Paint Games Plus adds third location

Murray Rhodes, who co-owns the business with brother-in-law Scott Bensman, said that the new paintball facility will be at 310 N. Karnage Lane, off State Highway 266 aka West Chestnut Expressway.

“It’s been one of our puzzle pieces that we’ve had planned for a good five or 10 years,” Rhodes said.

Outdoor playing fields will take up two-thirds of the 13 acres. “We’re getting our perimeter fence poles set and building the playing fields,” he said.

Construction should begin mid-June on a 3,500-square-foot metal building for the pro shop, and the facility should open in July. An 11,000-square-foot metal building will be built within the next two years, to house an indoor playing arena.

Rhodes and Bensman opened the original facility, at 1411 W. Kearney St., 13 years ago. It comprises a 2.5 acre wooded playing field, a half-acre speedball field, an 11,000-square-foot indoor arena and a pro shop. The Kearney location will remain open, as will the second location, Paint Games Plus North, on 30 acres in Warrensburg.

Rhodes anticipates hiring two full-time and two part-time workers for the new facility. There are four full-time and four part-time employees at the Kearney location, and four part-time employees at the Warrensburg location, which is open only on weekends.

Paint Games Plus’ clientele, Rhodes said, is an extreme mix not without business professionals. “Anywhere from a minimum age of 10,” he said. “We’ve got regulars in their mid- or upper 40s. Anywhere from kids to doctors and lawyers.

Customers pay a $5 range fee to use the facility. “Once you get in you can stay as long as you want. We’ve got guys that stay all day on Saturdays, the whole eight hours,” he said. Games last 10 to 15 minutes, with a 5-minute break between.

Birthday parties and church groups make up the bulk of business, with the average party bringing in 20 to 25 players.

The biggest change Rhodes has seen in the sport is the advancement of the equipment. “We’ve gone from a lot of mechanical to electronics,” he said of the paintball guns or “markers.”

In February, Rhodes and Bensman launched a wholesale arm of the business, Karnage Paintballs. “It’s our line that we develop and formulate,” Rhodes said.

Of the three aspects of the business -– game fees, sales in the pro shop and wholesale paintball sales – game fees bring in the most revenue.

Rhodes declined to disclose revenues, but said the two facilities saw between 4,000 and 6,000 visitors last year. “We haven’t had a year that’s been down from the previous. It’s grown every year,” he said.

Also growing each year is the paintball industry. According to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, U.S. sales and overall participation in paintball have risen each year since 1998. The 2005 SGMA Sports Participation Trends study, released in April, reported 5.9 million people in the United States had played paintball at least once in 1998. That number grew to 9.6 million in 2004, a 62.8 percent increase.

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