 or 12... I couldn't really tell you.
out of those I miss 3 of them.

I'm in utah.

Grew up here.

We had a few distinct paintball field owners out here...
and they all hated each other.

It got to the point where you couldn't get a gun serviced at field A, if you played at field B.

Professional jealousy is an incredible thing.

[Falcon16]

that I can count in my area 5. Niagara Tactical Paintball, Aussie Paintball, Niagara Paintball Park, Niagara Paintball Games and Sniper alley. All were great fields except Sniper Alley.

Niagara Tactical closed because the land the field was on was leased, land owner didn't want the field there anymore but had no real reason to evict so just jacked the rent 3x as much and no possible way they could keep up.

Aussie I've honestly no idea, played a halloween event there about 10 years ago and it closed shortly after.

Niagara Paintball Park, the owner wasn't getting a crazy amount of rental parties and couldn't survive on just us owners. It's kind of weird driving by and seeing all the stuff still there. Far as I know the field owner said screw it and moved to AB. Field may be standing but no OP but nobody I know has played there in at least a couple years.

Niagara Paintball Games it was basically bought by a dad as something for his kids to run. Was a great field if you liked airball but didn't have much else other than that. Played there a few times before the kids decided they didn't want to do it anymore and it closed up.

Sniper Alley, well what can I say. The chick who ran it didn't have a clue what she was doing, horrible lighting, sand flooring, paint was garbage and a 230FPS chrono for actual paint meant it wouldn't break at anything past the mercy distance for the most part. Also stupid rules IE you could be running someone down in their bunker and they pop out and yell mercy 3 times over and you're the one that gets called when you had them dead to rights. Biggest crock of crap for me was when she was looking for refs and interviewed me she said and I quote "Oh you reffed for DMZ? That's too close to the competition for me" keeping in mind she wanted previous experience and the owner of DMZ had been dead for a few years at that point. She then hires people that have no clue how to ref or tech guns or do anything. Place was a *bleep* show

I've also outlasted 3 pro shops in my area that I know of. The only one still operational is DMZ Paintball which has been in operation since the early 90s/ The others were affiliated with the above mentioned fields and basically closed up when the fields did or moved to more lucrative areas.

[Cdn_Cuda]

I’ve lost Big Shots where I first started playing, Tsawassen which used to host all the big games like Tippmann Challange and Northshore Paintball, which a played a decent amount at. And Delta Force bought out Maple Ridge Paintball, which I count as a loss due to their crappy business model.

I’ve also seen four stores disappear. BuyPBL, MR Paintball (merged maybe) Paintballgear.ca local store and most recently Badlands Paintball closed in New West (didn’t find out it closed in January until about a month ago).

[Falcon16]

OH christ, Buy pbl and paintballgear.ca I wish those were still around. That said it seems paintball gear is more and more becoming an online thing

[Cdn_Cuda]

I think Paintballgear.ca has a store in Alberta still.

[Falcon16]

Cdn_Cuda yea I've heard about the store I meant the website more so

[Toestr]

I’ve lost Big Shots where I first started playing, Tsawassen which used to host all the big games like Tippmann Challange and Northshore Paintball, which a played a decent amount at. And Delta Force bought out Maple Ridge Paintball, which I count as a loss due to their crappy business model.

I’ve also seen four stores disappear. BuyPBL, MR Paintball (merged maybe) Paintballgear.ca local store and most recently Badlands Paintball closed in New West (didn’t find out it closed in January until about a month ago).

MR merged with paintball gear. Whenever you order from paintball gear, it's payment goes to MR paintball.

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