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What was once extreme is now mainstream—at least where paintball is concerned. In 1998, the first year SGMA International started tracking paintball participation rates, there were 5.9 million players nationally. That number has jumped to more than 9.6 million people who now actively participate, while several pro players earn more than $1 million per annum and ESPN2 covers the sport in prime time.
Sparked in part by lower insurance age limits for players as young as 10 and a growing acceptance (as late as 1988, it was illegal to play paintball or even own a paintball gun in New Jersey), paintball has enjoyed “23 years of consecutive, ridiculous growth,” notes John Amodea, editor of Paintball 2Xtremes Magazine. “Last year was the first dip, but all signs are that it is coming back,” he says.
Who plays paintball? SMGA, a trade association for sporting goods manufacturers, reports that 84 percent of players are males 25 and younger and as a group, paintball participants are more likely than the general population to also engage in activities such as roller hockey, BMX bicycling, ice hockey, wrestling and tackle football. “It’s a rare breed that plays paintball,” says Geoff Lee, sales manager for Amusement Products Inc. in Chattanooga, Tenn. One thing is for sure: “Paintballers,” as they’re called, aren’t your average golf customer.
“Paintball and driving ranges, that’s a challenging combination,” says Jerry Merola, CFO for Amusement Entertainment Management, an industry consulting firm in East Brunswick, N.J. “You are talking about ranges that appeal to dramatically different users. I question the comfort level of these two groups mixing.”
That view aside, George Somers, sales manager for National Paintball Supply, a Sewell, N.J.-based distributor, says, “Each year we are seeing more and more driving ranges including paintball in their offerings.”
A number of entrepreneurs operate both activities successfully. One is Douglas Johnstone, president of Staten Island Paintball Inc. and Staten Island Golf Practice Center. He acknowledges the diverse mentality and behaviors. “The only thing that is similar between the two is that we share a parking lot. The golf range is 20 acres heading one way; paintball is 20 acres heading the other.” Even without a real synergy, the two attractions benefit the business as a whole. In the winter months when range traffic drops off, for example, the paintball park is a bottom-line booster for the entire operation.
One reason why range operators may consider paintball as a profit center is because they already have several key components needed for it: proper zoning, parking, a pro shop and staff, says Amodea. Oh, yes, and land.
Tim McCulley of Sluggers & Putters Wild World of Fun in Canal Fulton, Ohio, has them all. Five years ago he added paintball to his 20-acre complex, which has a driving range, a miniature golf course, batting cages, go-karts, bumper boats and a rock-climbing wall. “I always wanted to do paintball, but didn’t want to run it.”
So he leased it to someone who did. “He pays me rent for the fields [there are four] and the sales areas. I do the marketing for him, but he’s responsible for his own insurance, employees and the like,” says McCulley.
Scott Evans, owner of the Gravel Pit, home to the only lit paintball operation in Batavia, N.Y., took a different route. In 1998, he added paintball to his 14-acre site, which also supports a driving range, a miniature golf course, go-karts and arcade. Evans did all the prep work on the 105-foot by 1,300-foot paintball field, and runs and maintains the operation himself. “There’s no overhead with an outdoor field if you already own it,” he says.
But not every range owner has extra land to spare and, in these cases, the range’s outfield can moonlight as a paintball field. That’s what happens every Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Gino’s Golf and Paintball Center. Eugeno Postorivo Sr., owner of the Mantua, N.J., business, started offering paintball play six years ago as a way to provide an activity for local children and to support his son’s business, National Paintball Supply, located just a mile down the road. Postorivo charges a $15 field fee for the day and sells no equipment or supplies, but instead sends prospects down to his son’s showroom. Although he’d prefer not to close the range at all, Postorivo says the paintball revenues are sufficient to send a “few bucks” his way.
Clearly there is a place for paintball on a driving range, just not every driving range. “The key is determining what makes good sense for the site and customer,” says Merola of Amusement Entertainment Management. Extra land doesn’t equal a successful paintball operation. “The dilemma with that approach is like saying, ‘Hey, I’ve got available real estate and I’ll put another business there and just let it do what it’s going to do.’ That can be troubling because the driving range customers have certain expectations regarding what the facility is, who the other guests are and what will take place there,” Merola says.
So might the staff. Robb Horlacher ran a profitable, though short-lived, three-field, Friday-through-Saturday-evening paintball operation at his golf course and driving range, Pavilion Lakes Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. He started the paintball business in May 2004 and shut it down just eight months later when the older golf staff members proved unable to properly relate to and serve younger paintball customers.
McCulley, Johnstone and Evans say they have no such staffing issues but clearly segregate (as did Horlacher) the two activities. They also supplement land and money with abundant patience and good business sense.
As with any new venture, industry experts recommend doing due diligence to learn about the paintball business—from the equipment to the players to the culture.
“In my 21 years of paintball, I’ve seen hundreds of fields come and go. Guys who have never played try to open a paintball field and have no idea what they are doing,” says magazine editor Amodea. “Paintball players are enthusiasts to the 10th degree and they are very particular about the type of paintball they shoot, and the type of gun, accessories and clothes they use.”
Those who play paintball regularly “don’t want their games run by, or to buy equipment from, people who know less than they do,” he continues. “So, generally speaking, if you haven’t been in paintball for several years, you are wasting your time trying to run games on your own. It will never work. There are so many things you need to know: insurance, politics, gear sourcing, game operation, types of games, how to get referees and employees, how to handle sponsoring teams. It is a very, very sophisticated operation.”
Yet it doesn’t take much money to gain entry. Somers of National Paintball Supply estimates that an operator with available land for a bunker field can get a 20-gun package with tanks, masks, referee equipment and netting for as little as $5,000.
Operator setup costs “depend on what your goals are,” notes Amodea. A paintball field can be as small as one-half the size of a football field. “I’ve seen paintball fields run on really tight budgets…. But that’s not the way to go,” he says. “If you are undercapitalized, you are not going to make it. My feeling is if you don’t have $25,000, don’t waste your time. And that’s a pretty small amount to open up a business that could bring you a nice chunk of change every week.”
If the budget is a bit more flush, outsourcing construction is an option. Amusement Products, for example, offers two standard turnkey packages that include construction, netting, a paint storage and sales building, pole-mounted lights and a 20-gun package. “You can get in for as little as $50,000 to $60,000 if you do it up right,” says Lee. And depending on the hours of operation, the attraction could bring in double that annually.
Paintball operators say the money to be made is in the play and in selling soft goods, like paint. Once, operators could count on players renting equipment 80 percent to 90 percent of the time. “Now it’s just the opposite,” says Evans of the Gravel Pit. “The majority of players own their own guns unless you are talking corporate parties.”
Amodea agrees that profits come from selling non-reusable products, such as paint and propellant (CO2 or nitrogen). There’s also a “a pretty good profit margin in…soft goods like jerseys, pants, gloves and cleats,” he says. “Plus anything in plastic accessories, such as tubes and hoppers that hold the paintballs do well. Items from $10 to $25 will yield a fairly good profit margin too.
“Field fees, generally $10 to $15 per session, will cover insurance and employee costs,” Amodea says.
Evans can attest to that. He can recoup his $1,200 annual insurance premium in two to three games of 20 players or more. Group outings, especially corporate parties, are “good revenue sources because they come in with a blank check and say, ‘Let’s do it,’” Evans notes.
But it takes constant marketing to attract groups, as well as local enthusiasts, say field operators, who suggest such marketing strategies as offering discounts to large local businesses and hosting recreational leagues (think bowling). In his best year, with only 25 percent corporate sales and heavy advertising, Johnstone generated $750,000 in paintball revenues.
Clearly opportunity awaits, but even with extra land (one reason ski resorts and paintball work so well together), “it’s not for everybody,” notes McCulley.
Paintball may make sense for ranges with multiple attractions and in markets already populated with shops and pent-up demand. Ranges without other amenities may want to consider adding a miniature golf course or other family-oriented attraction first.
“A stronger play for the driving range owner with excess land might be to build an entertainment complex around it,” says Merola. “That gives you a lot more flexibility and brings the family to the site, which is in harmony with the driving range user. Driving ranges are the next ones in line to become entertainment complexes. When you talk about how to build revenues and grow the business, driving ranges really need to become four-season venues, but I have a strange feeling that paintball is not the best of fits.”.
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