All Sup Air Tournaments???

[kris]

I don't want tournament organisers to take the huff because of this
I think you guys all do great jobs and help promote paintball on an unprecedented level. It is just an honest question

How come you don't run all sup-air events?

Is it because of costs or the complication of having sup air fields.
The majority of tournament players i speak to want full sup air events. I know there are some e.g. Welsh open. But in order for British Paintball to move forward shouldn't we be aiming for the future and say have a few tournaments dedicated to woodland while the rest are all sup-air and hyperball
IMHO woodland games are the ones that i don't like at events, maybe its because i'm young and never really got into the woodland scene

 

[eric]

I have never played in, nor heard of(except for IAO which has now changed to all concept) a tournament that used woodland fields in the last year and a half or so.

 

[Si.]

Look at Bullys 2K2 events, they often are a mixture of Air and Wood.

 

[SPARKLIE CHICK]

well there are limitations like flat tree free space thats the main one.

Have you never played Temple Clive has been doing a brilliant job running all supair tourney. I know it's a long way for you but many teams make the pilgramage for pure sup air. The midlans Masters are doing a very good job getting more venues involved and mosr supair.

sparklie

 

[Liz]

I think it's a combination of available flat open space, and even more so cost. A sup'air field doesn't just cost the money to buy the bits and the generator to pump the air, there's also fuel for the fan, the costs & effort of putting it up & down, and cleaning it.

Whereas it's easy enough to have a netted safe zone in the woods, each field needs to be netted for sup'air. The open field used can't really be used for anything else between games as the cost & effort of putting the netting & supports up & down between tournaments would be prohibitive, so you then have to think about compensation for the land owner who can't grow crops there.

 

[Bully]

Another point

I agree with Liz

As an organiser I could spend hours on this subject

There is a limit to flat space and it comes at a price.

Sites like Skirmish are excellent venues BUT they earn their money from customers (not tournie customers) and therefore would not want an event every month as it restricts the number of customers they can operate.

When we run an event with supair ball the entry goes up (good for the organiser) but then the venues can't cope with the number of players. Look at Skirmish I could have easilly run a 3 x 9 or 3 x 10 on the three fields but what about the other 16/13 teams where do they play.

Organsiers like myself and the MM put on a couple of events which are just sup'air ball but the venues we use are not availble every month. PLUS at these venues we have to rent in marquees, toilets, netting, poles, tables etc........ to accomodate the teams.

99% of players turn up at the site - play - pay their bill and go home. (This is not a criticism as this is what they pay for) . Take Skirmish again, Nick and his crew set up a supair field on the Friday, Myself and Tracy Paint set up a field on the Friday this was the JCS field which Tracy had to drive to Elsham on Thursday to collect. On Tuesday the Skirmish crew washed and took their field down I went over and collected the JCS field which now has to be returned to Elsham. It took a full day to clean the safe area at Nottingham.

This was an event with only two fields. At the STB event with 5 fields it took four days to set up the site and two days to clear the site. This was a two day event. Total days 8 days. This was all done by four people, there never seems to be any help when needed.

Now I am NOT complaining I am pointing out the time scale needed to put on an event. This is why I mix the events.

The costs are a lot higher as well but I know players will pay the game fee, so this is not a factor.

I would like to put on supairball only events but there are only a few venues where it is possible. Plus I could not set aside three days to set up sites and a couple of days to clear a site every month. Dedicated venues are the answer but what do these sites do the other 3 weekends in the month, customers would not fill 5/6 supair ball fields every weekend. Massive investment in a safe area for 40/50 teams and would teams play one venue every month, I am not sure.

The Temple is great as they have the fields to concentrate on the tournaments so don't have to consider the customer side of paintball.

These are just a few comments to add to the post

Steve

 

[Phil Warr]

Spot on

Bully, your spot on.

Wouldn't it be fantatasic, every event you go to is Sup Air. But like Steve say's an aweful lot of work has to go on to produce a site with 4 sup air fields. Take the MM event at Wrexham for an example. We had to turn a Cricket pitch outfield into a sup air venue in just one day. We had about twenty bodies on the site (thanks to the pimps and SAD as well as the guy's from the Cameronians) and even with this many bodies darkness was falling as we finished off. And then off course it all has to come down again. We were lucky to have that amount of help but imagine trying to do the same without it. We cannot always get that many bodies together.
There are the sites out there which can hold sup air events or Sup air / concept combinations, although it would proberly mean visiting a site a couple of times in the series, but if it's what you want then why not offer the services of your team to help with the set up of a site, you may even be given a discount on your day fee for doing so. If there were teams out there who would be willing to do this then it could go some way in encouraging the various organisors to look into running more sup air events. It's just an idea.
Of course cost is a consideration as well, as it does cost more to run a sup air event than it would a woodland one. We do try and put this down the list of concerns but an event has to be finacially viable.
Just a few views from us at the MM.

 

[Collier]

What about if the marshalls for the field were responsible for their field i.e. they put it up and they put it down this would be part of what they get paid for(or/and discount off next tourney) along with the free lunch and points they recieve as standard, that way you have at least 5 people per field.
I understand the problems assosiated with this idea for example how do the marshalling teams get to the site a day before? well most tournies are on a sunday so surely the marshalling teams could get on site sat!
If players want all sup'air tournies then they are going to have to pull their fingers out and help the sport does not generate enough cash to for the organisers to do the lot.
Personally I wouldn't have a problem tourning up on a sat if i was marshalling on the sunday to help provided everyone was like minded.

what do you guys think?

Paul.

 

[steven09 (Exodus Capt)]

i think that is a really good idea

except you would have some marchells that wouldnt have a clue




steven

 

[nickp]

Its a great idea, those marchells who turn up without a clue will be hard pressed to leave after the sunday withoput having learned something, over the sat, and sunday... I think that it is a great idea