Paintball prices are, and always have been, insane.

[Meleager7]

The last two seasons, I've been coping with the high Canadian paint prices by buying a membership at Ultimate Paintball , Milton . It's $100 cash , and they have two designated weekends in the Spring to pick up the membership, otherwise the price goes up after. The membership gets you 5 cent paint in any quantity.

For the MCB meetups with did this summer, I found I was buying at least a bag ($25) , sometimes two if my autocockers came out ! Psychologically, i'd already forgotten about the $100 , so it felt like a $25 dollar outing!

The other way I was managing costs was playing more big games , which were working out to about $100 for a case and entry. The cost felt more justified , since i was gong to an "Event" , instead of just a standard walk on day.

[Brokeass_baller]

Man, maybe I'm lucky where I'm at, but I pay anywhere from $40-70 per case, depending on grade. There one local field that charges $80 for Triumph But it's a nice field, so I deal with it.

[Jonnydread]

A field that actually uses Triumph? Wow

[Cdn_Cuda]

Meleager hit the nail on the head. Want cheaper paintball? Buy a membership and go regularly. My local
field sells a case for 160 but it’s like 90 for a member. I hosted a private game and it paid off to buy a membership for one time use and bought the paint for everyone at a discount and they paid me back.

[Meleager7]

I also think that paintball has lost a lot players over to Airsoft, due to much lower cost for bb’s . Also interesting is if gel blasters ever take off in North America (its big in Australia), that ammo is basically free, it so cheap per shot

[Casualwarrior]

I thought this thread was a joke, guys seriously paying $100+ a case of paint. Down in SoCal, I paid $30 tops per 2000 balls per case, for field paint from my local shops. $25 per case if you buy 4 or more. When I use to play competitively, tournament grade would cost me up 50-60 per case and honestly it wasn’t much better then field paint. Actually I always had more issues with dimpled high end paint, cause I figured it sat longer. I love the sport, but if I had to pay $100+ per case id highly reconsider it.

[ATBen]

Okay, who let the poor in? Just joking, and yes, compared to the value per hour you get playing in the US, we are certainly over priced.

I'm not sure what fields you're playing at specifically, but when I lived in Toronto I found the best value was Combat Pursuit. They had BYOP days on Sunday and entry and a case of Graffiti for $90. Other fields seemed out to lunch on their priced for GI field grade garbage and 3 star comparatively.

That being said, I always try to get a membership where I'm at. It saved me a (metric) ton when flag raiders was my home field (and open for business #saveflagraiders) Right now that'd be Adrenaline and for how much play time you get in one of their big games, I think that's the best value around for me.

[the_matrix_guy]

I agree. And it's part of the reason why it never became mainstream. It's just too inaccessible as a sport, financially speaking, Check out this flyer from Badlandz from 2001-2002



No field admission or paintball prices here but the prices on those guns are pretty crazy even considering that it is in Canadian dollars. The cringe is real all over the flyer even down to the last line on the bottom. "Helping Keep Canada Canadian!" ooof

[Casualwarrior]

Yea that’s absolutely wild. I’ve met multiple people from Canada down here, saying they got sick of their crazy inflated prices and taxes, so they live their life down here on tourists visas 90 days at a time, never really thought about how it would effect hobbies too. Bummer, our prices are 50% lower, sometimes more. Making more affordable could of really helped it grow up north.

[Fubarius]

One issue is that expense is relative.

One man's "holy crap I can't afford that" is another man's "is that all? I'll take two".

Literally in this case. People buy by the case because "everyone" else does, and if someone wants to be competitive, or at least on equal footing they need to buy just as much. You cut the price is half you won't get more people playing in the end, since quite a lot of the players who are happily buying a case today will just buy TWO cases, and people will be back here complaining how they can't play the game since they can only afford a paltry 2000 rounds per day. An added down side is that people will be shooting twice as much as they do now. Quite a few people in the industry of the game (not the paint in the game, the actual games) agree that too much paint being thrown around scares off the new players. That's a potential reasoning behind some fields with high case prices, they don't actually want you to buy a full case. Entry and a bag, maybe a second bag after lunch if they still feel like playing.

One possible solution is to remove paint from the equation entirely. You don't buy paint, you just buy entry, possibly per game. Each game you get 200 rounds (in hopper, or mags, or tubes, whatever you setup dictates). That's it. For hoppers at the end of the game, or when eliminated, you dump the paint back out and don't get any back until the start of the next game. Now this will change the way game formats and field layouts are designed. Some may want the games to go quicker. Paint is now an expense instead of a product, so the faster people get shot out the less paint they use. But those more interested in good ratings from the player experience may stretch out the games, more moving less shooting as it were. It sucks a bit less to spend a few minutes trying to out maneuver a target and end up getting surprised by someone who out maneuvered you then it is to catch a lane 4 seconds into a game. Games where players just square off and hose would have to go. One interesting side effect is that stock class and mag fed players go from the least profitable players to the most profitable, since there's a good chance they're not even going to take 200 rounds with them per game.

[Paintslinger16]

We ran a Friday night 3 man, center flag indoor league, open class gun, full hoppers no reloading, no picking up floor paint for years, everyone had a ball. Pun intended

[Agglet]

I've been playing for 25 years and many of the fields that charged higher prices for paint are still in business while the BYOP places last a season or two. Somebody smarter than me might be able to crack that riddle.

[martix_agent]

This is simple. Paint sales are the most profitable thing that a paintball field can do.

[Casualwarrior]

My guess is that it’s not only just a Canada thing but an area thing where less fields means the fields can make their own rules as competition is less. I know the same goes for the east coast fields, field paint only everyone one I’ve seen and heard of. Even the fields up north in the state I live in, all have the same thing in common, only paintball field in that area. As opposed to SoCal, a land of 20+ million people. I can count tons of fields within a 90min drive. And at least 4-5 different ones within 45minutes. All byop, all been open since I pretty much started playing two decades ago. All have pretty much also stayed the exact same price since I started too; $25entrance+10air, $30 for house paint per case. Actually Surprised they haven’t changed much. Back in the day I use to get open bag paint for $18 a case but don’t see that coming back around.

Guess it goes down to the basics, supply/demand.

[Meleager7]

The fact that paint sales and entry fees keep coming up as the only ways a paintball field business can make money, reveals an intrinsic flaw in the paintball field business model: There are basically very few opportunities to sell add-on goods or services to the paintball customer once they are there.

if your entertainment is going out to the movies, you’re paying for your ticket. But you’re also buying snacks at pumped up prices, you’re playing in the arcade, and nowadays probably buying beers, and having your dinner there too! All this cash flowing, and they’ve only had you in there for 2hours!

If you’re a golfer, you’re paying for your green fee to play, but you’re likely renting a golf cart, you’re buying beers from the cart girl, and you’re probably hitting the clubhouse for lunch,, and then beers after the round as well!

all paintball can do is crank up paint prices, which another poster mentioned above creates a cyclical effect where higher costs mean less times out at that field playing, and spending!

[Bonjwa]

I'm not sure that's totally true. You have a proshop selling all sorts of things including snack/food and drink most likely. Membership/entry fee is 100% profit, probably do some sort of tech/repair work as well. I'm not at all implying there isn't massive overhead because there is, and running a successful business is hard. I just wonder if putting people off, especially young people, with price gouging on paint is a very smart thing to do.

[gabe]

I will say that yes, paintball is an extremely expensive hobby. This is coming from someone who owns an airplane so it's not even "poor man expensive" it's expensive for everyone. The real problem is that it's a recurring expense. Riding mountain bikes for example is a large up front payment of $2000 for a good bike but then it's free to ride after that. With paintball it's $1000 up front for gear and then $100 every weekend for a case of paint, field entry, air etc. Over the course of a season I'll spend easily $2000 in paint and a season pass. That's not even including any guns or gear purchased in that year.

In comparison my airplane costs $1200 a year for annual inspection/maintenance and about $40 per hour in fuel and oil to operate. On a per hour basis every year if I fly 50 hours per year I've spent just about as much flying an airplane as playing paintball. It's the continuing cost of buying a consumable item like paint that makes paintball so expensive.

[Bonjwa]

This is exactly right. The cost to actually go out and play is the great equaliser and it seems to be (here at least) eqaulised far above most peoples heads.

[Casualwarrior]

It's only a extremely expensive hobby if your area charges extremely expensive prices. If everyone's prices went down to ours down here, it would be much more user friendly and the sport could grow. I don't even mind the recurring cost per say, like mentioned above, golf is a great example. Golf is a pay per play sport, each time you play you pay generally. Nice fields out here on weekends generally cost around $90-$150ish per round. Yet it's still tough to get a darn tee time on the weekends, it's the same people being okay with the price who keep coming back. But it's a cost they are comfortable dishing out for the experience and joy (use term lightly, golf is very frustrating 😆). If I play paintball, I know straight up I'm spending $80, a case of paint plus entrance plus food while i'm out there (I like to support the vendors who show). And I'm okay with that recurring fee. But if all of a sudden that fee went from $80 to $200 due to paint being $120-$160 a case, i'd imagine that would make MOST people in MY area reconsider playing as we aren't used to that. I'd still play just not as often as I do. Compared to fishing, I love ocean sport fishing, in the summer it's my jam since it's to hot to play paintball, but damn it averages $300ish a day out on a chartered boat, but as much as I hate dishing $1000 on a 3 day weekend trip (not including fishing processing if I land a big one), I do it knowing it costs what it costs and know I can only do that a limited amount of trips per year. But it also yields food my family can enjoy and consume. Each sport/hobby comes with it's inherent recurring cost, as long as it's reasonable, crowds will still continue to go and the sport can continue to grow. We must not forget that red tape for a specific area can hamper prices too and we forget about that, I paid $5.19 a gallon for gas this week and for the past couple years I was paying HALF that, at 20+ gallons per fill up, I'm giving away a day of paintball each time I fill up. Yet the same gas being shipped from my state all the way to a neighboring state is still $2+ per gallon cheaper, doesn't add up, except that the taxes and red tape in my state suck.

[maggot]

Please also keep in mind that fields are a business with huge expenses. The "I have to pay $100/case at a field for something I can pay $50/case at the store" argument always makes me cringe. How many field owners have you EVER known that were making money hand over fist? None? Yep.

Field owners have to pay for:
Insurance, staff, structures, maintenance, improvements, lease/mortgage, taxes, utilities, overhead, loss(theft), etc. etc.

[Bonjwa]

Yes, this 100% true. I just don't think jacking paint prices is great if your goal is to retain repeat customers. In which case, are you even making more money? It's not your only revenue stream and you end up pricing people out of actually showing up to your business which is a bit of a disaster. I understand having a markup on paint but damn. I am forced to use a paint of the fields choosing (questionable quality) and am paying 3x markup for that privilege? If you want people showing up weekly, which you do, that's not a great way to do it.