[Entrepreneur] ON! Paintball Field!

1ddqd

So this is by no means immediate, but more like brainstorming. I've rolled this around in my head for a few years now and ultimately, I would love to retire owning/managing one of these.

Paintball fields come in all shapes and sizes, with all sorts of play styles and options. I've played on anything from heavy woods ball to Xball and seen tons of good (and bad) field design ideas.

With that in mind, I've thought long and hard about how to start the field and I wanted to lay it out fresh.

The idea is that I would analyze growth trends around cities and locate potential sites to build. Competitors are few and far between in many places, so there exists opportunity for market share in nearly any corner of the city.

Expenses, however, are the real issue we're talking about. Land is not cheap, neither is field creation (earth works, netting, rental guns, bunker creation (or airball fields)). With that in mind, how would one go about getting the funding for such a venture (personal resources aside, of course). I was planning on beginning as an S-corp, gathering a potential pool of investors (depending on the contribution amounts, anywhere from 3-7).

Employees are usually teens who work weekends (at least, at the fields I've played at for the past 10 years). Instilling in them a work ethic will probably be a challenge, but they're usually enthusiastic. The one challenge I will have here is finding a reliable gun tech who can staff the field on high traffic days.

Anyways, thoughts? Want to get in on this with me? I'm building the general field (overall) layout in sketchup. I'd like to keep things as modular as possible, while still providing for a fast game turnover rate (maybe 10 minutes max between games). I chose that time limit because it seems that some fields lose value when the refs spend 15-20 minutes between games letting people BS. 15-20 min every game is an hour after 4 games, and that extra 5-10 minutes is easily 2-3 games.

japan

Two words: Liability Insurance.

In anything to do with "action sports" it'll probably be your biggest expense. Find out how much of an expense before you start planning anything else.

MrDelish

I can only say that a remote location is best so you don't need to worry at all about windows or other property getting damaged by stray paintballs (I assume this also reduces insurance premiums)

1ddqd

MrDelish wrote: »

I can only say that a remote location is best so you don't need to worry at all about windows or other property getting damaged by stray paintballs (I assume this also reduces insurance premiums)

Well, according to the insurance plans, each field must be completely netted on all sides. Top is governed by distance to valuable property (i.e. other buildings/houses, etc).

My idea is to construct a building for some indoor fields (in case of rainy days, plenty of play) and have land available for some outdoors courses. The indoor building would be air conditioned in the hottest of months and most likely be the size of a small distribution warehouse. Since those are basically steel buildings and concrete pads, it's easily sold if the business fails. (on that note, any estimates or places to go to get quick/dirty numbers for such a building?)

Insurance is available specifically for paintball fields, easily calculated based on estimated patronage and environmental factors (heat/cold temps, etc).

edit, nvm, found basic/general concrete pad estimator: http://www.monumentmasonry.com/bidconc.htm

Neb54

I helped my dad and a friend of his run a field for a summer. Depending on your location you most likely won't make a lot of money. I would recommend that you make accommodations for birthday parties, work retreats, etc. and advertise for those as much as possible. Those will generate a lot of revenue because everyone in the group will need to rent guns, masks, etc.

Another valuable source of income will be selling paint and CO2/Compressed Air. A lot of fields require players to use their paintballs but that does drive away some players if there are cheaper fields nearby. Depending on the size of your field it might be wise to get an air compressor and include free air with the price of admission as this will help draw in players.

FyreWulff

What I'd probably do is start a paintball shop as the primary business and the field as a secondary one. The Paintball/sports business is your bread and butter, and the field is extra income and draws people to the business.

I don't know where you're at, but if you have actual winter around there (heavy snow and the like), indoor would do well during that time, but probably not during the summer. I know my mom's church raises a respectable amount of money running as a skatepark during the cold months but not during the summer, where they just close it because only 1 or 2 people show up all week.

EggyToast

Going off of FyreWulff's point, you then use profits from the store to expand the field, making it cooler. That way you're not stuck with a ton of debt before you even get your first paying client.

Also, most small businesses get loans simply from banks. You'd get venture capital if you were doing something sexy, or considering starting off as a public company, but as mentioned above you probably wouldn't get a large return so investors wouldn't see you as a good bet. Bank might, though.

brandotheninjamaster

I've seen inflatable cover, maybe using that would save on some cost of wooden bunkers?