Opening a New Field?

[VertigoTech]

hey all.

Im looking to open up a new field in the SF East Bay Area. Im trying to gather resources that will tell me what exactly I need to do, and such. Can yall reccomend any books, online resources, etc?

[Fat Albert]

Heres a book that could get ya goin: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0970867816/qid=1024762692/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-6362021-0709730

[VertigoTech]

I just ordered it overnighted.

Only big problem I forsee is the obtaining the land.

Land is extremly expensive around here, and our plans call for about 3-5 square acres.

I will read the book and post my thoughts here, if anyone owns a field I would apreciate and pointers and such.

I can be contacted at VertigoTech@yahoo.com
AIM: Xelot 1001
YIM: Xelot1001

Thanks for the tip, and I look forward with working with pbreview community.

[amz370]

open it in marin..we need a feild so bad..please.....please

[VertigoTech]

We live in Walnut Creek, our decision was to open it in Concord or Clayton. We dont want to commute much just to get to our own business...

Oh, and another question, What does it take to become an "offical" airsmith? Are they licenced like gunsmiths or locksmiths?

[133+ Player]

What sorta field ya plan on running? Pure Speedball? Woodsball? If ur gonna run a speedball field and its small, maybe (just an idea) mount cameras to follow to action. We need to make paintbal a lot more of a spectators sport.

[amz370]

good idea...ill try to come for the opening when u do open
u also need a buisness license

[MINDofSIN]

At my field the owner is planning to hold a limited paint 3 man tourney just for fun and mount about 3-5 cameras around the main field.

It will be sweet.

[Dynasty_PB]

YES! A Field in the east bay. Dude im telling you go speedball, the fair grounds are up on their lease and are gona. We need a good speedball field. Please save me from the 8 hour dive to SC. Where are u in the east bay? Bob Longs central shop is in Concord u might want to talk to him. Call up NPS they will give u some help. And if its better than the fair grounds ill love ya man.

peace.love.unity

[amz370]

if u build it in say bout 5 months im shure ill be their..i get my license by then..woot

[Dynasty_PB]

Z...Did u play at the fairgrounds before they closed it?

peace.love.unity

[VertigoTech]

OK, heres what we are planning at this point:

Our main field will be a Urban type field, as in building clearing as well as a underground sewer area of the field.

Our second field will be speedball field.

We plan on having a small store, and having cameras mounted all around the fields and even on the fields, in the case of the urban field.

(I was acutally thinking of this before it was mentioned here.)

We have a few more ideas but dont want them to become publicily known yet.

We are talking on a schedule of the next 2 years here, not 3 months, the urban field will take quite long to build, considering we plan to only have 4 people build this field, also consdiering we dont have the land yet.

Thank you again for expressing your intrest, this is just the kind of stuff I wanted to hear.

Im gonna be building a 3d model of the field in the near future, I may post it.

[Dynasty_PB]

Where about in the East Bay are you?

peace.love.unity

[VertigoTech]

I plan to open it in Concord/Clayton area, possibly Pittsburg. I would have liked to open one in Walnut Creek, but A: WAYYYYY to expensive, B: City Council would have never approved it.

[VertigoTech]

OK, I just read the thred about having the Barrel Condoms, and Im gonna mandate them at my field.

This will not keep people who have barrel plugs from playing as I will be selling the condoms at the shop, hopefully for cheaper than normal, depending on what kind of deal i can get for buying them in bulk.

[Dynasty_PB]

ok concord /clayton cool cool. If your going for concord go talk to bob long (hes in concord) Go down to his shop and try to get his support. With his support i think you will be pretty well off.

peace.love.unity

[Phantom4Life]

One VERY important thing: INSURANCE

A waiver for Minors will also be required to limit your liabilty in case of that freak accident.

Please Consider SAFETY above all else. Paintball gets enough of a black eye from these punk kids driving around and shooting folks on bikes etc..so be prepared to get resistance from the local populace as most folks that dont know hwat PB is only know what the Biased Media has shown them. You might want to contact the helpful guys at one of the oldest fields in the US

www.scvillage.com

They have successfully ran there field for almost 2 decades now so they will have alot of insight seeing that you are both in California and the laws are similiar.

Hope that helps feel free to ICQ me and I ccan try and point you guys in the right direction. And RIGHT ON dudes :)

[Slipstream]

1) Tags w/ smiley faces :)
Some places issue paper / cardboard tags for the players. These tags include basic safety stuff ("Keep your mask on, Maximum velocity is ___ fps") and they include some smiley faces. Each ref carries a small paper punch. If the player violates a rule, or disobeys a ref, the ref gets to punch one of the player's card's smiley faces. If the player runs out of smiley faces, the player must go home. This allows the other refs to know if a player has already done something stupid without having seen it or tracking down the other refs.
You can color code the tags too for particular games sessions as well. (i.e., He has a blue tag so he only paid for the morning session, but she has a yellow tag so she paid for the afternoon.)

2) Walkie-talkies w/ privacy codes
The cost on these has dropped tremendously in the past couple years. For $50-60 you can pick up a pair of Motorala brand walkie-talkies with a two mile range. Be certain to pick up versions that include both 14 channels and 38 PRIVACY codes. Toy walkie-talkies use one of two channels (A/1, B/8) and you don't want to overlap little kids. The privacy codes are also important so you only hear YOUR refs. You don't want to be forced to listen to anyone else. Since you won't be opening for quite a while, you're probably better off waiting for the price on these to drop even further. (Just one of these walkie-talkies cost $90 just two years ago, so the prices are dropping.)

3) Insurance - Head shots COUNT
Some Insurance policies insist that you have a rule that head shots don't count. This is stupid logic, since when head shots don't count, the players are more willing to stick their heads out and let them be lit up. So in actuality, the logic is flawed and INCREASES the number of head shots taken. How your insurance policy is worded may not give you an option, but you want a policy that does not dictate head shots not counting. You want to be able to use game rules that closely simulate NPPL rules so the veteran players will want to play at your field.

4) Different classes - General & Advanced
The largest field in my area has so many players they've split them up into General and Advanced. All walk-on players using rental equipment (read newbies) fall into the General class. Any player that has equipment that requires batteries (revvy, ET, EP, etc) or a high end marker ('Cocker, 'Mag) are REQUIRED to play Advanced. This lets new players have more fun and gives the veteran players a bigger challenge at the same time. Of course to do this you need more refs and good field scheduling.

5) Paint - FOP vs BYOP
This will be your biggest decision. Declaring field-only-paint (FOP) will increase your profit per player, however, bring-your-own-paint (BYOP) dramatically increases the number of players. Whatever you do, make certain you always have fresh paint. (The challenge is to never run out of paint while avoiding having so much paint that it gets old.)

[VertigoTech]

Hello again,

Great ideas people. Keep them coming, I want this field to incorporate people ideas and desires.

We plan to have many scenario games as I major fault I have seen is there are no scenario games in Northern California that I know of. These will be based around our urban fields, and we plan to have alternate weapons available to be manned. (Air Cannons, machine guns, etc) This means that we may not always be limited to semi-auto, depending on the insurance side of things.

Does anybody have any links to paintball insurance companies?

Also, another big feature will be a computer tracking system to keep track of every persons stats. (Eliminations (both ways), flag grabs, captures, etc.) These will be accessible via the web (ASP interface) as well as on site. We will have special contests concerning these stats, so it will be to your advantage. We will only have certain games affect stats. (First one to 100 kills gets a prize, first one to 100 deaths gets a anti-prize :P )

The tags are a excellent idea, and they will be instated. We plan to have strict rules against those who cause problems whether it be wiping, chronoing incorrectly (depending on the intent) or otherwise.

For sure, it is a Bring Your Own Paint, I hate field paint only, most people do not want to have 5 cases of paint at home and not be able to use it. Of course, I will sell paint in partial cases and between a few colors, for those who opt to buy thier paint at the on site shop.

Thanks for the tip on the walkie talkies, actaully I was thinking about building some walkie-talkies that will build into a mask, so you have no wires running from mask to belt. These may also be avalable for rent during scenario-type games. Basically i plan to gut a few walkie talkies and rebuild them into a much smaller package, as we really dont need that kind of range.

Also, i want to get the idea of night games going, in addition to flashlights and such, for those really rich players one may be allowed to use IR equipment. Please do note though that all this is being kicked around still and is NOT set in stone. (Hope that didnt sound too legaleze :) )

Sorry this is getting long-winded, but Im bouncing ideas off the public to guage a reaction. Offer yer opinions as ye have been doing, just keep it coming. I have changed my contact e-mail address to Webmaster@OZUPaintball.zzn.com. Please send any inquires either here, or there, or talk to me personally on AIM or YIM at Xelot1001.

Thanks again, you people are making my life alot easier.

BBL

[VertigoTech]

Oh, and on a side note, to the black eye comment, all I can say is if someone gets hit by a brick, is it a mason-related incident? Just like if you drive-by someone with a PB gun its just assualt not PB-related assault.

Now if only we could get the media to listen.

[Phantom4Life]

I agree

too bad the Media is driven by Hype and Hysteria© sigh someday :P

[Samurai Moe]

ya, too bad. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people in the world are just stupid. And as you know, most stupid people are easily unfluenced and believe what they want to believe.

But, about the field thing. I think that is a great idea. I live in Marin so it would be nice to have another field kind of nearby. Just remember to require everyone to chronograph their guns before playing. But the urban field idea is great.