WW2 reenactment event at Longmoor

Another example of Airsofters being ripped off! They can't use the 'need to clean up' excuse as they make the event organisers do it. Perhaps they see us as a cash cow!

Need to look into this - hopefully we can be classed as reenacters and get in cheap.

If the £35 is the MOD cost, then perhaps we need to 'bash' the airsoft organisers! That would be an average of £50 per player income, given 200 players at an event at an OBUA village = £10,000 income. Even after staff costs, insurance, pyros etc., someone is making a real killing at our expense.

I'm not begrudging the organisers a profit - they're the ones in business and the ones sorting all the crap out, but they always use the line 'its so expensive 'cos MOD charge a fortune'! It grates as they know events like this will attract a lot of players and therefore maximise their earning capability - it grates even more that previous OBUA games (not organised by anyone one here) have been pants - the organisers seem to think they can rely on the site and forget about any decent scenario or organisation!

Rant over.

As I said, reenactors aren't getting the site cheap (there isn't a two-tier system) - they a running the event for themselves at cost.
The airsoft sites that use Longmoor do it as a commercial exercise with staff to pay and profit to be made, hence it costs more.

You just misinterpreted the meaning Welsh...

I run my own site and only people that do have any idea of how much work has to be put in, I will never make a living out of it like so many others, what with all the overheads and equipment needed it's quite a big outlay.
When things are going good it's great but players come and go, some weeks they just don't bother and with the economy like it is I can see hard times ahead for so many.
All overheads are for 52 weeks a year regardless of how many players play, the time I spend on the paperwork alone runs into a weeks work but because I love our sport it makes it all worthwhile

Jon - Cia runs events at cost. It takes 150 to 200 man-hours per event and it's a struggle to find time to run four events a year. It's not possible to rely on a full calendar on a voluntary basis hence there must be commercial involvement.

I don't begrudge what anyone charges for an event - if the price is too high there won't be any punters, if the event at any price is pants there won't be any takers next time. I don't think anyone is 'ripped off' in the airsoft world (although I know what you are referring to ) - there are very few people making a sole living from airsoft let alone having a villa in Spain and six months holiday a year!

True to say though, some events are better value than others, some events are better than others...

CIA events are better than others

Please don't get me wrong - I wasn't having a go at anyone here, I haven't even played a WW2 event yet. It just seems some organisers see OBUA games as an easy buck - we don't get chance to play at these sites that often and I hate it when I have to think twice because of the price.

I sure you know who I was referring to (attack on a small city ), and based on Guy's first modern game I'm sure I won't be disappointed by any WW2 event.

LOL I know what you meant Jon, I was just pointing out it's not an easy buck, that's all - even a poo event takes a lot of man-hours (time is money). If I wanted a 'rip-off' lifestyle of oooh, lets say £100,00 p.a. then even if your calculations were right and I netted £10,000 per event then I'd have to run 10 very big events a year. (As would a more realistic £5,000 nett per game and a decent income of £50,000). Can't be done and even if it could you would die of heart failure from the stress by event 5!

Now then, petrol on the other hand is a rip-off (Ratio of cost of product to cost to consumer)

Don't forget that many reenactors (of which I am also one for the past six years) also have to figure the hire of weapons and the purchase of ammo into their costs too. The last battle I took part in at Pippingford Park was a £20 entrance fee, a £65 hire charge for an M1A1 Thompson and then I think it was around £20 per 50 rounds of .45ACP blank ammo, this is the same for shows such as Beltring and Detling too. We don't get paid and we put a lot of effort into displays and groups as a whole get little in the way of subsidy from the organisers of large public shows either, you often have to pay the money to hire a weapon or you go into the display with your deac and shout "Bang!"

The longmoor event is primarily run by I believe SBG members and then opened to other reenactors. They don't just battle, they have to pay a hell of a lot more for their ammo than we do for bb's, they don't do have the running about in the mud some of us do, some of them do sleep in fox holes, and on and on and on. Having observered a private battle (albeit it I was part of the cooking team with my other FRAU member for the 60 men) I noticed lots of differences, of course you need to see and know those differences to realise that

Are we being ripped off ? as said they marshall their own events, they have their own pyro teams, vehicles, numbers that well exceed the usual 30 aside teams we have, you work out the profit margin ? 100 chaps paying £35 to 50-60 Chaps paying say £50 I'll let you do the maths

I've seen this kind of post crop up on forums for many years, and as a former head marshal for FF at both Chatham and Reading, it always amuses me. A lot of people seem to forget that its not just the hire of the site that needs paying for. Once you take into account the following, that cash soon disappears:

Site hire.
Insurance.
Staffing costs.
Transport costs.
Back office and accounting costs.
Tax owed.

So, what would I define as a rip-off? Simple. When you pay through the nose and get nowt in return. I've paid 30 quid for an event, and felt well and truly reamed by the end of it due to shite organisation/game plan/pathetic marshaling, but conversely, i've paid 90 quid for a weekend and reckoned that every penny was well spent!

That cost must be hard to meet, we on the ''mainland'' find it hard with the fuel prices but a ferry aswell ..................... hell

don't get me started on fuel cost rant sware rant sware sware luxury tax rant spit sware

it was the statement that airsofters pay double for this...

I think it is being miss read horribly wrong!
It is mearly trying to justify the £35 entrance fee to the reenactors AND anyone else (including airsofters) who decide to go, that compared to the prices that some airsoft organisers charge as an entrance fee to this very same place when holding airsoft events.

I also don't think that this is then saying that the MOD charges airsofters more that it charges re-enactors to use the place, it's more a case of airsoft organisers charging more themselves for an entrance fee to cover cost of hire weapons, props, marshalls, etc...

The charge is the same to both groups and yes 200 players would be a very tasty gross figure. Sadly the ww2 scene isnt that big 'YET' and numbers for any event are difficult to obtain, especialy with so many events now being run. We had 80 for D-Day and 62 for D-Day+2, the site was half the cost of a Longmoor and we've added an extra 20 to cover this! We have said we will cap at 200 but I would expect around 100 players TBH. I've got a load of guys willing to bring vehicals down as well as all the usual toys we have.

To be fair the market has saturated with 100 quid games that peeps have come away from NOT having the weekend they paid for! makes it alot harder for companies like Gunman to re-enstall their faith that the organisers do care about the product their selling.

For what we put on, 85 notes is a bargin, no idea what other events companies charge or what you get for your money at Longmoor so I have no reference.

Main feature of any events company is to 'Entertain' even if is not for profit, otherwise why run at all. Is a shame, things were so much cheaper only a year ago!

lol...by the way I drive a Belingo....there ain't that much dosh it airsoft just yet;)

hope this helps