Volume 3, No. 13. July 11, 2003
Painting
the industry
Even if it weren’t
already a trend, IALEI and Fun Expo intend to make it so.
The
newly formed Fun Expo Action Sports Advisory Committee will be sponsoring a
paintball tournament at this year’s Fun Expo Trade Show in Las Vegas September
17-19, part of a concerted effort to introduce action sports to family entertainment
center operators, and the FEC industry to action sports entrepreneurs and suppliers.
“I
think action sports has a place in FECs, and operators would be nuts to not
look at it,” said Harold Skripsky, owner of the consulting firm Entertainment
Management Services. The past president of the International Association for
the Leisure and Entertainment Industry is currently chairman of the Leisure
& Entertainment Trade Shows, the umbrella organization that represents Fun
Expo sponsors IALEI, the American Amusement Machine Association and the Amusement
& Music Operator Association. “Our goal and aspiration is to bring
paintball and action sports into the mainstream of FECs.”
Skripsky,
along with Giovanni D’Egidio, owner of Hollywood Sports Park, is co-chairing
the Fun Expo Action Sports Committee. D’Egidio is using his connections
to put together an invitational tournament featuring 10 five-man paintball teams
who will compete in an arena on the Fun Expo trade show floor at the Las Vegas
Convention Center. This is a significant step up from the paintball demonstrations
staged last year. Additionally, seminars will be conducted on the subjects of
paintball, skateboarding and BMX biking, training sessions that will be geared
to both FEC operators and action sports entrepreneurs, Skripsky said.
“We
have all been sitting around wondering what is the next big attraction that’s
going to get us 10, 15, 20 percent in new incremental sales,” Skripsky
said of his fellow FECers. “The last one was laser tag, and we haven’t
had any since. I really think that paintball done well can be a good addition
to family entertainment centers. And I think it mixes well.”
Doing
a proper paint ball arena or two in 40,000 square feet (3,716 square meters)
of land can cost from $200,000 to $400,000, he said. The more thematic, the
higher the cost. Paintball arenas can also be indoor. “You would typically
put paintball and action sports as a separate attraction, separate profit center
from your FEC,” he said. “You don’t want your players walking
around your FEC with markers,” markers being the name for paintball guns.
Skripsky
said he has advocated integrating action sports, particularly paintball, into
FEC operations for almost five years, and now is preparing to put his money
into play on the subject. He plans to open a paintball arena at Timothy and
Joanne Sorge’s Swings-N-Things near Cleveland, Ohio. “Tim had six
acres (2.4 hectares), and he was scratching his head wondering what to do with
it,” Skripsky said. He is putting in one 26,000-square-foot (2,415-square-meter)
arena with burned out cars and buildings, and two other inflatable fields totaling
20,000 square feet (1,858 square meters).
Though
paintball has been around 20 plus years, it only recently hit the radar screen
of entertainment operators. Hitherto, most paintball and action sports entrepreneurs
have been independent operators. At the least, Skripsky and his fellow committee
members hope the two genres mingle at Fun Expo, if the tournament, as expected,
draws paintball operators and suppliers to the show.
“IALEI tries to keep operators informed as to what is on the horizons for the businesses,” Skripsky said. “Our job when we see something we feel is going to benefit our operators is to bring it to their attention. I think we’re doing our job.”
THE LOOP is written and produced by Eric Minton, Minton Enterprises, LLC. To see more examples of Eric Minton's work and Minton Enterprises services, visit www.ericminton.com.
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