Is Reunification still in the cards?

[SPHEREPOINT]

That's exactly what I said- proponents. I was trying to raise the question of a new president being installed that was more unified friendly. I'm not anywhere near that naive Robbo! I also agree that PP does not really need Chuck, but will they install a new figurehead as president to keep up appearances? It's also agreed that many PSP folks liked Chuck like cancer.

 

[Robbo]

That's exactly what I said- proponents. I was trying to raise the question of a new president being installed that was more unified friendly. I'm not anywhere near that naive Robbo! I also agree that PP does not really need Chuck, but will they install a new figurehead as president to keep up appearances? It's also agreed that many PSP folks liked Chuck like cancer.

Yes, you are right, he was as popular with some of those guys as possessing a three meter wide inflamed hemorrhoid and then going on a bucking bronco ride..... basically not really popular at all

And as for figureheads??
An unneccesary luxury in such times I think.

 

[Magic_8ball]

basically not really popular at all

in 6 words Robbo sums up 7 pages of debate...

 

[SPHEREPOINT]

I kind of thought that would be the case-no new presidents! So, what is the next step? Dye has already thrown their hat into the ring, is it now time for Billy and Adam? Is sponsoring both leagues the first brick the reunification road? Do we have a time frame or plan to come together? Or will we ram all the pieces into one too small box as we traditionally have?

ps- Robbo, you've been checking up on me, I've heard.

 

[Robbo]

in 6 words Robbo sums up 7 pages of debate...

Financial climate prods NPPL toward integration.

 

[SteveD]

Pete - I would argue that the NPPL had a TV deal, and there was real progress being made on the sponsors. Unfortunately when the TV deal went, the sponsors were not so interested in putting in the big bucks. So, personally I have seen a big move forward, followed by a big move backwards, and this is why I still blame Smart Parts. I really think this was a move that has a small positive side for SP, and a larger negative for the industry in General. It also had a major bearing on integration, at least thats what I believe.

I heard from broadcast industry insiders the following:

IMG/ESPN were ready to dump money into the NPPL thing; then along came Mohegan Sun and they said (paraphrased) "why would we PAY if other people in the industry are willing to pick up the tab?"

That's pretty conclusive so far as I can see...

 

[Chicago]

You're misparaphrasing.

"Why would we invest money in unprofitable programming that may never be profitable when someone else will invest money in it?"


The problem is that the networks now know that paintball programming is currently not profitable, and are not convinced that paintball programming will become profitable enough later to justify investing their money in it now.

Missy makes it sound like Smart Parts screwed over paintball. This is not true - it doesn't matter to the networks who produces the paintball programming (unless one set of programming is more valuable than another), and it doesn't matter to paintball who produces programming either. The *ONLY* people who really care whether it's a NPPL show or a Smart Parts show are NPPL and Smart Parts. The rest of us get exactly the same amount of out-of-industry investment either way: Nothing.

If, on the other hand, NPPL had a show with actual advertisers, and the amount of money coming in from airing the show was more than the costs of producing it, you can bet that deal would have been renewed. But it didn't, and it wasn't. And because it wasn't, that left an opportunity for somebody else who wanted to put a paintball show on TV to do so. I mean, what was NPPL expecting, Smart Parts to NOT put a show on just to be nice?


There's a lesson here, and it's a lesson that applies to reunification: If you exclude half the industry from your television show, you can't expect them to sit on their asses and do nothing. You either need to get everyone on the same team first, or you need to make sure that you're offering the best paintball TV deal to the networks (quality/price/marketability/etc). NPPL didn't do either, and they lost.

 

[PSPGeoff]

Quickly, I believe that if one company gets paid to be on TV and 4 months later a different company pays to get on TV it does affect the chances of getting paid again. Why would ESPN want to pay again when they can get paid.

 

[Chicago]

Let's assume for a second that the reason the NPPL deal wasn't renewed was because Smart Parts was willing to pay.

Why shouldn't Smart Parts have paid? Smart Parts and WDP/NPPL compete. What did NPPL do to give Smart Parts a reason NOT to try and advance their programming over NPPL's programming?

But, that's not the reason.

Again:

WHY WOULD ESPN PAY FOR PROGRAMMING AT ALL?

It has nothing to do with smart parts. ESPN is NOT IN THE BUSINESS OF PAYING FOR PROGRAMMING. ESPN is in the business of getting OTHER PEOPLE to pay for programming. ESPN is not paying for NPPL programming because that's not what they do. They're broadcasting Smart Parts programming because Smart PArts is paying for it. They would broadcast NPPL programming if someone would pay for that - NPPL, IMG, Pepsi, whoever.


The people who ultimately 'win' this are the the people who get out-of-industry money to pay for paintball programming. And do it in a manner that there is a strong incentive for those sponsors to pay for YOUR programming and not someone else's programming. Just getting on TV first and then whining when someone else undercuts you is not effective.


And expecting a network to continue to broadcast your show for free at a loss is just silly.

 

[SteveD]

Chicago,

you make it sound so reasonable and straightforward - and make it sound like NPPL is ultimately at fault for 'not including half the industry...' or some misparaphrase like it.

So sorry to have to be contrary, but the entire conversation was completely negative in nature. The REASON given for the pulling of ESPN/IMG support for NPPL was strictly the willingness of the other folks to pney up large dollars for airtime and production.

The committment was already made - the money being put up was for prizes - not for production.

There most definately was a hint of 'why can't you people get your act together' - but it was definately in the context of - how come the NXL teams didn't just go on over to NPPL and work something out.

The NPPL deal WAS better than what happened in CT: there was the outside money on the table - with avenues opening to all kinds of additional outside dollars (Intel being one of them - some dollars that would have gone from them to TV went to team sponsorships instead because there was no longer a tv deal) - but it seems that some people's attitude is that if they can't be IN CHARGE, no one will be.

This little tantrum has set us back imeasurably - the industry had the deal and it shouldn't have mattered who it was with - as you claim - it should have been supported whole-heartedly by all.

We'll now have to be content with magazine shows (such as the effort with Paintball World Television News that I'm supporting along with some others) and simply wait for enough time to go before something is attemtped again.