It's about the bullets.
Anyone kidding themselves that Paintball is a cool sport, is likely on crack. The kids that played Dungeons and Dragons at school thought they were cool too. 2 bogwashes a week says not. The sterotypical Tournament player is a tool. He's not cool, he whacks off to the Avon underwear catalogue, trys only to impress his peer group mates and is a lemming.
Mind you that's abit like saying Chavs wanna be that way too. Their a product of their environment also. Too much and too early access to discounts on paint and kit has let to the development of the gimme gimme free sh*t tool that masquerades as a tournament baller. I mean WTF have you done to deserve bullets at trade or even a lady more? Nothing, nadda, FA. And as for loyalty....forget about it.
The problem was there was always too many retailers and distributors willing to sell bullets and kit at prices below trade or as close as damn it. As teams were always willing to jump to the seller who deals at the lowest price, there has been a pricewar in operation for some time (and it's not as though the sites were immune to this behaviour either!!!!). This scenario isn't sustainable, and has probably run it's course (for tournament players anyway). This behaviour by the players and some of the sites has allowed too many companies to exist in an extremely small market.
Company consolidation is inevitable, and they are going to consolidate and build out from Paintballs base, volume paint sales to sites. In order to survive, and make money (for the venture capitilists), they have to sell bullets to sites, lots of em. To do this you need to be able to shift product cheaply, and quickly. This takes organisation and a good uninterruppted distribution network (hitherto unseen in some companies). It also requires them to reduce base / fixed costs. Mergers such as KEE (NPS / PMI), allows the new company to consolidate production or management into a single unit rather than multiples of each. This reduces cost and allows you to sell at reduced price / increased profit. If you can then price / buyout as many of your compitetors as possible, you increase market share and your repeat business. I mean look at Europe it can probably only really support 2 / 3 paint manufacturers. Consolidation is the only way to go.
Ayway, less companies, more business ethic, focus on the area of paintball that has all the Bejamins.............. hmmmm the future's bright for customer site based Paintball. I mean why would any sensible company pour money into tournament ball for FA return? They won't do it.
So what for the future, probably slightly cheaper customer paintball (and emphasis on the slightly 10-15% less) - probably enough to keep site visits up and Paintball as a credible / cheap days entertainment. For the tournament player? less cheap gear, bulk discounts at 10%. Oh and the bullets, I think that gravy train just hit the buffers too.
And would all that really be a bad thing? well, if the behaviour of the of the tool tournament player is anything to go by (and I reference the behaviour of some in Germany), perhaps paintball could do without the chav's.
Anyone kidding themselves that Paintball is a cool sport, is likely on crack. The kids that played Dungeons and Dragons at school thought they were cool too. 2 bogwashes a week says not. The sterotypical Tournament player is a tool. He's not cool, he whacks off to the Avon underwear catalogue, trys only to impress his peer group mates and is a lemming.
Mind you that's abit like saying Chavs wanna be that way too. Their a product of their environment also. Too much and too early access to discounts on paint and kit has let to the development of the gimme gimme free sh*t tool that masquerades as a tournament baller. I mean WTF have you done to deserve bullets at trade or even a lady more? Nothing, nadda, FA. And as for loyalty....forget about it.
The problem was there was always too many retailers and distributors willing to sell bullets and kit at prices below trade or as close as damn it. As teams were always willing to jump to the seller who deals at the lowest price, there has been a pricewar in operation for some time (and it's not as though the sites were immune to this behaviour either!!!!). This scenario isn't sustainable, and has probably run it's course (for tournament players anyway). This behaviour by the players and some of the sites has allowed too many companies to exist in an extremely small market.
Company consolidation is inevitable, and they are going to consolidate and build out from Paintballs base, volume paint sales to sites. In order to survive, and make money (for the venture capitilists), they have to sell bullets to sites, lots of em. To do this you need to be able to shift product cheaply, and quickly. This takes organisation and a good uninterruppted distribution network (hitherto unseen in some companies). It also requires them to reduce base / fixed costs. Mergers such as KEE (NPS / PMI), allows the new company to consolidate production or management into a single unit rather than multiples of each. This reduces cost and allows you to sell at reduced price / increased profit. If you can then price / buyout as many of your compitetors as possible, you increase market share and your repeat business. I mean look at Europe it can probably only really support 2 / 3 paint manufacturers. Consolidation is the only way to go.
Ayway, less companies, more business ethic, focus on the area of paintball that has all the Bejamins.............. hmmmm the future's bright for customer site based Paintball. I mean why would any sensible company pour money into tournament ball for FA return? They won't do it.
So what for the future, probably slightly cheaper customer paintball (and emphasis on the slightly 10-15% less) - probably enough to keep site visits up and Paintball as a credible / cheap days entertainment. For the tournament player? less cheap gear, bulk discounts at 10%. Oh and the bullets, I think that gravy train just hit the buffers too.
And would all that really be a bad thing? well, if the behaviour of the of the tool tournament player is anything to go by (and I reference the behaviour of some in Germany), perhaps paintball could do without the chav's.
