[nikbrewer]

I am located in oklahoma city, and have noticed in the past probally 8 yrs weh ave had 2 indoor fields. I died i think, and the othe rmoved to an out door location. I enjoy indoor paintball, and like playing their at night, and there always seamed to be an ok crowd. When the curent one moved, my wife asked why dont i start an indoor field? I thought about it, and it semas like a decent idea, but i am just wondering why the last one decided to go outdoor. Is there not a large enough market to support indoor? just wanting a few ideas. I am trying to contact the last indoor field to see why they moved. it maybe as simple as they lived closer to the new field, or thier lease was up.

[sundog99]

to answer your question,NO. for a couple reasons.

1. and the biggest reason is that repeat customers prefer "variety", something an indoor field cannot provide, no matter how many times you change the bunkers around.

2. cost, buildings that provide any variety are way too expensive, to rent light, heat or cool.

3. location, anywhere there is space to rent that is somewhat affordable is usually a place that parents will not take or leave their kids.

4. indoor fields lend themselves to close quarter contact, not big with over protective mothers.

5. customer base, most players that prefer indoor are going to be tournament players. these players have already invested tons of money into their equipment. therefore they are always looking for ways to save $. which makes it hard for a business that caters to them trying to make $.

the big misconception is that during times of bad weather players would go to an indoor field, when the true facts are that when there is bad weather nobody goes anywhere. The nicest indoor field i have ever seen in this region was the paintball factory in Dallas, it had everything you would want in an indoor field. It wasnt open for very long! remember the population of Dallas compared to OKC.



it has been tried multiple times and all have been complete failures. Not without hard work, ask any of the previous inddor field owners, they have put all of their time and money into these projects and are lucky to get out with their initial investment. nobody starts a business to break even!!!!! and indoor fields are lucky if they have even done that.

hope this helps, as i have seen them all come and all go. Please crunch your numbers wisely. I have been tempted to open an indoor before and the numbers just didnt work out.

s

[baloonguy]

I see what he means but i loved the indoor in okc, i worked there and i know a ton of people that were very disappointed to see adventure world move, they had plenty of customers and there were many types of players, they were open during the week and that was a major plus for people that loved to play when they could. The reason they moved was because they were paying mortgage and rent and because of that they werent making enough profit they owned land in dibble so thats were they wanted to move. but they had plenty of customers

[nikbrewer]

thanks for the advice, i havent ever really priced anything, i was just getting a feel for the market. I know the overhead would be more. The only thing i thought i could bring to the tale is that my job has hours that would let me still run the field. I do commercial millwork(cabinets) and have a lot of construction exsperiece. I though i could bring a clean, professional looks to the field ( professional pro shop, clean interior, ect). This is the one thing lacking in most the indoor places i have seen. They just look cobbled together, no offence.

My ther buissness plan was to serve beer, sell buffalo wings, and have big screens, and have paintball too, what do you think.

kinda like buffalo wild west shootem up wings?

[baloonguy]

haha yeah that sounds like the perfect field but no all you would need is a good tournament field and halfway decent price on the paint and you will have lots of buisness, it sounds to me like you could pull it off and have you talked to the owners of adventure world yet

[littleollie24]

yea i used to work at the indoor field in okc when it reball. it was so fun and it was really cheap to play to and my friends were talking and said THAT THEY REALLY miss the indoor cause it was really fun to slide and stuff . when i worked there alot of rec players played there to not just tourny players play there like partys like to play inside or play in the woods . a good idea is a indoor field and behind the building a woods ball course that would eb sick

[sundog99]

do the math first, plenty of customers does not = plenty of profit margin to cover expenses. there is more behind the scenes that employees dont see.
the last indoor was the best attempt at an indoor field in okc to date, and i thought it was put together very well.

DO NO INVEST YOUR $ BASED UPON WHAT OTHER PEOPLE WANT YOU TO DO, OR THE OLD ADDAGE "BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME"

s

[gooseboy]

I think it would be a great idea.. I know of alot of people that would play it.. Ive heard before that unless you own the building it wont last, but im not sure.

Even if it wasnt to be an indoor field. You should open a field with a real airball course and maybe a woods course. I know plenty of guys who could work it (inlcuding me) and there is hardly any local fields with a decent speedball course available and a woods course for the recballers. You could attract rec ballers and tourney players. I personally know an adult who has the time to sit and run the field for you, kind of like a manager.. Then you would need refs.

Anyways if you open a local field in the OKC or central oklahoma area i think youll make alot of money. Lol please open a field like the one i described i know a bunch of people who would play it.

[sundog99]

are you serious? there are plenty of good rec ball fields close by and plenty of good airball fields. Id say we have a wide variety of quality fields locally, can't think of any type of field that we dont have around. i can think of at least 6.

s

[Muffinman14]

We need more fields/variety in the okc/metro area. I hate driving far away to small towns to play, especially with gas prices these days. The only good field in the metro area is PCOC.

[dakid1]

Originally Posted by Muffinman14

We need more fields/variety in the okc/metro area. I hate driving far away to small towns to play, especially with gas prices these days. The only good field in the metro area is PCOC.

lol yeah i agree PCOC is the only halfway decent feild in the area.
i miss adventure world

[cr4izyp4in708]

If you have the funds then you should do it. I think that business would be extremely well, especially if you ran it right and had good prices. I say this because everyone remembers adventure world and thinks "Oh man i wish it was still there." There always seemed to be people to play against when I was there and i enjoyed it alot.

[gooseboy]

Originally Posted by sundog99

are you serious? there are plenty of good rec ball fields close by and plenty of good airball fields. Id say we have a wide variety of quality fields locally, can't think of any type of field that we dont have around. i can think of at least 6.

s

Which ones? Seriously if there are some good airball fields around please let me know which ones. The only decent ones i know of are PCOC and Adventure Zone. AZ is fun every now and then but since you guys took down the airball course for recballers it kind of sucks.. Dont get me wrong its fun to play but id rather practice on a tournament airball field.

I agree with cr4 it would be a great business.

[Ryan Gray]

I would suggest to anyone considering entering our industry in the indoor market to take that cash and put it into a professional outdoor park. Indoor fields have traditionally not done well in this market. One reason is you can play outdoor comfortably for about ten months out of the year. I know, I grew up playing in OKC and we played all year round. Another is the amount of overhead required to run a business in the size of building it would take to do a "great" indoor park. The accounting just does not make any sense. If you add a skate park, air soft, video game room, as well as your wing idea, you could possibly make $.

If you invested the same amount of capital into an outdoor field with plumbing, a good tournament field, and several good woods fields, your return would be much greater. Especially with your wing and beer idea, you would set yourself up for greater success.

Feel free to contact me for more information: rgray@keeactionsports.com or 8565038886.

[sundog99]

Originally Posted by gooseboy

Which ones? Seriously if there are some good airball fields around please let me know which ones. The only decent ones i know of are PCOC and Adventure Zone. AZ is fun every now and then but since you guys took down the airball course for recballers it kind of sucks.. Dont get me wrong its fun to play but id rather practice on a tournament airball field.

I agree with cr4 it would be a great business.

pcoc, AZ, dodge, pbfield.com (old redlands)thats 4 within a reasonable distance & you should be able to find the style of play you are looking for at one of these. there are more but these are the closest.

S

PS we are building new airball fields that will be easier access for rec players!

[thechubbss12]

LOL... Im pretty sure if Adventure World was still around I would probibly still be playing.... When they moved my practice schedual went to hell and so did our team....

So if you can make a decent indoor field open on mon-wed then you will have my $$$.

[RR#82]

Originally Posted by thechubbss12

LOL... Im pretty sure if Adventure World was still around I would probibly still be playing.... When they moved my practice schedual went to hell and so did our team....

So if you can make a decent indoor field open on mon-wed then you will have my $$$.

you guys never were any good.......





lol jk

[ophooligan]

Skinny and Ryan have it right. An indoor field in Oklahoma is not a good idea. Unless you can afford to always run at a loss.
Any idea how many successful indoor paintball fields we have in the US? I don't know, but I'd bet it's less than 20. Guess how many successful outdoor fields we have in the US. Again, I don't have the actual figures but it's safe to say that it's probaby over 300. I'm not a math wiz, but those are not great odds.
We have a few people in here saying "yea do it, I would play there and I know my teammates would too." What some of us are forgetting is that 99% of the players that pay the bills and make the profit for paintball fields have never heard of this site, and don't read internet boards about paintball.
If you want to make some money with paintball go check out Xdrenaline Zone in Dallas. Copy it and bring it to OKC.

[abcd205]

You can listen to the kids that have been play for 5 or 6 years or you can listen to people who have experiance behind them, Ryan Grey, Jeremy Martin or Skinny, they have been in and around paintball long enough to know what works in Oklahoma and what doesn't.

[gooseboy]

Originally Posted by sundog99

pcoc, AZ, dodge, pbfield.com (old redlands)thats 4 within a reasonable distance & you should be able to find the style of play you are looking for at one of these. there are more but these are the closest.

S

PS we are building new airball fields that will be easier access for rec players!

Are you serious?? Are they going to be at AZ? How soon do you think before they are working.. If so this is gonna be sweet..

[sundog99]

Yes, A.Z.!

as quickly as i can finish clearing the new areas. should be completed by the end of december.

S