The PSP Chicago Open is back at The Badlandz! Back to its roots, back to where it all started. Is this all just about a misty eyed journey back to the glory days of our past? No, of course not. Many factors played into the decision. What’s important is for you to know what steps we’re taking to ensure this year’s 2010 PSP Chicago Open is a great one!
The fields we will be utilizing are for the most part new, the Chi-town Series coming up will be played on the same fields as last year then all the poles, nets & cables come out. Everything will be moved back and onto fresh grass, then four more fields will be constructed across the back of the open area between the existing fields & the current Hyperball fields. The existing grass will be mowed short, then we will drill seed the entire area. This will bring up fresh grass and leave the existing grasses root system in place. We’ll allow it all to grow and germinate then begin mowing in late spring and all the way thru the Chicago Open.
As for regular weekend practices for all the locals, we will use the lower fields unless too many teams show up, then we will open up the upper fields on a rotational basis.
Vendor’s space; we have more than enough room for any and all vendors the PSP or the UWL is able to draw.
Parking; we have a significant lower parking lot as well as a lower overflow lot we use for local teams. Then we have a secondary or upper lot across from the current Airball fields. We have plenty of room to handle more than the 1200 customers per day on our busy spring or fall weekends.
But since this event will draw more than that, we’ve been clearing and filling the lightly wooded area immediately to the south of the current Airball fields. This will add approximately 6 more acres of parking, on premises. In addition to that we are trucking in dirt, lots of dirt. As of this writing more than 50 semi loads will have been received, and a minimum of 400 additional semi loads by mid April. All this dirt is being spread in the low area between the lower and upper lots. Thereby leveling this 2 plus acres up and into a usable parking lot as well. Once the grass grows over this area we will be able to park on it or even use it to set up additional airball fields. Of course we also have the ability to utilize Balmoral park race tracks parking if need be.
Proximity to hotels is of little concern as we have at least 25 within a 20 minute drive, and the PSP is announcing discounts they’ve negotiated with many of them.
So that leaves our road in. Our gravel road is a quarter mile long, 1320 feet and is all gravel. In the spring as the frost leaves the ground we get an excess of wet nastiness pushing its way thru the gravel but since we’re dealing with June here that will be a non issue. You can expect a nice level gravel road with the ability to pass oncoming traffic everywhere, but 1 single 10 foot long bridge.
Our equipment will re-grade the road each day as often as needed to insure its smoothness throughout the event. Additionally we’re bringing in dozens of loads of rock & ground asphalt to bolster the existing roads surface. As for dust, again don’t sweat it, we’ll have a water truck on the case at least a week prior to the event and we’ll run it continually.
Hopefully that puts most people’s concerns to bed. Please keep in mind, that while we don’t claim to be the best at everything, something we are very good at is putting thru lots of paintball players. Not kind of a lot, a real lot and we’ve been doing it for more than 15 years so most of these concerns were taken care of long ago. Working closely with Lane, Camille & Geoff from the PSP and Tommy Cole from the UWL will guarantee us all a great PSP Chicago Open and Chicago leg of the UWL.
If you have any question about the field or the area please check the respective links on the front page of The Badlandz web site, or feel free to call us (708-862-2222) most any time. All PSP and UWL related information will be coming from those organizations. www.pspevents.com and www.playuwl.com.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
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