[Jdeason89]

i live in south carolina and it seems like paintball has declined but ive held on but im running out of ppl to play wid but i wana play senario i havent been in a big senario game in a year or so

[JESTERTLS]

Its slacked off the past two years with the way the economy and especially gas prices have went.

Scenarios are still going strong. If your in SC and want a good scenario, I'd hit one at Paintball Charleston. One of my favorite fields.

[Mister Ken]

How far are you fom the Charlotte or Raleigh areas?

[stevebski]

The economy and the prices in paintball are definitely going in opposite trends. IMO that is to blame for the decline in participation. Fields are starting to lose their luster as they aren't drawing enough people. I made the same realization yesterday. The once premier field in Bowie, MD has gone to total ****. Overgrown weeds, netting all beat to hell, ****ty FPO paint. It really went downhill and it's definitely because of the lack of income.

[voodoo27909]

This could turn into a very interesting discussion......

What would we, as players, be willing to do personally to see our sport through some tough times, and potential closings of some very good parks?

Donate time and labor for upkeep or reffing? Im certain that some staff had to be let go at alot of parks....

Promote the sport to potential new players. Rejuvenate the numbers somehow?

Buy more paint to make up for the lack of numbers?

How do we insure the survival of the sport? What can each of us do to keep our favorite field...or sometimes our ONLY field... alive and in business? do we allow natural economy selection decide what fields stay, and which go (...which would most certainly mean long travel to any game, and only the biggest events for all of us in order to play)? Input from all idea's would be welcome on the subject.

[stevebski]

Originally Posted by voodoo27909

This could turn into a very interesting discussion......

What would we, as players, be willing to do personally to see our sport through some tough times, and potential closings of some very good parks?

Donate time and labor for upkeep or reffing? Im certain that some staff had to be let go at alot of parks....

Promote the sport to potential new players. Rejuvenate the numbers somehow?

Buy more paint to make up for the lack of numbers?

How do we insure the survival of the sport? What can each of us do to keep our favorite field...or sometimes our ONLY field... alive and in business? do we allow natural economy selection decide what fields stay, and which go (...which would most certainly mean long travel to any game, and only the biggest events for all of us in order to play)? Input from all idea's would be welcome on the subject.

You bring up some interesting points. I myself and my team have all offered to put our time and sweat into the field I spoke of to turn it around but got shot down by the owners. It seems they just gave up on that location since they just acquired two more in northern MD. It sucks too because the layout of the field for scenarios is great

[BennyT]

I've been reffing for free at my local field in upstate NY. I played there when I was little, helped build it, and we have a really small market base. I don't have much cash to play since I travel to at least one big game elsewhere per month, so I have been helping him out for free, trying to give new people a good time and get them hooked (ref/onfield coach). I helped out a bachelor party the other day and it was a great time. They played a couple small games and then jumped into the mini-big game that was going on on the rest of the fields. Good stuff. Just gotta keep it afloat until the economy recovers. And if the economy doesn't recover, well then you have to enjoy as much paintball as possible before it sh*ts the bed entirely.

[wv_paintballjunkie92]

Yeah i agree with all of you guys. If we want to keep our sport alive we need to help out our local feilds and the owners of those feilds. I personally dont have a feild extremely close to me but would love to have one. And to the dude that started the thread if you want scenarios then i would go check out Adventure Beach Paintball if you live close to Myrtle.

[pembo0630]

Over the past several years, the amount of paintball stores and fields in mid-Missouri has decreased astonishingly. Every single paintball store within 30 minutes closed completely. Every field within 2 hours is now closed. Right now, I have to travel at least 2 1/2 hours to the east or west (St. Louis, Kansas City) to even get to a field.

Paintball is an extremely expensive hobby. Price wise, it compares very competitively with the cost of shooting actual firearms (another hobby of mine). Money is tight everywhere. Fields and the consumers who play there are having to budget.

I don't think paintball is dying. Once the economy recovers, I think people will be more apt to try it and stick with it. Once cost isn't as much a factor hopefully the numbers will increase and **** will get back to normal.

[Vertigo_07]

Living near NYC, I'll agree that the economic downturn has affected things. A lot of people I know who'd used to be itching to jump on our weekly game (I play recball indoors and outdoors with a crew for the fun of it) are now almost impossible to get to the field.

however, with the decline in money comes a decline- and this comes from someone who plays speedball as much as woodsball- in spray 'n pray. The easiest way to make paintball cheaper is to shoot less, and rely more on tactics and fire control. I've seen this happen even at my field.

Which brings me to my next point; this is, oddly enough, a great time to bring new players to the sport. If paintball is to come through is, then there has to be people devoted enough to play it, as well as fields to cater to them. voodoo brought up a good point- natural market forces will act upon some fields, and sadly enough, they might lose out and have to close. I've seen this happen with at least one field near me. A buddy of mine and I pitch in where we can to help out in an unofficial sense at our local field, making sure newcomers know what to do and coaching them every now and again. I figure if we get enough new people into the game now, and keep enough fields open, there will be that many more people getting into it when this economy of ours finds its feet again (which it will).

[Darkfear]

You've actually got plenty of good scenarios in the area

As for the field talk, this is what we have done for a field that just opened a year ago

www.hiattsgameonpaintball.com

We have helped develop 6acres of land w/ structures, bunkers and field clearing.
Started our "Big Scenario Games" once every 2 months(next is Oct) w/ onsite camping and a entry fee of $20 w/ all day air and bring your own paint. We have ppl from Nashville, knoxville, chattanooga, Tri City area, NC, Ga and even AL that come out for these one day events.

Lowered every day prices to $12 entry w/ all day air if you buy paint from us or $18 byop. We help ref, schedule and put on the bigger games. While takeing turns and playing every other game.

I've personally gone to our local news lady Erin Donovan who has a show called Darin' Erin and Dared her to come to the field to play Aug. 22 for her next show. Now we'll have a little tv time and a nice vid to put on the website for ppl to check out.

If fields are to make it they will seriously need to work together and work on buying paint by the pallets to split up(since paint just jumped up again) and network their games in the area to get the most out of the local players.

[Pandemic X7]

Now with economy issues its getting harder for my team mates to get a day off of work to play or they complain of it being a waste of money. I try keeping the sport alive by buying field paint and constantly getting new stuff for my gun. I recently purchased an X7 over my a5 and 98c. Just trying to keep the sport going.

[shaneaus]

I just got into paintball and I DON'T want to get into a dying sport!

Check out my post on this thread:
http://www.pbnation.com/showthread.p...4#post61669014

I'm suggesting that someone in each major city set up an organization for paintball players to get organized. It doesn't have to cost ANY money. Just someone dedicated enough to pay for some webspace and find someone involved in paintball to develop the site or use Meetup.com!

I sympathize with the fields as it relates to cost. I have heard many here complain about FPO paint. Here is my take on this:

Field fees: $15.00 per person per day with their own gear.
FPO: Premium $80.00 case (I used this because it is what my field charges and my field is said to be too high priced. If your field is lower than that then take into account that they will be charging higher prices on the lower ball amount sales).

Let's say that 45 people come out to play on Saturday (my field is closed on Sunday!) and the field has 5 employees making minimum wage@ 7.25/hr. Each rec player uses 500 rds

45x15=675
~11 cases of paint sold=880.00
gross: 1555.00 on Saturday

Payroll: 9 hrs/5 employees = 326.00
+ water bill, electric bill, air tank maintenance, rental maintenance, etc.

So, let's say the owner makes about $1000.00 on Saturday - IF 45 people show up! In the last four weekends I haven't seen 45 people show up for one day a single time (one weekend there was almost that many - but, not all stayed the whole day).

The owner still needs to pay his property taxes for the year or his mortgage/lease on the property. I don't know about you but $4000.00 a month minus the mortgage (at least $1000.00) and minus all the bills - IF 45 people show up every weekend - isn't enough to support a family. It is a part time business at best.

We aren't even including field maintenance, bunker maintenance, construction material cost for repairs, replacement of damaged rental equipment, etc.

And, the pro-shop will find it hard to compete with internet sales!!!

We need to organize just to support our local fields so we have a place to play. I would be willing to go out and help with my preferred field's maintenance occasionally. The owner would just have to have a list of things to do before I would be willing to do so.

[HHpaintballer]

not only what shaneus said, but also that airsoft is becoming more popular.

It is cheaper, 2000 bbs for like 10 bucks? sweet right? Also AEG's are like 300 that are high end

more realistic for those people looking to express their 9yr old, army-man good times.

although I've probably spent like 60hrs in arguing that paintball is a sport and airsoft is a childish game, I have only won over about 4-6 people...I'm also thinking about reffing at my local field for just some playing time, but maybe I'll play for them too.

[Bartman]

Originally Posted by Jdeason89

i live in south carolina and it seems like paintball has declined but ive held on but im running out of ppl to play wid but i wana play senario i havent been in a big senario game in a year or so

Get a hold of Team Dogs of war, and or The river rats, as well as the rats , they can set you up with scenarios games and what not in the Carolina, The big one is coming in Nov, Fulded Gap its a t command desiccation field.

Also look up ODX, and Tango2Alfa from those teams you should be able to find a descent scenario game and some great rec play as well.

Hope this helps

Bart

[andrewhalstead]

What needs to happen is for all of our fields to get organized.

So many field owners see the other fields in their area as the competition, when in reality it is all of the other entertainment activities that compete for the discretionary dollars.

A strong organization of field owners that can focus on advertising Paintball as the best value for the average joe's hard earned entertainment dollar is where the success of paintball lives.

What we need to do is encourage all of our friends to consider paintball as the first choice for events like birthday parties, stags, company functions etc.
Why? Because those type of event are where field owners make money. The kind of money that allows them to run scenario events, big games and the like.


If every 15 yr. old boy dreamed of having his birthday party at a paintball field, then our sport would flourish

[c0hpl V2.0 (Banned)]

Yep. paintball is awesome tho

[paintmann111]

About the fields getting organized...That's what happened in Maine with the MRPL (Maine Recreational Paintball League) however after a key person died, it started to fall apart and eventually disbanded. But for the few years it was operational it was a huge success and paintball in the state grew dramatically.

[Paintballboy94]

where i live (orlando florida) paintball is doing ok we have hypersports, orlando paintball, and waynes world of paintball all in range of average every week traveling range and every time i go to one there is many people there p.s. orlando paintball has the best and worst coaches/refs

[jellytime]

are u living on a moon.. its becoming popular everyday.. take a look around u r neighbour hood evry one is talking about this..

[bgr3118]

No he is right the sport is in a bit of a decline but EVERYTHING is in a decline. Ive seen numbers drop at skirmish drasticlay over the past few years( at least for recball) i feel it will start picking back up once the economy stars back up again