A Wind of Change

[Dusty]

Interesting also that lots of the main "tourney" suppliers are now turning their fashionable "pro" gear back to the various forms of camo designs.

I can't see a huge market for people running round a forest with a yellow dm7 but the funky camo gear is definitely in with a shout.

is this a turning point for paintball? Would you as an average tourney baller have a crack at a woodland tournament? I would love a go, and I am quite certain a cleverly disguised tree or shrub would shoot the sh*t out of me.

 

[Cusack]

i can see it now; discovery channel in 20 years time.

"As paintball had grown, the tournament scene realised what was holding them back was in fact their mother game, the woodland side of paintball. Allowing a new direction to be achieved, the two products were split, seeing the creation of indipendant promotion authorities with a new sport to promote...."

Sounds crazy, doesn't it. Who's going to fund a promotion authority, how much would it cost and what would it do?

I don't exactly know, but surely promoting something NEW is easer than trying to teach people how we're different from the OLD, and thats why by breaking away from woodland I think we can steer in a new direction.

For some reason I found a 29 page promotional article from 'Dance UK', if you want it PM me but here's an extract from the contents page:

How to achieve a co-ordinated
campaign to raise the profile of dance
with local and national politicians

Produced by Dance UK​

Funded by the Arts Council​

Published October 2006​

Contents page:

Page 3 Introduction by Dance UK

Page 4 Figures making the case that dance is a success

Page 5 How dance meets the Government’s key agendas

Page 8 How to get involved in the Dance Manifesto campaign

Page 9 General advice on communicating with politicians

Sup'air paintball could market us similarly by everyone helping who cares to make a difference. Now there are lots of lazy ballers who dont really care, but there are alot of us who want to help the sport grow and make it to the recognised level. Creating a promotion authority for Sup'air Paintball seems like a good vehicle to would allow us to do just that; advertising for the sport in general, not necessarily any particular site, but to raise awareness for us as a whole, whilst not requiring heavy capital input, rather a coherent effort from all of us who care.

This could be supported by the UKPSF and some of the companies, as said before, who are interested in widening the tournament market, whilst also having their fingers in the woodland market.

To me, this is a pipedream, but with a little effort and a little luck, I don't see why we couldn't have cheap organised promotion taking place, especially with the potential for growth that we do.

 

[sumo89]

if Sup'Air style paintball was to split off from woodland then there would have to be some way of letting people try it out easily and at minimal expense, like punter days at sup air sites across the country.
Maybe one company could get ahead of the game and start setting up these sites.
Other companies could get good advertising by sponsoring these sites and helping with the set up costs of markers and air systems. Maybe a bit like the Etek tournament.

It would be expensive and take a while to set up but i think this would be the best way to help the growth of sup air 'ball in the UK by providing new players and somewhere for existing ones to train.

 

[Cusack]

if Sup'Air style paintball was to split off from woodland then there would have to be some way of letting people try it out easily and at minimal expense, like punter days at sup air sites across the country.
Maybe one company could get ahead of the game and start setting up these sites.
Other companies could get good advertising by sponsoring these sites and helping with the set up costs of markers and air systems. Maybe a bit like the Etek tournament.

It would be expensive and take a while to set up but i think this would be the best way to help the growth of sup air 'ball in the UK by providing new players and somewhere for existing ones to train.

It's sites like these that would likely sponsor or support these promotions. Northern/ southern quarter are having punter and newbie days with cheap rental kit (sponsored by PE) already, so would benefit directly from an increase in awareness. I don't think woodsball is going to care that much, woodland sites like delta force sell out weeks in advance so i doubt we would put them out of business .

Sites with supair and woodland like NPF are likely to benefit, as they would recieve more varied custom and are likely to sell more tournament product, while possibly inducing brand loyalty. D7's and others could possibly follow in sponsorship suit, as then there are two reasons for supair-only sites to be promoted / advertised.

We have alot of growth to do, compared to america, getting organised putting a little work in, im sure would gain a fair reward

 

[rancid]

zzzzzzzzz

but why? why promote tourney ball?

1) it loses money
2) the vast majority of paintballers dont and wont play it
3) the vast majority of potential paintballers dont want to play it.
4) it's a financial dead end... good for nothing other than making you feel better about what you do.

why do we keep talking about it being separate? If it wasnt for woodsball/rec/punters days it wouldnt even exist. It can not sustain itself, cos no one plays it.

Put tourney ball on telly and you get half a dozen kids who want to have a go.
Put half an hour of wargames on tv and you local sites are full.

The suggestions people have made here have all been done... what do you think the (idiot) half of the industry has been trying for the last 20years.

 

[mikey601]

but why? why promote tourney ball?

1) it loses money
2) the vast majority of paintballers dont and wont play it
3) the vast majority of potential paintballers dont want to play it.
4) it's a financial dead end... good for nothing other than making you feel better about what you do.

why do we keep talking about it being separate? If it wasnt for woodsball/rec/punters days it wouldnt even exist. It can not sustain itself, cos no one plays it.

Put tourney ball on telly and you get half a dozen kids who want to have a go.
Put half an hour of wargames on tv and you local sites are full.

The suggestions people have made here have all been done... what do you think the (idiot) half of the industry has been trying for the last 20years.

Might aswell bin the mag then huh

 

[rancid]

Might aswell bin the mag then huh

He he. I'm not saying that a small concern that is carefully managed might not make a modest crust. ahem.

 

[Ralph]

99% of them have won fack all, know fack all and will achieve fack all......

Perhaps that's what they're striving for

For some,if it aint fun,it aint done and for others if it aint won,it aint fun

Me, i dont like being a statistic but i do love being in the minority



Albeit a while ago

 

[stongle]

I think this type player (and there are a lot of them) are more a symptom of our malaise than a possible reason for our present predicament.
It always made me laugh when you ask the average pro player why they think they deserve the support they get, 99% of them have won fack all, know fack all and will achieve fack all..and yet, they think they deserve it all.

They bitch, cheat and behave like kids and the irony is, they are supposed to be the pinnacle of our sport, 'ha frikkin ha', now that is a joke.

If and when the hammer falls, i think i might just allow myself a little chuckle.....

Symptom and product, and then all the novices aspire to be like em.

The majority of em think that Euro ball breaks down into 2 camps "goober punters" and them "pro". It's laughable. Then this conceited "pro" bunch think their entitled to gratis or discounted shizzle. No way, as you say what have they done????

Given that this extremely small customer base in panitball, can't be relied upon to behave in a proper and loyal fashion, why would "big" paintball business invest in it? I wouldn't, I'd sooner invest where I would get a return and bang for my buck.

If however tournament matured a bit, their might be crumbs, but not as it is. The first step in that direction would be breaking the connection between novice teams and paint suppliers and moving to single paint manufacturer events. Teams should not have bullet deals outside of genuine Pro. Tournament needs to have some basic fiscal ground rules introduced, and it needs to be pay for itself, not live of the coatails of rec / customer ball. If it was more expensive to play, you either train, train, train to get good because your serious or go back to "rec" / customer play (thus solving your previously mentioned displaced rec baller problem).

 

[Kat]

Talking from personal experience, I started out working at a recball site and got into supair thorugh the people there because I found woods ball a bit boring and a bit slow.

Now, if you could tell me that woods ball was going to be really exciting and different then Id sure as hell have another go, plus I liked the fact that supair was more competetive, if woodsball could be as competative in the same level I think a hell of a lot more people would be interested because theres no better feeling than winning and you just don't get that at a recball site when you 'beat' 5 of your friends probably by fluke!!!

Katxx