Hiring Buildings for Custom Games .

[Gorilla316]

Has anyone ever hired a private building for custom Airsoft games (not connected to an Airsoft company).

I know there would need to be insurance etc. But I'm just wondering if anyone has looked into it already..?

 

[Leonine]

There has been a few places next to me which me and a few others have been interested in but it’s not just insurance etc you have to sort, it’s asking local people and businesses in area if they mind hearing airsoft guns or having guns nearby and I think you have to tell police don’t quote me on that one tho. 
Its a lot of money and probably only worth it if you set up your own airsoft site unless you got a ton of cash to burn... ?

 

[heroshark]

Not done it personally but I know it's not easy. My teams organiser has prospected 100's of places and it rarely comes to fruition, especially buildings. Even if you are a well established site. Most impressive he's managed which we didn't think would happen is a block of flats due to be demolished. But we had a good in due to knowing somebody involved with the building.

 

[Tommikka]

Has anyone ever hired a private building for custom Airsoft games (not connected to an Airsoft company).

I know there would need to be insurance etc. But I'm just wondering if anyone has looked into it already..?

Yes, people have

It needs to be done with great care, there’s insurance which is considerable for a one off event, and remains high even for an established organiser who is covered for their ‘standard’ site - they just need to get their insurer happy with the specific risks of an unusual venue which is likely to be a higher premium.

Is the venue suitable?  It seems like a good idea to have a game in disused shops, offices etc  - but they cause immediate stalemates when you have one door to a room and corridors etc - you need to be able to have access to the network of internal service doors (eg shopping centre) or to be allowed to knock holes through.

There’s glass, hard floors, stairs etc risking damage to people and property 

Is the organiser suitable? Everyone thinks they know better about how to run a game once they have played a couple.
When you first played and defended a building or fort did you notice how ‘badly’ the defences are designed?  Every game has to be playable for both attacker and defender - it’s not good enough to take turns defending & attacking to ‘balance’ out - an impregnable fortress is a crap victory and a crap loss.  A defendable / attackable fort is a good game on both sides.

I played the only paintball game in the Reading Mall, it was due to have an event by a different organiser but some locals who had a couple of mini private games there thought they could do it.  It was a total disaster which began as soon as they realised how much it cost vs how much income they would have on suitable limited paint - and their entire team wanted to play rather than run the game.

(The other organiser would have run it as limited “paint’ - with powder balls, and had the reputation and experience to run that kind of game plus have customers willing to pay the right price)

These guys quickly announced unlimited paint, and also unlimited players - just to make the game viable 

They couldn’t organise, had hours of delays and had to stop for hours again after approx half an hour to go shopping for sawdust because every floor was soaking in clear gelatine - hard floors were like ice, carpeting was like boggy fields 

I was among the last team to help clearing up, there was still clear paint flowing down the walls onto the floor behind us, and airsofters for months afterwards were still reporting wet floors
 

Paintball never returned to the Mall, due to the ‘cleverness’ of a couple

of guys, which resulted in the dissolution of their team, the loss of friendships and disappearing money 

 

[Gorilla316]

Yes, people have

It needs to be done with great care, there’s insurance which is considerable for a one off event, and remains high even for an established organiser who is covered for their ‘standard’ site - they just need to get their insurer happy with the specific risks of an unusual venue which is likely to be a higher premium.

Is the venue suitable?  It seems like a good idea to have a game in disused shops, offices etc  - but they cause immediate stalemates when you have one door to a room and corridors etc - you need to be able to have access to the network of internal service doors (eg shopping centre) or to be allowed to knock holes through.

There’s glass, hard floors, stairs etc risking damage to people and property 

Is the organiser suitable? Everyone thinks they know better about how to run a game once they have played a couple.
When you first played and defended a building or fort did you notice how ‘badly’ the defences are designed?  Every game has to be playable for both attacker and defender - it’s not good enough to take turns defending & attacking to ‘balance’ out - an impregnable fortress is a crap victory and a crap loss.  A defendable / attackable fort is a good game on both sides.

I played the only paintball game in the Reading Mall, it was due to have an event by a different organiser but some locals who had a couple of mini private games there thought they could do it.  It was a total disaster which began as soon as they realised how much it cost vs how much income they would have on suitable limited paint - and their entire team wanted to play rather than run the game.

(The other organiser would have run it as limited “paint’ - with powder balls, and had the reputation and experience to run that kind of game plus have customers willing to pay the right price)

These guys quickly announced unlimited paint, and also unlimited players - just to make the game viable 

They couldn’t organise, had hours of delays and had to stop for hours again after approx half an hour to go shopping for sawdust because every floor was soaking in clear gelatine - hard floors were like ice, carpeting was like boggy fields 

I was among the last team to help clearing up, there was still clear paint flowing down the walls onto the floor behind us, and airsofters for months afterwards were still reporting wet floors
 

Paintball never returned to the Mall, due to the ‘cleverness’ of a couple

of guys, which resulted in the dissolution of their team, the loss of friendships and disappearing money 

That's a shame...I think paint ball is a different animal where logistics and mess are concerned.

I can imagine it's not cheap to do an event anywhere let alone buildings.

 

[Tommikka]

That's a shame...I think paint ball is a different animal where logistics and mess are concerned.

I can imagine it's not cheap to do an event anywhere let alone buildings.

The paintball element means a different cleanup - for airsoft indoors you can sweep up BBs.

In the right indoors environment you can hose down and sweep up paintballs.

We've run games indoors & in urban environments.  For Ironsight we once opted for using sawdust because we were generating some hotspots for heavy shooutouts.

It involved testing the sawdust with the surface to ensure that it didn't create other hazards such as dry or wet slipping and as a fire risk with pyro.

There are a number of unusual venues about with organisers running regular or occasional games, airsoft can get away with more due to the cleanup of BBs (mostly) being about sweeping up.

 

[Druid799]

Seriously looked in to it a couple of years ago , had found an old factory unit that was going to be demolished for a housing redevelopment , was in the middle of nowhere but had easy access from the M4 and loads of clean open spaces inside , was even a couple of huge(and I do mean huge)piles of OSB that the owner was more than willing to let us use for barricades and what not . Even with all these boxes ticked it still worked out way way beyond me and my mates wallets combined .

from what I’ve seen over the years playing , unless your setting up a business or already have an established business that unless your a lottery winner it’s way beyond most peoples pockets to do legally and above board .