What is the best way to introduce the public to paintball?

[Phoenix]

I think you are right we should be able to just play as we do pay for the pleasure.
However in the meantime tournie ball is shrinking and scenario ball is growing.
The big companies don't seem that interested in putting their hand in their pockets to get fresh blood in, so either the event organisers and teams step up as they have in scenario or tournie ball keeps shrinking.

 

[Sinister]

Absolutely....
Something similar to koth but in the woods.
Sensible prices, rental players only with rental kit only thats included in entry price, with entry into the next event free for each event's winning team as well as cheap as chips trophies for top 3 at each event. One type of event, no league's no divisions always kept rental kit only. Players are invited to cross-over by the organiser into a more tournie orientated event such as pre-mentioned koth, once they start talking about getting their own kit and showing real interest.

Personally, I think KotH is a fantastic opportunity to spawn new teams and get people involved in tournament paintball, however, and no disrepect to Syd - how big is KotH? The latter events had a turnout of the same 3-5 teams that have supported it all season, with the biggest events being when it was held at Bricket Wood. In order to generate more interest - does KotH move to BW? Or is it down to the organisers and participants to drive new teams through it's doors?

Alternatively, is it a case of teams at local sites getting punters involved through promoting.. then there's the dilemma that the local sites need to be getting something in return.

Obviously the whole scenario (excuse the pun) is rather complex and if there was a simple answer; someone would've done something about it by now

 

[cowface]

rec ball on sup air fiels is the key. some sites do have Sup air fields or speedball fields which they can run a rec ball punter game on it and develop it from there. I was down at BW saturday , just doing some drills etc , and they had a load of punters there . When they go and gas up the bottles, the punters have to walk past the sup air field , and alot of them were watching when i was playing about. One guy was really keen to find out more, i spent a good hour chatting to him and his crew , showing the kit, and explaining the system to them, even took them onto the field and let them have a go with the marker which they were amazed when comparing it to those normal rec ball markers. He wants to come down to the next tournament and advised that next weekend there is some sup'air stuff going on and he said he would come down.

Now i dont know if he would, but he did show alot of interest, its all about spreading the love (paint )

 

[Random Invert]

It's all well and good saying we should start at the beginning or combine rec days with sup-air days but you've still got the problem of how to promote it to the public.

Promoters will need away to change the publics mind set, everyone sees paintball as a special occasion (birthday, stag do etc) a one off event, I think it's a case of sites promoting the fact that there is more to it.

Personaly I was one if those people, if it hadn't have been for Eelz and the others I play with now I would have never known there was more to it regardless of how much I enjoyed it.

 

[Orion3]

I love paintball, my son loves paintball...my wife hates paintball. Thinks it's just a bunch of (overgrown children running around in the woods playing soldier).

Public perception - honestly, probably closer to my wife's. She has no interest in it, and as such won't listen or learn.

How do you change that...hmmmm???

My thoughts are:
Get it seen; probably means taking it out of the woods/bespoke fields and in to public view - can only be done with practically with Sup-air.

Most cities/large towns have annual shows - something on the local common with events lined up. Southsea show in Portsmouth used to run over August bank holiday and had a huge number of sponsored events on.

TV? First off get some coverage. The recent BBC piece was nice, but one decent bit of TV exposure in how long?
Milennium coverage on Eurosport or even US coverage on Extreme Sports channel would be good - they even have Professional Bull-riding on several times a week...now there's something that we can all take part in and could really capture the public interest!!!

Put simply - we need to find away to get people to SEE it. Once they see it, they will have a choice; to be interested or not. As things stand, the choice is made for them.

One final point I would make (which was made earlier) - the real lack of paintball shops. I couldn't care less if gear was sold in JJB or in your local shotgun dealer - but the inability of the public to actually SEE what is involved, different types of kit, quality of equipment, PB fashion I think is a real lost opportunity. Shopping on the internet is one thing and only really that good if you know what you are looking for in advance.

All in all - easier said than done!!!

 

[Buddha 3]

It's all well and good saying we should start at the beginning or combine rec days with sup-air days but you've still got the problem of how to promote it to the public.

Not at all. Read my earlier post. You git thousands of people coming through a site each year. Multiply this by the number of sites and you get a pretty big number.
If those people are "confronted" with walkon paintball (in all its forms), that's all the education you need. I've seen it happen a million times.

The REAL problem in that scenario is finding site owners that are willing to do walkons and punters at the same time (finding one that'll have walkons is hard enough as it is).

Oh, and for those people that keep talking about combining paintball with some X event in order to expand, not gonna happen, doesn't work. In fact, it'll only highlight the unwatchability of paintball compared to these other sports.
And yes, I'm speaking from experience.

 

[Orion3]

In fact, it'll only highlight the unwatchability of paintball compared to these other sports.

Sadly - I think you are absolutely right.

Televising paintball is more interesting than watching it live...you can actually see the action and if well edited you can get a feel for the overall game as it is played.

Live paintball isn't the easiest thing to follow and unless you are watching from very close range it is difficult to see individual gun-fights. Normally you only see the strategic side of things and most people want to see the nitty-gritty.

Watching a player pressed tight to a bunker for a few minutes before he sticks his hand up and walks off isn't great fun for a disinterested spectator....and these are the types of people that are needed to keep the sport growing. If they are already interested or if they are uninterested then the choice is largely already made...its the ones that have no vested interest one way or the other that need to be targetted.

 

[Random Invert]

Not at all. Read my earlier post. You git thousands of people coming through a site each year. Multiply this by the number of sites and you get a pretty big number.
If those people are "confronted" with walkon paintball (in all its forms), that's all the education you need. I've seen it happen a million times.

The REAL problem in that scenario is finding site owners that are willing to do walkons and punters at the same time (finding one that'll have walkons is hard enough as it is).

In that case maybe we shouldn't mix the (rec & walkon) two but advertise the larger events at local sites (even if it's just giving a web site address) warpeds big game, tippman uk, cpps etc just so people are aware of them.

The other option (this has prbably been mentioned numerous times and there's going to be lots of issues with the idea. It may have been mentioned in the thread but I'm to lazy to read everything) would be localised woodsball tournies organised at a local sites (this would probably take atleast 12 momtgs just to generate interest and gain teams) fixed cost per player, site kit with set amount of paint, the winning teams could move onto national stages.

It would just take alot of advertising and organising and also commitent from sites who run the localised tournies.

 

[SabreWolf]

It is totally about advertising!
Getting paintball out in peoples faces ect...

That advert for euro millions probably did more for the sport than many would like to think.
The average joe doesn't walk around thinking "oh i'll go try paintball this week", it has to be pushed infront of him in one form or another, i.e. a bus advert, a TV advert, billboards, paper advertising etc etc...

Fact is most people dont think about paintball unless they are told it exists, or they stumble across an advertisement and think, oh that seems fun, i might have a go at that.

And another problem is actually making it fun and worth the amount of money they are going to spend, there are plenty of sites out there that couldnt give a crap about the new player, they just want them to shoot as much paint as possible by using tricks such as super s**t paint that fly's about as straight as a badly made paper plane and games where you can simply not be eliminated until the sight owner decides that you have wasted enough of your already rubbish innacurate paint.

There is probably more things that can be done to maximise this spports potential but those are just 2 that are easily fixed if people are pulling in the right direction.
All depends if they are just interested in the money or the bigger picture im afraid.

 

[Buddha 3]

In that case maybe we shouldn't mix the (rec & walkon) two but advertise the larger events at local sites (even if it's just giving a web site address) warpeds big game, tippman uk, cpps etc just so people are aware of them.

I assume you mean this in reference to what I said about site owners?
I guarantee you that if you have a site owner that doesn't want walkons, he'll probably kill you for advertising events at his site.
It's a conflict of interest. If you have a small site, that can only accomodate one or two groups at a time, you have nothing to gain from doing walkons when you could have punters.
You have to get the guys with the capacity, the huge sites with mulitiple fields involved. Anything that gets them closer to a 100% of fields played at any given moment is good for them. The small sites already have this without the walkons.