How does one actually go about finding land for an Airsoft Site?

[bankz5152]

Afternoon!

 

Partial pipe dream/wonderment but how do you actually go about finding land to use as a site? In the UK that is

 

A lot of sites have closed down near me which has left us playing Longmoor (on the rare occasion its actually on), The Billet (which is good but not amazing) and a few woodland sites which im not the biggest fan of. Plus Sandpit but I will not play there for reasons. 

 

So ideally I would like to find some land/property within a hour of South London/North Kent and create a new CQB site. Say I had ~£250k to play with, where do you even start to look? Google didnt give much info.

 

Ideally I would prefer to own the land as renting it just seems unstable for the most part. 

 

Like I said bit of a discussion/pipe dream but I would love to have my own site

[hitmanNo2]

Not sure what you could get for £250K really.  What about trying to find one of those big places like Magnet that went into administration.  I'm sure there's a bunch of them around me.  They sit empty for years.  You could try and find one of those, negotiate with the owner, albeit renting and create a pop up type site.  Would be quite a lot of working putting in barricades, partition walls e.t.c. but you have a lot of space to play with.  It could also act as a feasibility test.  Get ideas on numbers, costs to run e.t.c. before you blow £250K on actually buying somewhere.

[stubert]

Renting makes far more sense than buying. 

[heroshark]

Short answer it's hard work even if you have the money, cqb areas harder still. Move north there's a lot more to prospect and it's cheaper

[bankz5152]

haha not overly fond of the North, I prefer being near cities plus I work in The City and I doubt thats going to change anytime soon!

 

Funnily enough I did just find a place in Surrey, looks promising. Needs a fair bit of work but looks like its big enough to accommodate 60 - 80 players at a go. Indoor space and outdoor space, drop in a few containers and it would be a pretty awesome site. 

 

I'm guessing you would need site insurance as well as public liability, anything else on top of that?

[heroshark]

The north is great .The real killer on buildings is business rates bigger the site the more it is.

[bankz5152]

haha I suppose im just tainted by bad experiences! 

 

See it wouldnt necessarily have to be a building. 2 acres, maybe, would probably be enough to make a semi decent, semi modular, container village.

[heroshark]

Containers are silly money plus getting them delivered is expensive. Our team CO has been hunting sites for years we've had various places to use. Our main one now is small quarry we rent. We've filled it well, taken a lot of time and scavenging still not finished though .

[shmook]

haha not overly fond of the North, I prefer being near cities

The north has cities too...

[heroshark]

And bettererer cities at that

[bankz5152]

By that I meant London lol.

 

Yeah they arnt exactly cheap but they are solid enough to make easy, solid, weatherproof structures that also hold their value quite well. 

 

Other than that its building *suitcase* from timber which overall could be almost as expensive 

[Skarclaw]

imo probably your best bet is to drive around and find derelict buildings (easier said than done!) then use land registry to contact the owner.

 

Keep an eye on the various local authority planning registers to see if there is land/buildings awaiting re-development too. 

[richwuk]

+1 to what Skarclaw has said.

 

Don't invest for the long term esp if it's your first 'project' - there's a reason for renting as if it all goes wrong you don't have some land hanging around your neck. Liability insurance is important and could define how many players you can have onsite and thus alter your expectations. Also local residents? The chances are you will get a few objections if you're in or near a built up area.

 

Don't forget it's not always about what you want, but what others want. Players can be a funny bunch and some won't come back over the smallest of things. Keeping people interested isn't always easy.

 

Don't forget to budget stuff like bb's, pyro etc etc. Tea Coffee? Hire guns? Advertising is important and don't relay on Facebook, there are a few groups out there with 'dirty' admins and poorly run.

 

Have you done anything along the lines of Marshaling before?

[paranoiddroid]

Iv always thought a game pod or tac city type setup would be great for the uk run out of a warehouse and build what you want inside

[bankz5152]

@Richwuk - Yeah did a year or so marshaling at two CQB sites and a Woodland site, also run a couple games before + have a host of people who have worked professionally in Airsoft for years so that is all pretty covered.

 

Ideally I would like to run it very similar to how Ambush run their days. No tarting around and a good solid set of rules. Granted it what I want it to be won't be to everyones liking but thats the whole reason for thinking about this in the first place!

 

A warehouse would be perfect really, could make a pretty excellent Killhouse. 

[Mike 8-{>]

..... Players can be a funny bunch and some won't come back over the smallest of things.......

....Plus Sandpit but I will not play there for reasons......

  

 

I think he knows that

[bankz5152]

Hahaha yep, pretty much.

 

I had a disagreement with the owner over how he ran the games, he & his cronies then acted like children, so no I wont play there.

 

On my phone, my spelling will suck

[Skarclaw]

Iv always thought a game pod or tac city type setup would be great for the uk run out of a warehouse and build what you want inside

 

Have a look at Strikeforce CQB in Gloucester 

[DarkLite]

Hahaha yep, pretty much.

 

I had a disagreement with the owner over how he ran the games, he & his cronies then acted like children, so no I wont play there.

 

On my phone, my spelling will suck

 

He's apparently being arrested now for selling stolen military kit. Woops.

[aaron2310]

Hahaha yep, pretty much.

 

I had a disagreement with the owner over how he ran the games, he & his cronies then acted like children, so no I wont play there.

 

On my phone, my spelling will suck

 

I want to their re-opening game a couple of months back. Great great site but *fruitcage* me if they didn't run everything wrong. Ended up being one of the worse days I've ever had airsofting. I ended up skipping the last game but leading up to that, apparently the owner and some of his staff went at it because the staff were realizing the day wasn't working. 

 

Apparently the last game was pretty great though. I'd be interested in going back to just see if they've actually improved on it. 

[bankz5152]

The place has been fast going down hill since the land is being re-developed.

 

Ive met him a few times, once he seemed alright, rest of the time seemed like an arrogant cock.

 

Either way lets move on from UCAP...

 

Is it too much to ask for a well run CQB/FIBUA site in the SE that isnt on the coast? lol

 

On my phone, my spelling will suck

[paranoiddroid]

All the cab sutes I liked ended up closing