Reball centres

[Robin Hood]

A better training centre, in the centre of the country. B'ham way.
Easy access from major motorways, perhaps the M1 or M40. Close to a major train station hub, like the B'ham stations. Then easy access by foot or bus.

Descent facilities, 3/4000psi compressor. 5/7 man field area. Drilling area. Half descent turf. (doesn't even need to be XL, just not a crappy mat) My local field in the states just installed turf outside http://www.skylinepaintball.com/turffield.htm I don't know exact cost, but it was a ****load less than than XL and is luvly and cussiony.

Be open for training every weekend and some/all weeknights too.

It needs to be done whole heartedly and professionally, not half assed. (Not saying fireball was at all, I never went, just saying what I reckon needs to be done).

It won't be cheap to setup, but if it's as good as it could be and had a reasonable monthly fee I'd be there at least 2 nights a week or day at the weekend if it's within an hour and a half away.

Just my 2 pence. Don't see it happening anytime soon though.

 

[Lump]

ok there the nail on the head.so lets say you got this how many would come back and not let it fade out.would the effort be made month in month out.

 

[John C]

At the start there was some interest, but nowhere near as much as there was on the internet before it opened. I guess talk is cheap, where as reball is £60 per month.



The place in general was brilliant. No weather concerns, no cleanup time needed.
Just drill 'till you drop.

Alot of people would try to play pickup games on the main field, as this seems to be the default method of 'training' in the UK.
Obiviously that didnt work, and those people who went down just to play disorganised games went away slightly disappointed.

My team arent the most organised bunch, but we went down with a few clear ideas for drills and those developed over time.
Yes it wais painful and tiring, but the benefit we saw from reball was phenomenal, the difference it made to our game was obvious.

In the few short months we were members, my team went on average of twice per week. Some weeks we made 4 evenings (I really miss those days ).
Sometimes we would only get 3 players down but that did not matter, the best drills only required 3 players.

Sadly as Fireball started closing on certain days, the amount of time we could attend for our £60 per month went down, and when they reduced it to 3 weekdays per week we stopped attending.



The only reason I can think of, why attendance decreased was that there was only a few teams who actually got the whole point of reball, and nobody was there to show them the way.

Breaking down your game, analysing your weaknesses and thinking up some worthwhile drills to help you improve is hard and requires experience. Deriving enjoyment from how much you have improved takes determination patience.
On the other hand, just turning up and shooting your mates like you can do at any other training field is fun, and easy.


On the whole the organisers did a great job, everything you needed was catered for.
But I think some of the newer players needed to be taken in hand a bit more.
People needed to be taught how to use reball as a training tool, but this wasnt on offer.
Im not talking about special 'pro' days with additional costs.
They just needed to get someone who knows what they are on about, like Mario to act as a coach for the newer teams. Setting up drills and demonstrating the correct techniques would have made a huge difference to their game, rather than leaving them to their own devices.
This would hopefully have turned more teams into regular customers.

However building up a customer base in this manner takes a long term business plan. Judging from the fact that they practicly closed after 3 months leads me to beleive that Fireball did not have this type of business plan.
I think they expected a return on their huge investment very quickly and once it became apparent that this was not going to happen, they went into damage limitation mode (closing on certain days and trying to attract rental customers).

I do not know whether it is even possible to run a reball center as a business right now in the UK. The precedent set by fireball suggests its not.




PS
On an unrelated note about travel times. I have some friends in the US who play paintball at a very high level, and they think nothing of driving a 16 hour return trip on a weekend for training. It makes me laugh (and cry, and throw up at the same time) when people in the UK complain about a 2 hour drive.

 

[Lump]

your right about how we the brits seam to train,just playing games.and your post make pefect sense.thanks.what i am thinking is would the like of the pro teams use some thing like this if it was done well.like with joy.and we have all seen the results of that

 

[TheRenton]

Spot on John, we had actually started Fireball for the team firstly, but not even all the team would come on a regular basis. Then it expanded to become the business. Unfortunately, we only had time to train and not show people how to use the facilities. The Pro days were actually very good for giving you and idea of stance, accuracy etc, but like you say, additional costs were added because they were being run by the very nice Nicky T and Mr Edwards who really were great.

 

[J@mes]

PS
On an unrelated note about travel times. I have some friends in the US who play paintball at a very high level, and they think nothing of driving a 16 hour return trip on a weekend for training. It makes me laugh (and cry, and throw up at the same time) when people in the UK complain about a 2 hour drive.

the reason for this would be that the american's are so use to driving hours to get anywhere, where us brits are not use to the long drive to get to the things we want, and then there would be the whole fact that the legal driving age is lower, and i would imagen the price of driving is far cheaper.

i myself would love to be able to afford a car to myself but when you look at the costs over here.

£500 pound for a half decent car
£1300 quid insurance
tax
and then there's the price of petrol.

when you take these into mind, you see why not every one can afford it ontop of a expensive sport.

BTW. i really wanted to go to fireball, but was waiting till i got all my gear together, and being a noob, i would have liked to have been shown as to how to use reballs as a training tool.
i would love there to be a site i could go to regualer and not have to spend XXX amount on paint and so on.

-james

 

[jus]

indoor supair field stafford with reballs

so does this influx of conversation mean you do want somewhere indoor to train or play? is stafford too far for you to travel? since my original posts this week i have had 3 more people say they are interested in joining in, check out the original thread (indoor supair field stafford with reballs) for prices..... if you are interested and are willing to part with the cash..... add your name on to the bottom of this post. we need 20 people...........

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[Robin Hood]

The cost of travel is a hell of a lot cheaper in the US.
When I was over there last year I drove a bucket that was picked up for about $3000 when I got there and sold for the same when I left, my insurance was covered under my parent over there, so nothing extra.

Then the main running cost, petrol is:

Approx $3.20 per gallon = $3.20 per 3.79 litres = $0.85 per litre = £0.45 per litre. Half the price.

I would drive an hour easy to work everyday and 2-3 hours to play paintball one or two days on the weekend. Because I could afford to.

The train system in the UK is ok, but can require a stupid amount of changes sometimes depending on where you going to/from.

I wonder if anyone living full time in the London area even contemplated visiting Fireball let alone ever went. (I realise Fireball wasn't originally set up to cater for all of the UK. But a descent, accessible location is obviously key if one is to be set up correctly to cater for the UK and survive.)

 

[Bernie]

John, thanks for the positive comments and also to you and your team for being one of the very small group of players who not only talked about how much they wanted a proper training facility but actually followed through and (would you credit it for a bunch of UK ballers) actually approached training seriously. Good on you!

Just going to respond to your following points though:-

However building up a customer base in this manner takes a long term business plan. Judging from the fact that they practicly closed after 3 months leads me to beleive that Fireball did not have this type of business plan.
I think they expected a return on their huge investment very quickly and once it became apparent that this was not going to happen, they went into damage limitation mode (closing on certain days and trying to attract rental customers).

Unfortunately the above implies the wrong motivation for setting up Fireball in the first place. The motivation was never for profit it was as a result of my passion and enthusiasm for the sport. The huge investment (and believe me it was huge!) was never expected to produce a return. In fact it was apparent from very early in the planning stages that a reball centre in the UK was highly unlikely to turn a profit and was almost guaranteed to run at a loss for some years. In essence the initial investment was written off at the outset.

What you seem to be intimating with your mention of a long term business plan is that maybe the owners of Fireball weren't too clued up about the setting up and running of a successful business in the outdoor/extreme/adrenalin sports sector. heh .... I can assure you we have more than a little experience in this sector and others

What became apparent from very early on in Fireballs lifespan was that
UK ballers are, on the whole, as lethargic and apathetic as my man Mario is always so eager to point out. And whilst many ballers had expressed a great deal of enthusiasm for the facility prior to opening, much much fewer demonstrated that enthusiasm for any period of time. The first few weeks were great - lots of enthusiastic ballers piling through the doors and really taking full advantage of the facility.... woohoo..... theres my motivation!! Very satisfying. Come month 2 and I reguarly had more staff than ballers in the building. Now bearing in mind that there were never more than two staff thats pretty pathetic. Come month 3 and most nights were completely free of ballers. Despite the lack of ballers Fireball was still acting as a major drain on the most valuable of resources - my time. But without the satisfaction of watching my excellent (if I do say so myself) facility in action the only real benefit from keeping it open was so that I had somewhere to train. So after a little bit of soul searching I came to a startling conclusion - bollox to it I'll shut the bloody place down and I'll still have somewhere to train - my own private reball facility - I just won't be wasting anymore of my valuable time.

You see there was never a damage limitation mode I just couldn't be arsed anymore!

Fireball is still there and its still an awesome place to train. I expect to be fully prepared for the 07 season after training hard through the winter months. But its still closed.

I wish anyone who decides to set up a UK reball facility the best of luck. Hell, I'll probably even join but don't ask for any advice on setting up I'd just tell you to spend your time and money on wine, women and song instead.


Bernie

 

[TheRenton]

I'd just tell you to spend your time and money on wine, women and song instead.

you rebel