CourtsideDBQ

Hello all,

I am new to the site and have a few questions for those who "paint" often. I am currently looking to expand my sports bar (which already has three basketball/volleyball courts and two sand volleyball courts) to include a whole array of other activities. Currently we are a 27,000 square foot facility and are looking to expand to over 100,000 square feet. We are in the preliminary stages of research for this and I am trying to gather some information. Some of the amenities we are looking at adding are indoor soccer, rock climbing wall, 6 leasable spaces for sports minded businesses, and of course and indoor paintball course.

That's the background of the project. We currently only have two paintball facilities in our area and both are rickety dink shops (one is run out of a storage shed and the land behind it). I thought it would be cool to run a tactical paintball course. As of right now I have 21,000 square feet (about 96' x 210') set aside for this course. Is that enough? I was thinking it would have cinder block buildings some multi-levels, abandoned cars, and bunkers. We would have available for rent army style paintball guns (but you'd be welcome to bring your own). They would range anywhere from a handgun, to a sniper rifle or an m16. You'd pay extra for items like land mines and grenades.

A couple issues that i find with this though. I have done some preliminary cost on just equipment. It would run anywhere from $10,000 to $15,000, and I am positive that is low. the building costs would be around $7 a square foot. I am not sure that we'd be able to keep the costs down to make it enticing to potential customers. Just by running preliminary numbers we would have to charge $15 a day for field rental (only applies to those who bring their own equipment and paint), $20 a day for equipment rental, and $20 for paint (500 balls).

Those are just a bunch of random thoughts, so here are my questions...

Is there enough space?
Is the price right?
Is it something that paintballers find fun?
Any other ideas, I am open to anything!

Thanks in advance for all your comments.

dotcomdewd

Im not a "pro" by any means but i can give you my honest opinions.

What your doing is great. I like the idea. The size sounds ok to me. Here are my concerns and questions

1. What are you charging for air and what types will you have available?

2. I like the idea of the little city but there needs to be some variety. Yeah I would come to play once or twice but playing the same field over and over does not sound too interesting to me. Im sure you want repeat customers and having the same, non-changing field just sounds like it will get boring over time.

3. This sounds like an indoor field, the problem with those is that they get really messy and slippery. You need to have some plan/system in place to make sure this doesn't happen.

4. Ref's - How are you going to run the ref system? Are you going to allow players to come in and ref for some sort of discount or are you just going to hire someone (with little or no knowledge of the game) come in and do it or ???

These are just the questions i would ask. Please don't let me sway you in any way. If anything, i just brought up some challenges for you. Keep going the way you are and come up with something different for people and im sure it will work out for you. And if you need someone to come by and test out the field for you... just let me know

MK3K4V

20 dollars for 500 paintballs is too much, maybe you should charge $30 for 1000 paintballs

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Riddler236

The space is plenty. Be cautious with multi-level buildings - you DO need insurance, after all. Try not to over-do the military theme - not everyone is looking for that in their paintball experience.

As for costs, I'd charge a flat entry fee to everybody. In addition to that, sell a rental package that includes a gun, mask, air fills, and a certain amount of paint for a fixed price. Sell additional paint by the 500 bag. Make it slightly cheaper to buy bulk. Charge either per air fill or a flat all-day air fee to non-renters.

Buy good chronos and hire friendly refs, and you'll have a great experience.

Edit: Additionally, having movable mesh partitions (that hang from runners on the ceiling) to change the size/layout of the field can be a huge plus.

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-Riddler236