Widgets

I heard about widgets for quite a while before biting the bullet and buying a widget. I heard about all the great things one can do with a widget and how much fun you can have with a widget. I didn’t know if widgets were hyped up beyond their actual usefulness or if they really were as good as they were raved about, but I knew that eventually I would try a widget out. The big price tag has always been a hindrance, so until recently, all I knew about widgets was what I heard from others.

Well finally I stumbled upon a widget for half the price of all the other widgets I’d seen until that point. I decided to take the plunge and buy myself a widget and experience all the excitement myself. I brought my widget home, took it out of its packaging and gazed in amazement at my beautiful widget. I was a little hesitant about using my widget as I had no personal experience with widgets, but I gave it a go.

Well, to make a long story short, I now think widgets suck. My widget did not live up to its expectations. Maybe buying the half price widget was my mistake. Maybe the more expensive widget would have provided me with all the excitement everyone told me about. I don’t know. All I know is that I am done with widgets. I’m not about to spend another dime on widgets in the hopes that I will actually get enjoyment out of a widget. The widget makers and sellers have lost this customer. I’m going back to my doohickey.

Professional Paintball

The looming question from an outsider…can a Professional Paintball League survive with no one paying the bills? With no viewers, save a few clamoring wannabe elite players, and dwindling sponsor money, how long can we have “professional players, teams, and leagues?

Professional players, by definition, need to be paid. The amount they get paid may be debatable and maybe it’s just enough to break even after their expenses. But a league that requires their professional players to pay their own way, is not really a professional league. It’s a league made up of the best players that can afford to play, not the best players money can buy as is the case in most other “professional” sports.

What we call Professional Paintball is the top tier in competitive paintball, no argument. Any popular sport will have varying levels of competitiveness. Any popular sport has kids aspiring for greatness. The level of luxury attached to achieving the top spots, has much to do with the number of kids and the strength of those aspirations. If the sport is fun to play, that will bolster the number of people who want to take part. Paintball is fun to play. It’s got that going for it and all of us involved in the sport know this. But there is a big difference in a sport that is fun to play and one that is popular enough to attract big money in the form of paying viewers and/or revenue from manufacturers selling high volumes to fans and throngs of aspiring athletes. Paintball does not have that going for it and I doubt that it ever will.

Those involved with high-level paintball can wish all they want that the tide will turn and money will start flowing into their coffers. But unless a format can be found that people will actually want to watch, or will allow the masses to take part because it is fun AND affordable, wishing it to be so will be as far as it goes. That’s my take.

Staffing

My least favorite part of operating a paintball field is staffing. Don’t get me wrong. I like my staff and many of them have started off or become friends over the years. But staffing a paintball field, at least the way we run ours is a little tricky.

First, we rarely know exactly how many staff we will need on a particular day. It’s always a best guess and we try to side on the side of caution, often bringing in more staff than we actually needed. Being understaffed sucks for everyone; the overworked staff, stressed out supervisors, and under-serviced customers. There is nothing wrong with being overstaffed other than it costs money. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t like spending money superfluously.

Then we have to make sure we have the right people on hand. We need mature, experienced staff to take control and keep a handle on running their groups, and we need to have enough other, possibly less experienced staff, to make sure everyone is taken care of and follow the rules. Staffing with only mature experienced refs would be best of course, but there are never enough around. Let’s face it, although working at a paintball field is not hard work and might even be considered more enjoyable than working at many other jobs, it’s not a job most will pick as a permanent career choice. Eventually, all our staff move onto bigger and better things, and to be honest, I encourage them to do so.

Next the problem of staff wanting days off arises. The biggest problem is when the staff wants to play paintball. Often they know each other and have become friends so they want to play together. Pump only days have created problems for us over the years as many of our staff seem to drift towards pump play. We encourage that of course, but when we have a pump only game, we also have at least one regular open game and may have one or more private groups as well. We need staff to operate a business and when most of them want to play, it gets tough. So far we have always found enough volunteers to forfeit playing to help us out. We are always very grateful to those that make the sacrifice.

We try to stay away from hiring tournament players because practices and tournament days draw everyone to those events and away from work. I have no problem with staff that play tournament ball, it just creates a scheduling problem, so in general I don’t hire a lot of tournament players. This year, some of the staff has chosen to form a new tournament team. I wish them well. They practice every Saturday. Our busier of the two days we are open. We are just getting into our busier season and now find we need to hire several new employees to make up for the shortfall. Many of the staff that are on the tournament team are all asking to work on Sundays because they need money (funny how playing tournament ball can make you broke – another topic). But I know that when tournament season starts, these players will be gone on tournament days (mostly Sundays) and I’ll be left scrambling to find enough staff on those days again.

There are no easy solutions. If we hire way more “on-call” staff than we need, we get complaints that they aren’t getting enough work and will eventually find other places to earn money. If we do not hire more staff, there will come a time when we will be turning customers away, because we don’t have enough staff to run all the games. That’s not really an option. We can’t afford to be turning customers away too often.

I hate scheduling staff. I can certainly understand why some industries have mechanized most of their operations so they don’t have as many staffing issues. It sucks for our society to lose jobs, but I can certainly understand the reasoning behind it. It makes managers’ lives a whole lot easier. Now if we could only develop the paintball field staff robot.

Burnout

You’re probably reading the title and thinking Reiner is going to tell us he’s finally burned out. He’s going to call it quits and leave us alone. Well…no such luck. No, this is about player burnout. But it’s not about your hardcore tourney player spending two or three days a week at the field and unable to sustain the pace, although I’m sure that’s an issue within the tournament player community.

The burnout I’m thinking of is probably totally different than most players or even field owners think about. I see it all the time. I can often forecast it on a player’s second or third paintball outing ever. This burnout has to do with the Newbie that falls in love with the game on his first time at our field. He comes to the counter and tells us how much fun he is having; how he had no idea he was going to like paintball this much; how he’s going to do this regularly from now on.

We then see him the next weekend or maybe a couple of weeks later. Sometimes he’s already bought his own gear by the time he comes for his second ever paintball outing. He keeps coming week after week, hardly missing a weekend. Soon he’s one of the “regulars” because he is always there. The other regulars know him by name. This goes on for a few months and then we start seeing him a little less often. Instead of coming every weekend, it’s once or twice per month. Then we won’t see him at all anymore.

The way I see it, these types of players have “too much of a good thing”. The novelty wears off. As I recognize this trend, I will often warn these players that if they come too often, they’ll probably end up burning out. But they never believe it. They are infatuated with their newfound hobby.

This is why I always have to smile when I read posts from players or field owners (or potential future field owners who are going to run a field the “right” way) about how paintball should be really inexpensive for players so they can afford to do it all the time. I read it and smile because I know that most “regulars” will only be regulars for a relatively short time. Then they will move onto something else that catches their interest. But the field owner has based his business plan on attracting and keeping lots of players, and keeping them coming back regularly because at their field they can afford to play all the time.

As a field owner, I have found out and understand that I have a much healthier business if my customers come regularly, but much less often. It’s best if they pursue other interests outside of paintball, and not get too infatuated with just paintball. I have a feeling that is not the way most field owners feel about their customers. I’m sure most want to hook their new players hard and have them come back as often as possible. Sometimes, even I think I’m a bit of an odd duck, a business owner that doesn’t want his customers coming too often. How odd is that?

Function over Form? Form over Function?

We see many different types of players at TNT Paintball. The one thing they all have in common is that they come to play paintball and come to have fun. The majority of our customers rent our equipment to play, but more and more of our customers have their own equipment. I think this is a natural progression of any sport or activity that becomes more popular over time. Golf courses for instance have very few renters these days.

Those that bring their own equipment bring a wide variety. We have players bring low-end pumps, mid-range pumps, and high-end pumps. We have players bringing basic mechanical semi-autos, basic electronic semi-autos, mid-range electronic semi-autos and high-end electros. Some of these markers would have Buck Rogers in amazement (you younger folk will have to google Buck Rogers if you don’t know who I’m talking about) with their futuristic looks. Some markers are brand new but look like they may have seen active duty 50 or 60 years ago. Some are very light and some are not.

Everyone has their own idea of what is right for them. For me it’s a light, easy to maneuver pump. On the other hand, I see lots of markers that are more “realistic” looking that look like they probably weigh close to 10 pounds. Those that use them don’t seem to complain though. Then there are those that like the light, maneuverable electros that can spit out paintballs at what many think are insane rates. These are the markers tourney players use and they use them for a reason; if you know how to use it, you will have a better chance of eliminating the opposition with one.

There is constant debate on virtually every paintball forum about this marker, or that marker, and which is better, and which marker is a pile of junk. Marker reviews are always interesting. Nine times out of ten, the reviewer seems to give his marker rave reviews. I think a lot of that has to do with justifying their decision to buy it in the first place. Obviously, it’s the “type” of marker they wanted, otherwise they wouldn’t have bought it in the first place.

In the end though, is all the debating really worth the effort? Do I really care what the other guys are shooting? If a player wants to haul around a ten pound marker, set it up on bipods, calibrate his sights and play GI Joe, should I think he is silly, just because it’s not what I would do? Should I condemn a player for spending $1,000 on a high end pump, even though I would never spend that much? Should I make fun of the kid that shows up at the field with a $49 plastic paintball marker from Walmart?

Live and let live, I say. Play your game and let others play their game. Have fun and let others have fun, whatever form that may come in. As long as it’s not harming me or other players directly, go for it. Have fun. That’s all any of us go to a paintball field in the first place for, isn’t it? So don’t let yourself be influenced too much by others’ opinions, and don’t try to be too opinionated about what others do. Let’s just all have fun.

The End of an Era?

Paintball, once the fastest growing extreme sport in North America, seems to be heading the other direction, and gaining momentum.

Word on the streets is that Smart Parts laid off its last employees. Once a powerhouse in the paintball industry, now is history. JT recently closed its paint manufacturing plant in Neosho, Missouri. Walmart is rumored to be eliminating paintball from it’s shelves (most likely one of the main reasons for the JT plant shut down). Leagues have been seeing less and less attendance. The number of pro teams is down and will be down further this year, by most indications. I have heard of more fields and stores shutting down in the past year than ever before.

How will this affect the rest of us in the industry? Time will tell. Unfortunately, I don’t have a crystal ball. Did I predict, several years ago, that the industry would waiver at some point if it continued down the path it was on? Sure, but so did others. Apparently the people running big industry did not see it coming. Either that or their efforts were not enough to alter the course. Do I feel sorry for them? Yeah. A bit. The industry downturn was not the fault of any one entity. Stopping it or turning the downturn around is also very difficult of any one, or even a conglomerate of entities.

Did the downturn in the economy have anything to do with this? Sure, but not as much as most people think. Our field had a great year and I know of several other field owners I have been in contact with that have also had good years. Sales have not dropped off for everyone.

So what’s up? Is this the beginning of the end for our beloved sport? Will paintball be nowhere to be seen after a few more faltering years? Is this a Doomsday Report? No, I don’t think so. Paintball is going through a correction period, the way I see it. We, as an industry, made some poor decisions and took some wrong turns. They didn’t seem like bad decisions at the time. Obviously! Otherwise, why would anyone have made them? Nevertheless, poor decisions they were. Hindsight has 20/20 vision though, right? Now we’ll be able to go back and make the correct turns.

Actually, I’m not all that sure about that. I still think most in the industry, maybe even the biggest decision makers in the industry, have very little clue about why we are in the position we are in today. I know most field and store owners have no clue. Am I worried? Not for myself or our little field. As long as I can get paint, replenish our rental markers and masks, we’ll keep plodding along. It’s every man for himself (don’t take that too seriously. It’s not like I’m not beating the drum).

Paintball will remain. Will it ever flourish like it has? I don’t know. I do believe the current industry wide closures that seem to be taking place mark the end of an era. Now it’s just a matter of waiting to see if the next era will be as strong, or possibly stronger.

Jane Doe Plays Paintball

OK, I’m writing this as it may be relatively easy for most people to visualize.

Jane Doe decides to play paintball for the very first time (I use Jane rather than John, because for my example, it will probably be even more easy to visualize, but John may have the same experience). Jane goes to Bill Bob’s Paintball Emporium. She’s never played so she asks Billy Bob how much it’s going to cost and how it all works.

Billy Bob is very helpful and explains to her that her paintball outing is going to cost $50 and will include the use of the field, supplied referees, all the rental equipment she will need and all the paintballs she will need during her outing. Jane says that sounds great.

Billy Bob informs her that the only other decision she needs to make is whether or not she wants to play in the “casual experience” game or whether she wants to play in the “extreme experience” game. Jane asks for clarification. Billy Bob tells her that it is exactly the same thing, including the same price. The only difference is that in the “extreme experience” game, everyone is given three times as many paintballs. That means that not only will Jane be able to shoot three times as many paintballs, but Jane will most likely have three times as many paintballs shot at her.

Jane opts for the “casual experience” game. At the end of the day, when Billy Bob asks Jane if she had fun, Jane tells him that she had a lot of fun and will be back. She had so much fun, next time she is going to try the “extreme experience” version. Billy Bob is happy and Jane leaves with a big smile on her face.

Six months go by and Jane returns to Billy Bob’s Paintball Emporium. This time Jane chooses the “extreme experience” version. Jane finds if much harder to move around and difficult to even stick her head up to get all her paintballs shot. She never does get close enough to a flag to grab it. It was still fun, but not nearly as much as her first paintball outing.

At the end of the day when Billy Bob asks how Jane liked it, she tells him that she didn’t have as much fun as her first outing. Next time she will play the “casual experience” version again. She says it costs the same, but it’s more fun. Billy Bob says he understands and looks forward to seeing her next time.

Will Jane return to play paintball again? Hopefully. But at least Jane has a choice. She can pay the same amount and choose to play in the environment to her liking. How many paintball fields out there provide that choice to their customers? I don’t mean the choice of playing in an all rental game either. I mean playing in a game where she will shoot less paintball and have less paintballs shot at her? If fields are arming their customers with as many cheap paintballs as they feel like purchasing, how does that affect Jane’s paintball experience? Would Jane have come back a second time if she had chosen the “extreme experience” version the first time?