Action Star Games, a family-owned paintball facility has relocated to The City of Perris, California.

PERRIS, CA, USA, January 22, 2016 /EINPresswire.com/ -- After being forced to relocate due to a land sale, Action Star Games, a family-owned paintball facility has relocated to The City of Perris, California. Unlike other cities Wayne and Karen Woodruff spoke with, Perris made it very easy to set up their business with ample room for growth along with the support and a feeling of welcome they did not receive anywhere else.
Paintball is one of the fastest growing action sports in the world, and for those people who own paintball parks—where the sport is played—it is also a business. In an interview for PerrisScope, the online economic development magazine for The City of Perris, Wayne and Karen Woodruff talk about how they turned a hobby into a thriving business with room for growth in Perris.
The story of Action Star Games began in 2005 following a visit to a paintball park in Orange County, where the Woodruffs noticed a disregard for player safety that included a lack of supervision. This created an atmosphere that encouraged intimidation and bullying among the players, which led the Woodruff’s to build their own paintball field close to their Inland Southern California home, where their own family could play paintball in a safe, protected environment. Word quickly spread, and soon they began to attract players from outside the area who were also looking for a safe place to play.
In need of more room, the family moved its fields in 2008 to the City of Colton, where the company began to build upon its reputation of providing a safe, welcoming place to play paintball. The importance of having such a safe, family-oriented environment was never fully apparent to the
Woodruffs until they received a 30-day notice from the landowner that their property in Colton was being sold and they would have to move.
Karen said she did not know how much the Woodruff’s paintball fields meant to the players until she took a video camera onto the fields to document the players’ reaction to the news that they would soon have to close. “Dads told us that their affiliation with us helped them keep their families together, helped them strengthen their relationships with their sons,” Karen Woodruff said. “I had a few people tell us that it helped them stay away from drugs and other things we don’t want our kids involved with.”
Over the next few months, the Woodruffs searched the inland Southern California area with urgency for a new location for their paintball park. The family eventually made contact with Michael McDermott, Economic Development Director at The City of Perris and Cindy Espinoza, CEO at Perris Valley Chamber of Commerce. Additionally, former Mayor Al Landers helped the Woodruffs find several large properties to consider, and that is when progress to relocate their paintball business began to accelerate.
“We searched a lot of cities in the surrounding areas and we found properties that we could have leased or purchased, but we got the welcome from Perris, and that’s what we were looking for.” Wayne Woodruff continued, “We were looking for people that wanted us and wanted to have the excitement around them, and Perris was the place. It’s a perfect fit for us.”
A major reason that the couple decided to make Perris home for their business is because so many of the other communities the Woodruffs considered made the process of setting up their business so difficult, including one city that wanted them to pay for $200,000 economic impact study. They made it impossible at the other places to actually open a business, where Perris actually gave us options to make it happen.”
Action Star Games opened to the public at its new location at 681 East Ellis Ave. in Perris in October 2015 and already has plans for growing its paintball facilities. The company currently has 8 distinctly different paintball fields in place along with 4 airsoft fields and 8 available acres for future expansion. The Woodruffs credit their early success so far to the return of those paintball players who have followed them over from their old Colton location. “Things are going great,” Karen says. “Our people are finding us.” She estimates that 60% of their previous customers are once again playing paintball now at their Perris location.

Michael McDermott
Perris Community Economic Development Corporation
951-943-6100 x277
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