Three days of competition to be held at Chicago Gaelic Park
Chicago Gaelic Park in Oak Forest will be the site of the next stop in the National Xball League’s paintball championship series.
More than 1,600 players are expected to take part in three days of competition Friday through Sunday, with the finals Sunday. Hours each day are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The NXL holds four events around the country leading up to the World Cup finale that will take place in early November in Kissimmee, Fla., near Orlando. The first stop was in Las Vegas, followed by the Dallas-Fort Worth area, then Atlantic City, with Chicago Gaelic Park being the fourth stop, according to Matt Engles, the league’s marketing director.
Chicago Gaelic Park, 6119 147th St., will offer grandstand seating, with tickets available at
In addition to teams from the U.S., the league includes teams from other countries, including Canada, Russia and Mexico, but Engles said he was not certain which international teams would be competing at Chicago Gaelic Park.
NXL is the successor to a prior group, Paintball Sports Promotions, and was established in 2015, he said. This is the first time since the NXL was created that the championship series has included a stop in the Chicago area, Engles said. Paintball Sports Promotions had previously held competitive events in the Chicago area, including in Bolingbrook and Crete, he said.
He said total attendance, excluding spectators, could be more than 2,300, including staff and support crews.
Those numbers are good news for the Chicago Southland Convention & Visitors Bureau.
The event “brings new dollars to the region, as these competitors will be staying overnight in our hotels, spending money in our great restaurants and retail stores, and also enjoying the many great experiences the Chicago Southland has to offer,” said Jim Garrett, the bureau’s chief executive.
NXL teams typically consist of five players, each taking part in a timed competition. Engles said there are generally eight to 10 referees on the playing field during competition. Teams work their way through preliminary rounds in order to qualify for the finals, where a champion will be named in each skill bracket and format.
Along with the competition, there will be a DJ, paintball industry vendors and food booths, Engles said. There is no charge for parking.
In picking Chicago Gaelic Park as the site for the competition, the league said it looked for a facility large enough to accommodate eight playing fields but close enough to the amenities of a large city. Garrett said it took several years to land the paintball event, and “it couldn’t have happened without the cooperation from the city of Oak Forest and the assistance from (Chicago Gaelic Park general manager) Marian Ryan and the great staff at the Chicago Gaelic Park.”
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