State of the NXL

[dirtymik]

Would it be fair to say that the NXL is making a mockery of itself?

The league had to take in outside teams [xsv, dynasty, naughty dogs] to bolster it's legitimacy as a Premiere League.
NXLpaintball.com hasn't been updated since last year. how many teams are playing NXL now? 16? You wouldn't know it.
Forcing the PSP to add on another event, cancelling, and substituting an all-star game in its place.
Left without a TV deal now.
Smart Parts, a major NXL backer, with its own TV version of X-ball.

Personally, I think so and think the tomfoolery started not long after it's inception. Sad to see a good idea going wrong.

 

[ollytheosteo]

Am I the only one who finds these thinly disguised rants by folk with a chip on their shoulders a mite annoying?

We seem innundated at the moment with people with two or three posts to their name coming on here and raising their industry-type gripes under a false name. Either tell us who you are and what your interest is or take your angry spam elsewhere

 

[Chicago]

You must like WPL then...

Since they appear to be the only league with a TV thing going on at the moment. And the only Pro league to get on TV more than once.

 

[duffistuta]

I think the NXL are regrouping for a major push...that said, I'd be ****ed off if I was one of the original franchise owners.

This game is a long way from being played out yet though...

 

[Robbo]

The American situation is basically a mess at the moment with no clear direction whatsoever.
Both leagues seems to be bobbing around in a sea of uncertainty with the distance between them becoming ever greater.

The PSP however has just gone thru a major refinancing initiative and is endeavoring to put its house in order and revitalize what was otherwise an indifferent and unimaginative league.
Self interest and amateurish politics undermined any integrity or clear direction the PSP could point but its rejection by the NPPL during recent integration talks has reforged links between other members of the PSP in a way that previously would have been unthinkable.

It seems ironic that commentators everywhere (inc myself) remarked on recent independant moves by Billy and Adam Gardner as potentially creating a situation that would push the other PSP members toward the NPPL with the thinking that a common enemy (in Billy and Adam) would maybe provide fertile grounds for conciliatory talks between the opposing leagues....and this then estranging Billy and Adam from the pack.

This opportunity for establishing such a decisive fracture line was missed in favor of .......well how can I put it.....hmmmmmm....I suppose it's best described as 'not seeing the bigger picture'.

The resultant failure of those talks has now regalvansied the PSP into a much more focused and cohesive group than ever before.
Dave YB has recently become the voice of reason for the PSP giving the PSP guys a much needed focal point, both financial and inspirational.
The group has now (for the most part) put aside differences in favor of making the PSP stronger with Billy and Adam stepping up to the unified plate and putting their money where their mouth is.

The NXL will as a result be consolidated within this new structure, I don't really know where they can take it if the TV aren't gonna pick it up but that's exactly the same situation as the NPPL have if ESPN feel indifferent to their league.

It's all up in the air at the moment and commonsense would dictate that this is the optimum time for league integration bearing in mind the state of each league but I'm afraid that opportunity has now passed ....yet again...... and so both leagues will be bobbing around for a little time yet.

 

[dirtymik]

Easy there Olly. I have nothing to hide so here is a little background on me.
-I'm a D3 scrub in the NPPL who played his first national a few weeks ago in Boston [half life- 57th].
-I love paintball the game and the industry side of things interests me almost as much. I love playing/watching/discussing/thinking about all parts of paintball.
-I'll be calling things as I see them and I'm not above admitting when I'm wrong.
-My name is Mike and I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. I plan on being a semi-regular poster.

I do admit to a little bias against the NXL. Where by the bias lays in how the league is being run. X-ball is a good idea going wrong.
So Olly, what is your opinion on the state of the NXL? Or do you just throw out smarmy accusations against people with low post counts?

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Chicago, I have never seen 10 seconds of the WPL. My cable service does not carry it. I applaud them for bringing a league to TV, though i think TV could be a poisoned apple for all the leagues seeking it. That thought is for a different thread.

My favorite paintball related show was that British series "X-Fire" on OLN. It was so bad, it was great.

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Duffistua, I agree with you in regards that the original owners should be pissed off. Also I agree with you that this is long from played out. Especially as long as ESPN maintains involvement with the major players.

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Robbo, I know you are a massive proponent of league integration but I have to admit that I fail to see how it would be beneficial to anyone. In fact I'm not even sure that the leagues should integrate. Of the two leagues it looks like NPPL dosen't really need to integrate.
If anything integration should occur with the pro formats. Specifically making it 7 man with some X-ball emphasis and highlights. A commonality of format makes alot more sense towards improving the sport than a reunion of leagues.

This opportunity for establishing such a decisive fracture line was missed in favor of .......well how can I put it.....hmmmmmm....I suppose it's best described as 'not seeing the bigger picture'.

Not sure I'm following you on this either... Do you mean the Gardener's move to go ahead with the SPL [smart parts league] could/would/should have split them from the NXL/PSP? And in so doing could/would/should have brought about reintegration talks if not reintegration itself?

Good for the PSP/NXL since you say that DY is stepping it up. That can only be a good thing for the sport.

On a side note [and maybe a little bit of ass kissing], were you at the Boston event Robbo? You were one of a handfull of people I was looking forward to meeting for a minute.

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Hopefully the NXL as a leauge can repair itself. The worst few things the league did early on were:
-To lock the league at the original teams and declare that they had the best teams in paintball. which at the time was mostly true.
-To prevent the teams from competing in rival leagues. An insanely bad idea. Many of these teams were ruling the roost of the pro division. I understand that they were going after TEEVEE and that it looks bad to have a league's teams playing in rival leagues. Though i think that the NXL would have built up even more crediblility for itself had it let it's teams dominate other leauges.
-To prevent the players from playing in rival leagues. Just seemed like another attempt to say "we're a real sport too!"

Yes I realize that things have since changed but it only made the NXL look bad. Lots of bad marketing ideas, really the lack thereof, didn't give the league the best start.

-Another bad idea was the media blackout [brownout?] for a while that was placed on the league. I understand it was there for contractual reasons. Had it not been in place and the video companies been allowed to film it would have more than likely generated even more interest in the NXL.

The league may have been bad for players had it taken off. Correct me if I am wrong but wasn't it Jerry Braun that basically said that players were expendable? that the general public wouldn't know the difference between the pros and non-pros anyways?

 

[Chicago]

Jerry Braun is right. The stars, especially in a sport where there is almost nothing in terms of statistics, are whoever the people spending the marketing dollars and running the editing room say they are, not that I agree with Jerry's tactics.

As for comparing Pro NPPL to NXL, I think anyone who engages in such comparisons fundamentally does not understand what it takes to bring paintball to the next level. Most people don't - everyone seems to think that we just need to get on TV, and all they need to do is throw enough money on producing and airing television shows and everything else will work itself out.

That's bass ackwards. Do everything else right, and the TV part will work itself out, and 'everything else' has pretty much nothing to do with televising Pro players.

 

[H]

Intrestingly enough Chi, sports in europe as nowhere nears as statistics intensive as they appear to be over the the US... but still the fans know who the top footballers and cricketers are.

 

[Robbo]

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Robbo, I know you are a massive proponent of league integration but I have to admit that I fail to see how it would be beneficial to anyone. In fact I'm not even sure that the leagues should integrate. Of the two leagues it looks like NPPL dosen't really need to integrate.
If anything integration should occur with the pro formats. Specifically making it 7 man with some X-ball emphasis and highlights. A commonality of format makes alot more sense towards improving the sport than a reunion of leagues.

First off, a commonality of formats is not gonna happen without an integration of leagues, there is absolutely no incentive for the PSP to play 7 man and conversely, there is no way the NPPL guys are gonna consider playing XBall, this just ain't gonna happen.
The thinking behind integration is rooted in consolidation in that it allows teams and vendors to focus on one series thereby cutting down on costs for both.
The industry guys do not like having to hitch and pitch their booths every 5 mins going from one event to the next with it sometimes being logistically impractical.

There are a few ideas floating about that run contra to these and people believe these ideas somehow justify keeping the two leagues separate but from where I stand, in a completely independent position, it makes sense on soo many levels to integrate.
You tend to find that those guys who strongly opinionated against integration have agendas and associations outside of any objective viewing point.

Not sure I'm following you on this either... Do you mean the Gardener's move to go ahead with the SPL [smart parts league] could/would/should have split them from the NXL/PSP? And in so doing could/would/should have brought about reintegration talks if not reintegration itself?

I was referring to the missed opportunity the NPPL had before it in that if they had integrated with the PSP, it would have taken advantage of a hmmmmm...how shall I put this.....let's say, some of the PSP guys were not best pleased with Billy and Adam's independent move along with Mr Burns (Jerry Braun) to produce their own TV show.
This basically predisposed those disaffected PSP/ NXL guys to integrating with the NPPL as long as the conditions for integration met with their approval.
If the integration had gone ahead then the Gardner camp would have been out there alone and thus an opportunity was missed by the NPPL to create a fracture line within the PSP / NXL camp.
The phrase 'divide and conquer' springs to mind maybe.....
I think the NPPL guys do in fact believe they do not need the PSP and from their point of view, I can appreciate that line of thinking but this integration has to be analysed outside of the box and only by taking a wider perspective can the right decision be reached and in my opinion, they missed that chance and have now created unity amongst the PSP / NXL where before there was little.
Strategically, I think it was a big mistake because with Billy, Adam, Dave, Gino and all the other guys now galvanised against the NPPL, there's some powerful financial muscle right there.

On a side note [and maybe a little bit of ass kissing], were you at the Boston event Robbo? You were one of a handful of people I was looking forward to meeting for a minute.

I wasn't at the Boston event no, and as for looking forward to meeting me, trust me on this next point, I am not what you expect......I'm much better

 

[SteveD]

the opportunity presented by the SPXL for reunification I think was overlooked because as someone said, NPPL did not see the need to embrace the other parties; the only potential advantages to NPPL would have been a few sponsors returning to the events, while the political disadvantages were at least seen as being majorly negative; there's the argument over format, the potential that if 5 player and 7 player were offered that 7 player would lose out in attendance, and the question of whether an NXL style format would be offered - leading to more confrontation.

There's also the past history - true or imagined - that NPPL left behind a lot of troublemakers by not unifying.

The big problem with Xball, so far as I can see, remains the huge inherent cost in operating a team; and its not so much operating an existing team I'm referring to, as it is the lack of potential for growing new teams that will add to the ranks; there are tens, if not hundreds of teams out there that made a go of xball, only to revert back to standard 5 player because it was just to complicated and expensive to sustain.