Campaign @ Crystal Palace, opinions...

[H]

Crystal Palace is the spiritual home of the Campaign Cup and long may it continue to be. Just ask anyone who hasnt been there before how they felt when they stood in the stands fore the first time and looked out over the paintball heaven in fron of them.

I have been to every campaign since 2001 and have played at all 3 of the venues and I just think this boner that people have for Crystal Palace as a venue needs to be put away. More thought need to be put into the logistics of what is required of a major event such as this. Holding a tournament in a well known (and dilapidated) venue is impressive when trying to show off but i think MS needs to concentrate on what matters to the people going to these events.

By the by: not really paintball heaven this year when you could only spectate one field.

 

[Dark Warrior]

The biggest issue with Crystal Palace as 3 years ago was the security.

 

[HERMITT]

From a spectator's point you may have a valid argument but i honestly stand by the fact that as team we had every need met by the facilties and the event straight out rocked. I played on the chronic field and had no issues, it was wet and slippy (not as much as the grass) and did no damage to any of my kit apart from being a little sandy! The event was just like the euro 5man on steroids and everyone loves the julie rose stadium in ashford so where is the problem with staging the CC in a great athletics venue? I can only qualify my opinions with the fact i have played every CC since 2001 and this year was the best by a mile.

 

[psycho]

uk killers

Personally, I thought that Campaign Cup was by far the worst venue on the Millennium circuit this year. I can't think of one good positive at all.

Bad points:

Access, Crystal Palace sucks to get to, despite being in London the traffic is a knightmare.

The surrounding area can only be described as a total sh@thole.

The security was a joke, as I said above, the surrounding area just means that there is endless amounts of local dic*heads and there is bound to be trouble.

Local hotels are very poor and due to the area you find yourself with little do. Everyone know the best venues are where there is a few large hotels near the site where all the ballers can stay and meet up. Germany is ideal.

Spectator viewing was good for CPL field only. Viewing all other fields was non existent.

Food and drink on site was a total rip off!! Sponsored by Corona??? £3 a bottle??


Good points:

We won!!

I think the MS needs to realise what teams want..

Easy access, near by hotel, and good amenities.. We dont need the hype of being in a capital city and a big stadium.. It's not even like we need grass anymore with the use of XL turf.. A car park near a few big Hotels, a big marquee for players, voila. Look at Germany, for players its perfect! No big hype, its just everything that is required..

Only my 2 pence......

 

[jeff]

im guessing it was more like 'try telling a frenchie who doesn't understand 3 words of english not to build a useless scaffolding tower that falls over'

You have no idea what that crew had to do to get that event started in the first place!!!

The entire infrastructure was set up in 3 days due to there being an American football game played on Sunday night.

The "frenchies", as you put it are by far the best crew the Millennium has had since its inception. Coupled with the support and hard work of the English contingent, I wouldn't have wanted anyone else there to run the event. All the events were setup using the same crew and all the other events have been very good this year. they even managed to pull Madrid out of the bag which was a miracle in itself.

Players bitch about security for all the gear they have and when that security is provided, those very same people (who happen to be watching rather than playing) bitch about the increased security and the fact that they cannot watch some games!!!

I for one don't like the venue but that doesnt mean that the MS didnt do all they could to make it work.

Lessons have been learnt from this one, as they have been all season and I am sure that the MS will improve next year as it has done this year.

It makes me laugh that the majority of people said the NEC was a sh**ty venue after the event last year and now, apparently, it was really good.

CP has a train station nearby, 40 mins from Gatwick by train, an abundance of hotels, restaurants, bars and room for the required number of fields and traders.... but whine on guys.

If poeples attitudes carry on like this, the UK will lose the event and tournament paintball in this country will take another step backwards.

I understand that not all ballers will agree with some of the thoughts posted on this thread but it has been shown in the past, that a minority can have a drastic effect on the future for the majority.

Jeff

***These are my own personal views and in no way represent the views of any Company or individual that I am involved with***

 

[onasilverbike]

...the spate of break ins happened over a 45min period.

I dispute that, there was one big spate, and other smaller incidents.

The sight of Andy from HPG and Simon from Cynergy chasing 2 of the little b*$tards on Friday great, though they were like whippets, must be used to it as those guys aren't slow.

Security "we're just contractors, not CP staff, they just get us in for events" Bovad?

It was down to us to recover the goods discarded and take the reg. of the vehicle to the MS organisers to try and contact the owner (LHD Merc)

In that respect CP sucked over NEC, as for the rigging of the nets etc. the poles for the fields couldn't be drilled into the track obviously. That scafold tower was precarious, especially with the netting added to it and infront of the stands, wel if they had tied every eyelet up, rather than every 2nd or 3rd, it may not have ripped. They really want to be having a word with the riggers, especially after 4 occasions this year when the nets have come down!

Overall both venues had their good and bad points, and yes, I think they scimped on the XL turf, had they sold it off already?

 

[psycho]

ukk

I agree Jeff.. The MS crew do a fantastic job in what they do, without doubt. But I think their efforts could be greatlyput to effect at another UK venue.. Like you said the the 2 venues in quest N.E.C (National exhibition centre) and Crystal Palace (an international athletics stadium), why go for such big venues when we dont actually need them. I think stick to basics..

 

[eastie]

Ok, heres my little rant...

1. Security. Now this I expected to be so much better. It was terrible. My mate put his I3's down on the floor on the CPL field, came back from the other side of the field, and they were gone. A van was broken into (whilst we were in the car which was right next to it asleep), we didnt actually here it, but it isnt on!

2. Event organisation. This I think was the worst part about the whole event. I was personally squeegeeing fields so I know just what went on... On the friday, on the dye field, there wasnt too much problems, on the saturday, one of the bunkers got popped, it quickly got resolved. But, on the sunday, that same bunker got popped again, also did its opposite bunker. We called Simon, the organiser, and he didnt turn up for over 2 hours! This led us to take those 2 bunkers off the field completely as after we blew them up, they went down almost straight away. As you can imagine, this totaaly buggared up peoples game plan.

This was only on the dye field, and most of you saw what else was going on... Netting falling down Organisers sending people to the wrong field, the list goes on!

I DEFINATELY think it should be at the NEC again next year, and to think this was meant to be the biggest event in the UK, its terrible!

Anyway, rant over!

 

[H]

I agree Jeff.. The MS crew do a fantastic job in what they do, without doubt. But I think their efforts could be greatlyput to effect at another UK venue.. Like you said the the 2 venues in quest N.E.C (National exhibition centre) and Crystal Palace (an international athletics stadium), why go for such big venues when we dont actually need them. I think stick to basics..

Agreed. I'm sure for the amount of extra cash it costs to put on an event at Crystal Palace they could drop that on better infrastucture at a more custom location. Is the venue kudos really worth it??

 

[ash22]

the venue was rubbish, wasn't advertised enough and food and drink was way overpriced £1.50 for a bottle of water All the organisers knew absoloutely nothing. I went to register as pit crew with XSV and for team name i put Sacramento Excessive and the woman didnt know who they were. It was poorly set out, the arena was pretty small and the pit area wasn't big enough for teams. Also when me and my mate were in the XSV pit registered with a wristband and ID Card some french guy told us to go away even though we were meant to be there. One good thing was when everyone was booing the ton ton's though