Nerf Arenas and Pro Shops - Our Thoughts

If you've played Paintball or Airsoft you know that a popular and safe place to play your sport is in a Paintball or Airsoft arena. Arenas are great because you know you can count on there being decent terrain, refs who know what they're doing, and people to play with. These places are also great because they have C02 and compressed air refill stations, as well as a pro shop where you can rent or buy gear you know is allowed on their field, and purchase your paint or BBs at the same place you shoot them. (And run out of them, which is why this is helpful.) Even though these arenas cost money to go to and play at, they make playing Paintball and Airsoft much easier and are very welcoming to beginners and experts alike. However, if you are in the Nerf community, you've probably noticed that there aren't many Nerf arenas out there, and the majority of Nerf arenas that do exist don't allow modified blasters and are usually just a place where kids can go for their birthday parties or parents can take their kids to get them off screens. But, with the rise of great brands like Dart Zone and game - changing lineups like Dart Zone Pro and Adventure Force Pro, should more arenas be established for the Nerf community?

The Nerf community has always been a pretty small group of Dart Blasting enthusiasts who mod their blasters to shoot farther, faster in both terms of rate of fire and in velocity, and more accurate. Even though it has recently grown a lot, I still don't feel like it's big enough for Nerf arenas to pop up all over the country, to the point where most areas have a local Nerf arena within a 45 minute drive. However, if this hobby continues to expand, in a few years I would expect Nerf arenas to get a lot more common, with more people in the community, meaning more people who would potentially found a Nerf arena. Not only would this provide us all with more places to play, but the arenas themselves would grow the community further, as people would see these arenas off the side of the road or on social media pages, causing even more people to join the community.

Another huge benefit these arenas could bring is if a lot of these arenas had pro shops, as it would be a place you could buy your gear in person. While some people might think that Nerf is much easier than Paintball and Airsoft for getting gear in person, as you can walk into virtually any Target or Walmart and buy a Nerf Blaster off the shelf. While this is true for beginner players who are getting there first blaster, it isn't the case for veterans of the hobby. While Adventure Force Pro blasters are on Walmart shelves, you will never find any community blasters or modding materials in these stores anywhere, and that's why the Nerf community has always gotten their community items in online shops like Out of Darts, Foamblast, FoamProShop, or Worker. But If Nerf Pro shops existed you could walk right in and look at, talk with the shop owner about, and buy these community made blasters.

In conclusion, even though we have events like Endwar and Ragnaroktoberfest, with all this growth, the community could seriously benefit from Nerf arenas and Pro shops, and I believe if our communiry keeps growing, this wish could become a reality in the near future.