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That is a great question. Here is my answer from 15 years of serving paintball field and paintball store owners.  Paintball is turning into a “Real Business,” meaning that you can’t accidentally make money in paintball anymore. It is something similar to the .com craze in the early 2000’s, the recent real estate boom, or even back to the Gold Rush. These were magic times to different industries when one could make a lot of money quickly and easily, even with a high margin for error. 

 

Paintball differs from these other industries because it was good for a long time. It grew steadily for over 15 years. Once paintball was picked up by mass merchants like Wal-Mart, K-Mart, etc. the industry really started to grow. But very few people realized that there would be an end. It could only go so far. Paintball is not a sport everyone will play. You can’t just throw the ball around in the back yard so to speak.

 

However, now more people than ever want to play paintball. This is why a lot of fields are seeing more and more new players, but not repeat customers. In the old days, fewer people would play, but most would get hooked and be back. Now that ratio is thinning because of the economy and other factors. The fact still remains; there are millions of people that want to play. The industry just needs to reach them. Many people simply need a good excuse to play. They have the money,  but they need a compelling reason.

 

Don’t believe me? Walk down any street in a major city and ask “Do you know what paintball is?” 75% of the time people will say “Oh yeah, it looks fun. I have never played but I would like to. Does it hurt?” If you had asked that question 15 years ago, people would say “What’s paintball?” If you had asked it 10 years ago, they would say “oh yea, it’s that war game”.

 

During the great depression, the biggest boom industries were movies, boxing, and gambling—entertainment. Some things never change, and people will always want to forget their problems. Millions of untapped fans would love to do so as well, through paintballing.

 

What does this mean to the paintball store owner?  You are not Wal-Mart; stop trying to be a big box store. You are not an internet site, so stop trying to be one. Specialize, specialize, specialize. Don’t sell the gun, fix the gun. You make more profit and it doesn’t take any inventory. Only sell High margin items. Quit trying to stock every color of every gun etc. Take trade-ins, offer to serve them. This is the store model that will survive.  

 

I hope this helps. Feel free to call the office so we can serve your needs. 

866-999-6663 www.moneypaintball.org

 

 

 

This is an older article I did for Faceful magazine but it’s very relavant today. Starting or owning a paintball field means you get to deal with people. You get to see very interesting sides of people when you put them in competitive situations. As more and more paintball field owners put in turf ( we like Money Turf the best) and upgrade their tournament fields, we see more and more of the competitive spirit. This spirit can be enraged when a bad call is made. So how do avoid all this? Read on for a few suggestions.

With the whole JOY DIVISION Controversy going on in the NPPL I think it’s fitting to revisit the “daily topic” about tournament paintball reffing.

Please note if you follow the NBA, NFL , MLB or the NHL it really is the same story. From the game fixing issues in the NBA to the NFL’s use of instant replay which still doesn’t eliminate bad calls. As well as MLB’s umpire issues and even Hockeys inconsistent reffing. If your talking sports your always talking about the BAD CALLS.

The biggest challenge paintball faces is that the way the game is played now it is

“ IMPOSIBLE” to reff. If you know me you know I hate to use the word impossible but in this case it’s true.

The guns are too fast for the human eye, the action is too spread out there is no ball or puck to follow, the action can came from anywhere leaving even a good reff totally out of position.

In an earlier article I proposed a format solution called “ Moneyball” which basically forces the action around the flag and makes reffing much easier to do. But what about Xball , everyone knows the reffing is better in the PSP. I disagree, the format is better suited for reffing in the PSP. I.E. we know there are going to be bad calls but with the xball format you are only losing a point vs.a whole game in the NPPL. The NPPL has changed the number of games played and basically said hey, now you get more games to over come the bad calls.

So the question remains how do we eliminate the “ Bad calls” ? This is where I’m suppose to suggest the same stuff we have already heard, pay the reffs more, train them more, give them more rest and water, keep the same crews together bla,bla,bla.

The only way to reff an un-reffable game is to “change” wait that’s to strong of a word for a tournament player, how about “tweak”, let’s “ tweak” the format so even a half blind heat stoke afflicted reff could make the right call.

Here are some possible “ tweaks” that would make tournament paintball a better game to reff.

# 1. Head shots only. What if you were only eliminated by a head shot? Much easier for a reff to focus on one area only. A majority of the time it would be a goggle shot which is much easier to spot. Unless your Mike Paxson during a paintball video( inside joke).

Now before you e-mail me with 500 reasons why this is dumb your missing the point. Tournament paintball is broken, let’s try to fix it. Instead e-mail me with 500 ideas that you have to make it better. In fact I will URGE the editor to print the best ideas you come up with. E-mail your intelligent ideas to : evan.money@verizon.net I delete all profanity laced and derogatory e-mails FYI.

# 2. Smaller and less bunkers on the field. What if you made the bigger safer bunkers far and few between, which forced action in certain areas. Why give the back players a big safe place to hide , force to people to move farther off the breaks to the safer bunkers.

Ok so there are two ideas for “tweaks” now I put it in your hands to see what you can come up with.


Here is an article I did for Face Full magazine on the Paintball fields or paintball field of tomorrow. I think you will like it, this should really help if your looking to start a paintball field.

The next evolution of Paintball fields.

When I was approached by this magazines Legendary editor to do this article I almost fell out of my chair. This topic is something I discuss with my customers almost everyday. Allow me to explain:

For over 15 years I have been working with field owners, helping them start profitable and stay profitable. I have seen just about every type of paintball field you can imagine, most of them not very good.

You see ” back in the day” paintball wasn’t really a sport it was more of a thrill seeking experience like skydiving or bungee jumping. You were the talk of the office when people herd you went paintballing over the weekend.

Obviously a lot has changed and paintball pretty much is recognized around the world as a sport, thanks to the NPPL,PSP and Millennium series.

What is just beginning to change is the type of paintball fields being opened. The norm used to be a dirt road, tipped over port a potties and a wooden shack where you get your rental guns, buy snacks and even get first aid. The owner was typically someone you would find working on the cars in the back of an old service station.

Enter the next evolution of Paintball fields. The new paintball field owners of today have a ” DISNEYLAND ” mentality. They invision a ” CLEAN FACILITY” with different ” Themes” to their park to cater to everyone.

Imagine if you will walking down main street of Disneyland or in this case our Paintball “Theme park”. To the left you see ” Clean” rest room facilities, to the right you see a grass or synthetic ” MONEY TURF” playground with a jumper or other things for the kids to play on. Next to that you see picnic tables in the shade for Mom’s to gather and talk.

As you continue walking to the right you see a sectioned off area for tournament players only with stadium seating and fields covered with” MONEY TURF” ( used by the NPPL) and SUP AIR bunkers. As you look closely you see shaded staging areas for the players as well as a special entrance and there own bathroom facilities.

To your left you see some themed speed ball arenas for the casual players. The bunkers can be assorted shapes and colors with a more relaxed atmosphere catering to new players or private groups.

As you continue walking you enter the ” WOODSBALL ” arena where the fields are bigger and more creative. Castles, Towns, Old helicopters and army jeeps abound and the smell of adventure is in the air.

That’s right folks there are facilities being constructed like this as we speak. Of course we all want one in our town tomorrow but like anything it takes some time. Case in point the NPPL that just happened in Huntington Beach. It wasn’t that long ago that these events were played in the woods with Pro’s staging out of there cars! Now look how much it’s grown, but again it took some time.

Fields like Challenge Park,SC Village & Hollywood Sports were some of the innovators to this new evolution. But the next wave will be bigger, better and cleaner!

I have the privilege to work with www.apiratesparadise.net , this a combination Waterpark/Paintball park with 5 ” MONEYURF” fields and a stadium! If I told you how small the town is that it’s being built in you wouldn’t believe me so check it out for yourself.

Also on www.moneypaintball.org we have designed and packaged a turn key ” Theme PARK”, for a lot less money than you would think. Perhaps you, YES YOU reading this article are part of this evolution. The time is now, the market is ready. The Number #1 industries in slow economic times are always ” Entertainment” because people want to forget there problems.

Get ready, it won’t be long until this next evolution is upon us!

Evan Money is the President of Moneypaintball.org,Moneyturf.org and is committed to taking paintball to the next level.