Casper
New Member
Crazy Ghetto Rigger & Pimpin'
Posts: 917
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Post by Casper on Jun 2, 2013 22:41:33 GMT -5
Is it the Highland that is north of Milford? If it is the distance from me to there now is 1/3 of the distance to Lenox field. 17.1 miles. I'll drive to that in a heart beat regularly.
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Post by Mosin on Jun 2, 2013 23:07:01 GMT -5
I suppose I'll make a $0.02 deposit on this as well, only for public eye as I've already told you most of this via PM. Back in 2007 when Team RAGE met up with OPDOC out at the Paw Paw field his location was hardly anything above a few dirt trails with an old hunting stand here and there. We ended up going out there every weekend and providing between 6-8 hours a day of actually building/digging/improving the field, as well as playing small 4 vs. 4 rec games to see where the weak points were at.
I think this is where you create incentive for "free labor", essentially, you tell players that if they come out and help you improve the new location (leaving the more complicated tasks to more qualified individuals) you could probably see between 15-20 people that would come out to help improve what would soon become "The Home Field" for them. Digging trenches, filling sandbags, moving heavy objects around and general field maintenance and the things that are very time consuming quickly becomes one weekend of labor followed by months of a great field. Michigan has potential to be a great airsoft field again, investing between $1-2k on lumber supplies would easily make any field into a great place to get trigger time in.
Anyways, tons of other things to be done/said for the location. Gotta pick the wifey up from the airport, hope the good idea fairy I have here helped.
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Post by kajunkerspunk on Jun 3, 2013 0:05:46 GMT -5
I never knew there was a field in Highland/White Lake. I live in white lake/Waterford. A bigger field might convince me to pick the game back up.
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Post by Kurt 19D on Jun 3, 2013 7:59:03 GMT -5
As has been said here, the several people I talked to about this membership fee were not interested. It is just too difficult to get your money's worth. I would be all for the Highland field. How big is it in comparison to Lennox? If you build it up right you could have a gem on your hands. SFOD would draw at least 100 people every month when they were in full swing and they were way out in Davison. Let's do it!
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Post by Gunny87 on Jun 3, 2013 8:03:35 GMT -5
Thad,
My advice to you would be to leave the 28 mile & Gratiot field. I haven't been to the Highland field, but I have heard good things from you and other members on this forum in regards to it. Aside from my personal bias that the Highland field is only 20 miles from where I live, the Highland field sounds like it's more centrally located compared to the 28 Mile & Gratiot field and should increase attendance at events.
As you already know, it's not fun having to do business with an individual that is hard to work with, and it sounds like working with the owner of the 28 mile & Gratiot has been a major pain in the ass for you.
Also I know you do have a number of individuals that regularly attend your rec games on a weekly basis, but if you moved to a "membership" method of having individuals paying a monthly fee as well as offering those the opportunity to pay $20 if they only come to one or two events, I'm not sure if you'll get enough people to pay the monthly membership subscription fee to make it worth it to stay at the Gratiot field. Also if you have the opportunity to build up the field and the property owner is open and willing to work with you then it sounds like it would be a much better choice. I understand that if you have to build up the field yourself that costs money. However I'm not sure what sort of arrangement you have with the Highland field owner but if you have any sort of long term agreement with him you could slowly build up the field over time. Or try and get the landowner to make the investment and even if you have to still charge $20 per player to account for the field materials and rent if you make it a great field, then people will come and play. And then if enough people are regularly attending then you could offer the monthly membership fee.
I will also volunteer at least one day of my time to help you work on the field as long as I'm available that day.
Anyways this sounds like a great chance for a fresh start for a new and better field.
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Post by M.S.-ARC on Jun 3, 2013 8:18:37 GMT -5
Heck, just routing to the center of highland, it's a bit closer drive than the 28 mile field for me. Says 38 min driving time. That's only barely longer than no limits to me. Also, a bit closer than SFOD was. I would have driven twice that distance, hands down, for SFOD. If you could make Highland as cool as SFOD...well...I'd be very happy. Sorry, no first born pledge or anything (I'm kinda attached to her), but you would guarantee business for sure! Give Highland a try. If it is as close as tank says, I'll definitely be coming to more games. Worse case scenario is if you leave, the 28 mile field owner might see that you are serious and reconsider the price increase in case Highland doesn't work out.
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SamRI
New Member
Welcome to Thunderdome
Posts: 104
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Post by SamRI on Jun 10, 2013 8:37:18 GMT -5
I say memberships won't work. Even Phoenix tried them and it was a no go. Drop 28mi and Gratiot and try your luck with highland. After reading the whole thread that seems to really be your best option
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Post by X on Jun 10, 2013 9:49:08 GMT -5
I posted this awhile ago on one of your event threads. I talked to a few guys and everyone seems to agree with me. I think it would be worth discussing here...
If you take these suggestions and turn Highland into an interesting and technical field you will succeed. On top of that I will be a happy camper because from what I remember that field allows vehicles and our team so happens to now have one and live ~15 minutes away.
I think many people here miss SFOD. I don't think you were around to see SFOD but what made it a success is that the field was relatively big, had a key defensive position (the city) for attack/defend games, and had many avenues of approach for each objective. When you combine that with some of the more interesting games that Hellfish have hosted (I remember having to build our own spawn location, bagging "drugs" for distribution, very cool!) you have a recipe for awesome.
This is where the field at 28 mile fails IMO. The field is too simple. It's sort of narrow and doesn't allow people to get creative in flanking and such. You pretty much have to brute force your way to the objective. The only defensible area is not very interesting or defensible. Go to a No Limits game at look at the castle for an example. A lot of really fun games take place on that field because it's highly defensible. The challenge of breaking in, or keeping attackers out is more fun the just a straight elimination game and it's simple enough that it's suitable for REC games.
I think if you choose to move to Highland you should get input from some of the older members here about what makes a good field. I have a lot of ideas, but I'm not going to write out two pages of suggestions for what right now is still up in the air.
Maybe you should setup a poll to see if you are actually moving away from players. I have a feeling that you might get more people at highland since it's more centrally located.
1)Highland is closer to me. 2)28 Mile is closer to me. 3)Both are too far away from me. 4)The fields are equidistant to me.
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Post by Tank on Jun 10, 2013 10:26:44 GMT -5
If you were to set up a poll, make sure you include at least rough location information.
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Post by Mosin on Jun 10, 2013 14:24:20 GMT -5
I'd like to speak on this topic on behalf of ATS, as I'll be taking over the helm as "Event/Operations Coordinator" upon my exit of Active Duty Military. Our intent, as it stands, is to move to this new Highland field. The location is pristine and the field is even better. I've been given a blank canvas and you can rest assured I'll be doing my best to see this field is maxed out on potential. Operation: Geronimo will be the official unveiling of the field, but it will only improve as the months go on. The new Highland field is still getting the final administrative tasks taken care of (Dotting the I's and such), so I cannot say with 100% certainty that we have this piece of land just yet. However, should the insurance get approved and the ball gets rolling in that direction you can rest assured that we'll be putting quite a bit of money into the field to make it something great.
What I plan on doing: Every month I intend on hosting an Operation/Event on a weekend that works best for everyone, I'll be rotating these events between standard MiA Events (14+ - Looser restrictions) and MilSim Events (16+ - Tighter restrictions), bi-monthy. In between these I will be hosting one rec game, this will get the field used two weekends a month, which we feel is not overplaying the field, nor is it going to restrict full potential. In addition, I plan on keeping updated rosters as to who is going to be in attendance on games. The events will require prepayments, and deals/group rates will slowly be introduced once the initial purchases are covered and we have more leniency towards not having to try so hard to make a buck. In addition to hosting games/operations/events, I will be offering personal training sessions to any group/individuals that wish to seek training in CQB, Sniping, or general squad movements. These will be dealt with on a case to case basis and individual quotes will be furnished for this on the off weekends.
What I am asking from MiA: Honest feedback; At the end of every game I'll have a stack of "Field Critique Forms", these forms will have spaces that you can write where you think improvement needs to occur, to include a map of the field so you can draw where you'd like to see things moved around/added/removed. What this will do is create trends, if we notice 80% of the forms say move bunker A over or back 50 meters, or remove it, we will.
I know majority of Michigan is tired of the same old fields and the same old scenarios, and I know that every time a field owner/event hoster promises to change it, they never do. If you've never attended one of my events, you probably think I'm lumped in this same category. If you have, then I encourage you to persuade your friends otherwise.
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Post by Kurt 19D on Jun 11, 2013 19:06:58 GMT -5
I really like what I am hearing. For those that don't know him, Mosin will do the right things to get this field up and running. Can't wait to start playing here. Let me know if you need any help.
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Post by Talisman on Jun 12, 2013 4:39:57 GMT -5
I have faith in Mosin.
Also, we've been looking for a new field... Bangor is getting a bit stale. Maybe this will fit the bill!
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Post by Da Vinci - Да Винчи on Jun 12, 2013 10:11:58 GMT -5
It'd be awesome if part of the field could be set up psuedo-CQB, lots of buildings close together and whatnot. But this new field sounds awesome! I know myself and quite a few of my buddies will be able to make it more frequently to games, if all goes well.
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Post by X on Jun 12, 2013 10:16:33 GMT -5
Make sure you keep it open enough for an F-150
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Post by Tank on Jun 12, 2013 10:19:58 GMT -5
Make sure you keep it open enough for an F-150 But obviously not a large gaping hole in the buildings, if you were to do a SFOD type city layout. Vehicles wouldn't belong in the environment. Though on other parts of the field, that would be cool to see vehicles allowed.
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