I'm not gonna defend the Millennium here even though I've been friends with those guys [except Mannfred Ulrich] for a very long time.
I've had sooo many discussions with them on the subject of their league series and I will say this much, even though it might seem a little far fetched to suggest, I think their heart is in the right place in trying to do a good job for both player and vendor but along the way, things start to become unravelled and their perspectives on prioritisation lose focus.
The number one priority should be the players and teams, no argument and it doesn't take Albert Einstein to work out why.
The second priority is the vendors and sponsors, once again this is not brain surgery going on here, it's mere common-sense.
Those two just mentioned cannot be moved up and down the list of priorities as a consequence of situational or logistical problems getting in the way, their positions are inviolate.
Threaded somewhere in their list of priorities is always gonna be the most contentious here because it is the making of money, profit in other words.
We've all heard many protestations from the Millennium guys that they don't make much money at all out of the Millennium.
It has to be acknowledged that, Steve Baldwin, Laurent Hamet, Barry Fuggle and Mannfred Ulrich all have their own paintball companies and all of them are doing pretty well and so there is no urgency or imperative to squeeze every last Euro outa the Millennium Series.
However, the fact they do bankroll and promote the Millennium series does obviously dove-tail well with their existing companies and so they do profit from the league but indirectly so.
I ain't for one second gonna suggest here they make no money, they do but it's all about how much and when that's contrasted up against some of the major fuhk-ups that have happened in the past years, it don't look good and that's when players, teams and vendors all start to get the arse-hole with the Millennium guys and the sh!t hits the fan.
One aspect of the MS has always been, they have a virtual monopolistic hold on European leagues, there are really no serious alternatives and so the MS has got you all by your [paint]balls.
But in acknowledging that, I don't think they have ever used that situation to their financial advantage, not intentionally so anyway.
I could be wrong here but I hope I'm not.
I am damned sure they have benefited from their virtual monopoly but that was more by default than design.
As I have said before a million times and I’ll say it again now just in case people might have forgotten, the only way you are gonna effectively apply appropriate pressure is by forming yourselves into a players union with a representative group of guys to be the player’s mouthpiece.
The same goes for the vendors, and to a point, they did have a representative group a couple of years back and they got the MS guys to listen to them, and then the MS guys changed what needed to be changed, simples !
It’s absolutely no good coming on here or wherever bitching about this, that or whatever when you know damned well it’s all gonna fall on stony ground.
If you want something changed, then organise yourself ... a great example was when Margaret Thatcher was our prime-minister and she had introduced the poll tax that she vowed never to go back on ... it wasn’t until people organised themselves and demonstrated did she do her famous U turn ... and trust me, she wasn’t one for buckling to anybody but in the end, people power won the day.
So instead of moaning and bitching, get organised and make your representation to the powers that be.
And once you do that, I promise you, the Millennium guys will listen ..... The MS bunch might be seen as a little insensitive sometimes but they ain’t stupid.