Bankruptcy ends paintball tourneys

The organizers of the annual Super 7 World Series of Paintball tournament have declared bankruptcy, ending a six-year run for the annual March beach event.

The Huntington Beach leg of the four-city series drew more than 50,000 spectators each year to watch 220 teams from around the world compete, organizers said.

“We’ve had mixed feelings, but the downtown folks have always liked the event, mainly because this is a group that actually spends money,” city Community Relations Officer Laurie Payne said. “They are involved in a more expensive recreational hobby.”

That adds up to hotel and restaurant use and other benefits for the hospitality industry, she said. Although the city never commissioned a study that would determine how much the group brought in, it always filled area parking lots, Payne said.

“It was a revenue generator for the city, and they did pay their fair share,” she said.

The event has also drawn controversy over the years. Critics argued that when the namesake biodegradable, colorful paintballs don’t explode, they soil the beach, are stepped on, and attract birds and other animals to ingest them.

Payne agreed the sport was “messy,” but said organizers took many measures to protect the beach.

“They were very good about controlling the balls,” Payne said. “They used a lot of fencing and fabric to contain the whole area.”

The organization paid nominal permit fees to hold the event on city property, as well as extra public works fees to cover the cleanup afterward, she said.

The National Professional Paintball League’s parent organization, Pacific Paintball, announced in late November that it would begin liquidating its assets as part of Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings. Pacific Paintball also operated paintball.com and a popular paintball magazine.

John Amodea, the editor of PB2X, a popular paintball magazine owned by the same parent company, sent out an e-mail explaining that the sport has fallen into unpopularity in recent years.

In a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, any attempts at reorganization and rehabilitation have passed, and the company attempts to offload its assets to pay off creditors.

“Despite doing all we could do, we were unable to make the business a viable concern,” a league press release read. “Further, in this severe economic climate, we were unable to secure new funding. It is a truly regrettable outcome. ... We thank all those who have supported us.”