Potential Site Location w/ map and photos

[fivezerothree]

Wanted to know people's opinions. There's a good chance I could set up a basic site in this location (Lancashire/Greater Manchester). I'm thinking of investing in about £500 worth of sand and their respective bags if not more to give adequate cover in the more open areas.

The green lines indicate the potential borders and the green highlighted land represents actual playing area with safe zone at the top. The pink dotted lines are public footpaths. I've lived around here for 12 years and I have never seen a great deal of walkers/ramblers. Interruptions would be at a minimum with ample signage.

I suppose compared to some sites this would be small or narrow. I thought it would be good for 'rush' based objective attacking/defending at least. It's not the easiest to measure but I think it's about 1000m long and about 4.5 - 5 acres. The actual boundaries have yet to be negotiated.

I know there are lots of other things to consider and look into but I want to know if it seems appealing before I invest more time.

Link to a few pictures below.

http://goo.gl/XnfCe

Opinions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Richard65]

Looks like a lot of footpaths on the proposed site. Although they may not be used much at the moment you could well get them pout in force as soon as they hear of any application to use it for airsoft.

Have you checked with the local council if they would allow it?

The sites we have played at all have netting around the playing area and if you need that then it would be quite an expense.

Otherwise it looks like it could be a great site.

 

[AirsoftTed]

R.E: the sandbags, save your money on sand, buy more sandbags. You can fill them with dirt, which will mean digging nice little foxholes too.

 

[fivezerothree]

I forgot to mention that the large pink box is an old factory ruin, that is much lower down than the rest of the terrain – two if the photos should give you an idea.

 

[fivezerothree]

Looks like a lot of footpaths on the proposed site. Although they may not be used much at the moment you could well get them pout in force as soon as they hear of any application to use it for airsoft.

Have you checked with the local council if they would allow it?

The sites we have played at all have netting around the playing area and if you need that then it would be quite an expense.

Otherwise it looks like it could be a great site.

My understanding from the legal point of view is slender at best although I will be hopefully running this site once a fortnight which will keep me under the councils radar. I don't intend on getting the council involved at all unless it goes that way.

 

[fivezerothree]

R.E: the sandbags, save your money on sand, buy more sandbags. You can fill them with dirt, which will mean digging nice little foxholes too.

Genius! Didn't think of that.

 

[SheriffHD]

My understanding from the legal point of view is slender at best although I will be hopefully running this site once a fortnight which will keep me under the councils radar. I don't intend on getting the council involved at all unless it goes that way.

Who owns the land? because you may find that you will need to go via the land owner for permission to do this sort of thing Be it a private owner or via the council.

 

[Moose87]

thats a very good point, you cant just go running around with RIFs on public land as people will call the police, if its private land then obviously you need permission to dig holes and stuff, which i doubt you will get from council land and its prob part of a green belt

 

[fivezerothree]

Who owns the land? because you may find that you will need to go via the land owner for permission to do this sort of thing Be it a private owner or via the council.

thats a very good point, you cant just go running around with RIFs on public land as people will call the police, if its private land then obviously you need permission to dig holes and stuff, which i doubt you will get from council land and its prob part of a green belt

It's privately owned countryside and yeah it's greenbelt but that only stops you from building housing estates etc not hosting events.

As long as the events only consume 28 days of the year (every two weeks) then it falls below the councils radar – although they are all very aware of what I am proposing.

We live in a rural/agricultural community where everyone knows each other within a 3 mile radius. I know the owner and the permission/legality of it is underway.

 

[SheriffHD]

Ahh fair enough then. Nice. Good luck bro

 

[adam bussey]

how much will a game be? i might pop over from cambridgeshire to have a go.

 

[Moose87]

yer sounds all good then mate, good luck

 

[fivezerothree]

how much will a game be? i might pop over from cambridgeshire to have a go.

Good question! Problem is, it will take a fair bit of investment to set up. I estimate around the £2000 mark because I intend to have new generators and all the associated equipment that goes with sites such as this. I have currently but not the kind of stuff I could rely on as much as I would need.

I would like to make it more expensive at first to recover investment. Although I would like to aim for £25. It's a hard one at this point. If i could guarantee 100 people per day then I would do it for £20 or under!

All's that I want out of this is for it to replace my weekend wage at Dyson...

 

[Moose87]

20-25 i think is a fair price if you have some good arenas there, something like this i would say you will make your money back within a year, but remember if its a business then you have business tax and if you are paying yourself out of it then you are self employed. unless you can keep it under the radar which you might be able to but that is illegal, just incase HMR&C are looking, Alternatively you could make it a Non Profit Organisation which entitles you to some tax reliefs, im fairly sure your still allowed to pay people but most of the money you make has to go back into developing what your doing.

 

[fivezerothree]

20-25 i think is a fair price if you have some good arenas there, something like this i would say you will make your money back within a year, but remember if its a business then you have business tax and if you are paying yourself out of it then you are self employed. unless you can keep it under the radar which you might be able to but that is illegal, just incase HMR&C are looking, Alternatively you could make it a Non Profit Organisation which entitles you to some tax reliefs, im fairly sure your still allowed to pay people but most of the money you make has to go back into developing what your doing.

Sorry, when I say under the radar I mean keeping it to 28 days or less per year. It's basically the maximum you can do before you have to apply to change the use of land of which it will then become commercial. It's a completely legit thing and I wouldn't dodge tax for a second! Luckily I have ample experience of running my own business Monday to Friday.

 

[SheriffHD]

realistaclly you will be looking at not making any profit till after the first few months. You'll have your insurance to pay out. the cost of marshals for the day. then any additonal costs for building any additional cover (sandbags trenches) then you will need to see in the area to see how many active airsofters there is also how easy is it to get to the site as it may put people off playing there.

Lots to factor in really, but nothing worth doing is easy

 

[fivezerothree]

realistaclly you will be looking at not making any profit till after the first few months. You'll have your insurance to pay out. the cost of marshals for the day. then any additonal costs for building any additional cover (sandbags trenches) then you will need to see in the area to see how many active airsofters there is also how easy is it to get to the site as it may put people off playing there.

Lots to factor in really, but nothing worth doing is easy

Personally I don't have that kind of money to invest but what I was thinking was to pre-book the first few weeks games further in advance, say a month or so at a discounted rate which would essentially front the start up costs. Well it could do – no guarantee...

 

[Moose87]

hmm people will be suspect about that, a new game site opens up asking for money before you play?? sounds dodgy even tho its clearly legit. no chance of getting any small loads or credit cards??

 

[fivezerothree]

hmm people will be suspect about that, a new game site opens up asking for money before you play?? sounds dodgy even tho its clearly legit. no chance of getting any small loads or credit cards??

The finance and lending industry is a dark and desperate place at the moment. I won't be able to borrow anything small without paying ridiculous interest. That or I have to borrow a minimum of ten grand etc.

Where there is a will there is a way.

I totally agree it being suspect – it's funny how people throw money at Kickstarter projects though aint it?

 

[SheriffHD]

you should look at charetys. When I was looking at opening a airsoft shop, there was two ways that I could get help with funding, both offered up to £1000 each. the first was via the job cenetre work program and the second was via the Fredrickson foundation so might be worth looking in to.