T.C. Paintball

[Simon]

Capital City Airsoft will be hosting a number of recreational games at T.C. Paintball's fields in Charlotte MI over the course of this month, next month and depending on event turnout, next year. I have a few questions for everybody. First, what dates would you like to see games? Second, the insurance requires full paintball masks, even if they are provided for free, how will that impact your decision to play? Last of all, what price would best draw you to a rec game? (Unfortunately, free is not an option) Any response is appreciated, and any additional comments, questions or concerns are appreciated as well.

[M.S.-ARC]

Take a look at how No limits paintball is being run back when the Hellfish used to run games and now as the Suicide Kings are running games there.

There's always a large turn out and that is because of the flexibility in the rules as well as a competitive price and the priority they give to airsoft players when we show up in huge numbers.

The only way things will work is if the owners are willing to compromise a little. Otherwise most airsoft players will just go somewhere else.

[Gunny87]

@ Wraith531. Hosting a rec game at least once a month should get you a decent turnout. Obviously you'll get a much higher turnout at just one game a month then you will with more than one game a month since people can only have one option to play.

To answer your first question, your best bet is to look and see when other events are being held in the month and do your best not to schedule a game the same day as another event already planned in the general area (for Lansing this won't be much of an issue) If you schedule a rec game the same day as a MILSIM event chances are most people are probably going to commit to the MILSIM event, but you'll always get locals that will want to play. I don't know how many there are in the Lansing area personally.

Also take into consideration seasonal activities such as college football, holidays, etc. You can always throw up a thread in the event planning section by providing a couple possible dates and asking for people to respond and chose the event with a higher response.

#2. Usually requiring all players to wear a full paintball mask will unfortunately discourage a lot of people. Even if they all understand it's a requirement due to insurance purposes. In the past I wore a full face mask because it was required to attend places like Hell's Survivors (Durbond I I believe), and previous games over at Futureball (i.e Michigan Big Game East vs West), granted this was a long time ago and both fields changed their policies.

However some people will not want to attend because they are forced to either buy a paintball mask, or they won't want to use the crappy scraped up rentals that fog, 1 minute after walking onto the field.

#3. I know you've already contacted T.C. since you have an event there on the 15th, but as you know for a REC game people will want to pay as little as possible. I know for T.C. their player cost is $15. And now the average cost to play at a REC game has gone down from $20 to $15. But for most fields it varies between $10-$20. Anything more than $20 you'll probably get a smaller player turnout.

As ARC stated let them know and see if the owners are willing to work with you. Tell them that requiring a paintball mask will discourage player turnout. And ask them if they would allow full face covering by allowing players to either use a balaclava, bandana, mesh face mask, shemagh, etc.

[Simon]

Gunny, I have offered the face mask alternatives to the owners, and they didn't seem too eager to budge. I will see if I can change their mind. Thank you both for your responses.

[Gimpalong]

Wraith,

Get a hold of Wayne Berry (if you haven't already). He's the actual owner of TC Paintball, not just a manager. He's a pretty nice guy and you should be able to chat him up as regards the full-face/face-covering issue.

I do know that the former owner of the Charlotte field got into some hot water with his insurance company over this same issue and ended up having to pay some sort of penalty because he was "caught" allowing airsofters to not use full-face.

Wayne Berry is at the Traverse City store fairly frequently if you're up that way.

Some super stoked to see the Charlotte field coming back to offering airsoft games. It's a great field and was a lot of fun to play at when Canto used to host winter games there.

[Simon]

Some parts of the field are a bit rough still. The previous owner didn't do a lot of good upkeep. On the other hand The village is great and ready to go.

[Talisman]

I've been wondering when someone would start hosting games at that field again. I had a blast the one time I was out there, was a great field. I may make it down there next year if some ops were hosted, but this year is booked.

[Simon]

We want to do monthly rec. games until the field is back to scenario or milsim quality. In the interest of building a great quality field from the start the new owners have been restoring the field one section at a time. So it may be a while before we can do anything larger than a rec game or cqc heavy scenarios.

[Gunny87]

Simon, I know this might be a mute point, considering that based on what Gimp said and from what I was told from what happened with the previous management but definitely try to talk to the actual owner like Gimp mentioned and see if they can at least find out with their insurance provider to allow full face protection (using mesh masks, bandanas, balaclavas, shemagh's etc) and not strictly full paintball masks.

Let them know that it would seriously limit turnout if airsoft players are only being able to use full masks.

[Simon]

Like I said, I'll give the facemask alternative pitch another shot.

[Dingo™]

^ Yea, I love that field, but not enough to wear a paintball mask..