End of the road for pros?

[Robbo]

So what? They've finally got to pay their way...big whoop, wanna fight about it? who gets it?

Lets face it, have they really deserved what they've had?

..in a word?

Well - it begins with 'n' and finsihes with 'o' and there's not much in between...kinda reminds me of that nutz guy ..

 

[Chicago]

but unfortunately it was shot in what might as well have been a frikkin morgue

Morgue? I thought it was just a giant, green bathroom. Sounded like one, and they even had shower stalls. That's what those boxes were, right? Showers so the players could wash off the paint?

Paintball might need TV airtime but we ain't gonna get it unless we pay for it coz I don't exactly see a queue of network executives hustling to sign anybody up.

There are television networks that will PAY you to put paintball on TV. They're not ESPN, and it's not going to make you piles of cash, but they will. The problem is the people in charge of the leagues have been so focused on being on ESPN that they've not realized paintball just isn't ready yet and they would do themselves much better in the long term to take advantage of these inexpensive opportunities to be on television and learn WTF they are doing in the meantime.

 

[sumo89]

So what? They've finally got to pay their way...big whoop, wanna fight about it? who gets it?

[

gotta love family guy.

 

[Chicago]

It just seems like Tournament ball has reached its peak as far as "industry" only sponsoring goes.

Tournament team sponsorship is the same and not decreasing.

The problem is, historically, most teams have not been financed by team sponsorship. They've been financed by tournament players who happened to be making a bunch of money running paintball businesses paying for themselves and their friends to travel around the world to play paintball, and then as those guys got too old to play, paying to have a team to beat the team fielded by the other guys they used to play with/against.

But the guys who used to do that are gradually getting bought out of the industry or losing their stomach for it. And now that teams actually have to demonstrate VALUE for the money they get, they are, appropriately, getting paid what they are worth - not much.

Nobody is selling more product because they sponsor anything other than a Pro team, and even then they're not selling any more product unless they're sponsoring one of the TOP pro teams. It's not like anybody bought anything because the 14th place NXL team or the 16th place Super 7 team uses it.

 

[Mario]

..in a word?

Well - it begins with 'n' and finsihes with 'o' and there's not much in between...kinda reminds me of that nutz guy ..

So then, who gives a fu*K?

sumo - e kudos to you

 

[Nexus - Leigh]

So what? They've finally got to pay their way...big whoop, wanna fight about it? who gets it?

Lets face it, have they really deserved what they've had?

Mario - in my opinion there are lots of people in many sports that get things that they don't deserve. Do middle of the Premiership teams players deserve £30,000 a week ?

problem is this, I will use the term "we" as I am fortunate enough to play for a Pro team, however am happy to say that as I am here at work tapping away I am not a "Pro" in the sense that I get paid a wage to play, ( but thanks for everything anyway DYE and of course KEE Action Sports for their support ).

In one hand there are threads about the state of UK paintball and that it is not very good, the players suck and a UK team will never win anything - ok thats fine. Take a team like Nexus, if we were to pay for everything we use, paint we shoot and flights etc we would not be able to do a fraction of what we are doing right now.

We all know the only way to get better is to train and we have never trained so hard than this year and in return we have never placed so highly in any series, currently 3rd in the Millennium so it is starting to pay off however we are way behind teams like Joy.

So, thanks to DYE and KEE Action Sports we are sitting 3rd, if we would have to start paying for training, with the amount we do we would not train as much therefore results would get worse, which means another UK team sucking even more.

Please don't get me wrong - I am not saying that we are setting the world on fire with a third place and I know we have never won an event, we are not exactly over the moon about it ourselves but we are trying.

So what would you rather see ?

Pro teams getting help in trying to reach the top of the pile

or

Pro teams getting less help = less time playing = players getting worse = teams getting worse = less pro teams around.

To answer your question, no - we don't deserve what we get but companies like DYE and KEE want to help us thankfully. If DYE and KEE decided to give you free paintball as well, I very much doubt you would deserve it also, but you would take it, be thankful for it and try your best at playing.

In my opinion, if teams have their deals cut which looks like the inevitable, then this can only be bad news for the Pro leagues as a whole with only 6/7teams being able to play in it and to the level that players want to see.

Leigh - Nexus.

 

[Chicago]

But what if it's GOOD news for the pro leagues?

What's wrong with a Pro league that only has 8 teams? The Pro division is a loss-leader. Cut the number of teams, it takes fewer resources to run, and lets you pull in more money from your profitable divisions.

Do we really get anything from running Pro games on Friday? Or even Thursday or Wednesday (NXL)?

 

[Nexus - Leigh]

Yep totally see your point but would it not just have a knock on effect to the Semi pro division ? all the teams that fell out of the top 8 pro teams would I presume go semi pro and therefore this would become a real large division which will need the same resources to run ?

When you say Profitable divisions, I thought the Pro brackets paid the highest entrance fees ? - may well be wrong though, but I guess the entrance fees are relevant to the prize money ?

I guess we will soon hear what is planned for next year, how many teams are "Pro", who gets what and what format we're playing....

 

[spangley_special]

while most would consider my opinions as a lowley player on the domestic scene irrelevant, i still believe i have at least a vauge grasp of the state of paintball.

so the way i see it.

Effectively ALL uk paintball is funded by the recballers, the nspl players, the masters players, the senario players and even the punter site players.
This is becuse it is through the sales of paint, markers masks etc that the companies make the money that they spend on "pros".

If paintball as an industry wishes to be one with notable growth then it is this area they must work on expanding, and while what the pros use/who they are sponsored by may affect what the tourament players upgrade to in 6 months time, but there are only so many gun whores out there *cough [insert forum regular who is also a gun whore here]*

but without an increase in new blood with in paintball the income generated though sponsoring pros will be little to nothing.


....any whoo i've kinda lost my point here so i'll stop rambling and come back when i am a little more together

 

[Mario]

Mario - in my opinion there are lots of people in many sports that get things that they don't deserve. Do middle of the Premiership teams players deserve £30,000 a week ?

problem is this, I will use the term "we" as I am fortunate enough to play for a Pro team, however am happy to say that as I am here at work tapping away I am not a "Pro" in the sense that I get paid a wage to play, ( but thanks for everything anyway DYE ).

In one hand there are threads about the state of UK paintball and that it is not very good, the players suck and a UK team will never win anything - ok thats fine. Take a team like Nexus, if we were to pay for everything we use, paint we shoot and flights etc we would not be able to do a fraction of what we are doing right now.

We all know the only way to get better is to train and we have never trained so hard than this year and in return we have never placed so highly in any series, currently 3rd in the Millennium so it is starting to pay off however we are way behind teams like Joy.

So, DYE give us everything and we are sitting 3rd, if we would have to start paying for training, with the amount we do we would not train as much therefore results would get worse, which means another UK team sucking even more.

Please don't get me wrong - I am not saying that we are setting the world on fire with a third place and I know we have never won an event, we are not exactly over the moon about it ourselves but we are trying.

So what would you rather see ?

Pro teams getting help in trying to reach the top of the pile

or

Pro teams getting less help = less time playing = players getting worse = teams getting worse = less pro teams around.

To answer your question, no - we don't deserve what we get but companies like DYE want to help us thankfully. If DYE decided to give you free paintball as well, I very much doubt you would deserve it also, but you would take it, be thankful for it and try your best at playing.

In my opinion, if teams have their deals cut which looks like the inevitable, then this can only be bad news for the Pro leagues as a whole with only 6/7teams being able to play in it and to the level that players want to see.

Leigh - Nexus.

Leigh, im just being obtuse

I personally think fewer teams recieving the support required will possibly be a good thing as it will drive teams to reach that potential if they truly want to get there. You and the guys on nexus take what you do damn serious and that deserves support. A lot of the teams i believe dont take it quite as serious and take what they get for granted. This type of behaviour shouldn't be rewarded. However im basing this on my experience from a few years ago so i may be wrong. If so my apologies to one and all, however im not holding my breath...

I wonder, the guys who play the lower divisions pay a hell of a lot to go to a tournament and play their game. How much more does it actually cost to play pro? I would genuinely like to know. (would someone like to work it out for me? )