Thoughts Please ...

[Nicky T]

Right here is my take on the situation, and just to forewarn you i don't expect most of you to like what i have to say:

The problem with British Paintball is the British Attitude!

We have a plethora of tournament series, tournament venues, training sites, paintball shops, paint suppliers/distributors and individual pro /ex-pro players offering clinics, yet the British attitude seemingly has prevented us from taking advantage of this situation.....

Not convinced? Well what have you (that means anyone reading this post) actively done to try and improve the state of UK paintball?????? I can name a handful of people who can hand on heart say that they have done something constructive to benefit the masses, but do you honestly consider yourself to be one of them?

I agree with Missy when she states that the demographics of those playing paintball in the UK veering towards the younger generation without the necessary disposable income to take advantage of their youth and enthusiam, so solutions to this conundrum are crucial:
- Limited paint events: Affordable, consistent pricing and standard of event throughout the country required to make it a success. The real winner is that anyone participating in such an event has the opportunity to hone their skills and fieldcraft (bet you haven't heard that phrase in a while) and develop as a player. Whether they choose to do that comes down to the individual
- Stock class events: Unlimited paint, but put a limit on the equipment. None of the b******t trying to get away with ramping a second earlier. Play by stictly enforced equipment rules and stick to it for a change.
- Apprenticeships: Much like the Nexus guys are doing by offering hand-picked protegees the chance to play under the Nexus banner at selected event and train with the team regularly. More teams, and not just pro teams need to do this.
- Raise the competition level: There was a time when it meant something to be the best Amataur team in the UK, and although the Rushers clearly held that mantle (you know i'm right Potato Head) we had some awesome clashes on-field with the likes of K2, Porn Stars and Wolf amongst others. We need to get the competitive spirit back and make being the best at whatever level you play really mean something.
- Education: there are quite a lot of semi-proficient paintball players out there, but unfortunately there are only a few who actually understand (or want to understand) why they are actually good or what they can do to become better. Paintball Theory 101 is definitely over-due if we want to build a strong foundation for future paintball success in this country.

My final thought is dedicated to my personal peeve; paintball politics! If players put as much effort into training and getting better at playing paintball, than they do at moaning at every little marshalling error or he-said, she-said dispute then i reckon we'd make some progress

Just some thoughts

Nicky T

 

[titoburito]

There are more and more leagues but few, if any more teams therefore the player base of each tournament is being diluted. This means fewer teams turn up to an event and everyone gets less for their money. This means there is less money to invest in the tournament by the organiser and you end up with a glorified, 1 day training session for twice the price of training and getting not much more out of it.

If you win a tournament in the UK it only proves you were the best there on the day. What about the no-show teams, or the ones that sandbagged into a lower division or the ones that play a different league in a different part of the UK.

Unification of the smaller UK leagues is what is needed. We need to offer players something that they are happy to fork out for. Fewer, better events over the year played in 2 conferences and then a play-off event. All teams in the same division can then be ranked against each other regardless of conferenceif you want to see where you place in the UK, but the playoffs are based on the end-of-prelim scores in your division in your conference.

This way teams from all over the country have a vested interest of how others are doing, gives us something to follow, makes it more attractive for sponsors to get involved and makes divisions more competitive but not necessarily any less fun. You can even have a "fun" division at each event that is played as a one off Cup tournament - similar to a lot of teams playing the odd millennium event in M5. I feel cohesion is needed throughout the UK for paintball to self perpetuate, maybe the UKPSF could step in and knock all the league organisers' heads together and ratify itself as UK Paintball's governing body.

Somone respected needs to step in and get the ball rolling though for anything to happen any time soon

 

[Robbo]

pete we have both been around for years,
do you ever think that is could get back to how it was?

you had a great woodland ball
then
m25 set up
temple
d7s

they all did tourny ball.

why do you think it has stoped??

Sorry Clint, I missed this for some reason but to answer your question; I think it natural and convenient to look for a single answer as to why we have ended up here, and a common mistake is to assume there is a single answer.

The reality is somewhat different because there are a multitude of factors that have affected the way our sport has gone.

I don't think it will ever get back to the halcyon days of paintball because the base market seems to have changed.
There always seemed to be a healthy transition between punter-ball and tourney-ball, that is, some of the guys who went and played with some pals at the weekend at their local site were drawn toward the tourney scene ... it generally started with a site team being created and the team developed from there.
This provided the feeder pools for teams, and the leagues developed from there.
That transition seems to have been severely staunched for some reason ... I will assume the same number of punters (if not more) are still playing in the woods and so the we will also have to assume, either the players are not encountering team paintball when they go to these sites (and why should they) or the game they see is not attracting them in the way it used to.

And of course, disposable income will always affect the latter making it less attractive if you ain't got much spare cash.

If we assume, for argument's sake, the same transition rates are applicable then the product they encounter IE paintball team events, is not good enough to keep them interested or committed.

Is the penny dropping here?

Imagine you are a weekend warrior type and you fancy a crack at tourney ball, you don't have to flex the imagination too wildly to think about the standard of product they then encounter ..... and here I am not just talking about the event's facilities, i am also talking about the marker firing rates, the cost, the atitude of other players .....and all of these are huge factors when it comes to assessing whether the experience is 'enjoyable' ... and guess what, maybe people ain't enjoying their primary encounters with tournament paintball as much as they used to ......... which might explain in part, why we are in such decline..... maybe...

When i think of people's primary encounter with tourney-ball say 10 to 15 years ago, I gotta say, it was a different animal but then the demographic was different because at that time, the average age of transitional ballers (guys from rec to tourney) was about 10 years older than we have now.

The transitional demographic of 10 years ago had more money, that's for sure and because our modern demographic is a lot younger, their disposable income isn't as much ..... also, the modern player is...hmmm, how can i put it .... a little less respectful maybes.
I hasten to add, the majority of modern event players are pretty cool people but as always in life, the minority as$holes cause problems for the reasonable majority and everybody gets tainted I'm afraid.

I think all this goes some way to explaining the demise of our tourney scene.

 

[Dusty]

All that said and done Pete, now it is cheaper than it ever was to buy a tournament ready setup so that kind of negates the fact that disposable income is lower. When you consider the like of the Ion, invert mini et al, air systems from as low as £35 anyone interested in playing can be on the scene with a decent setup for £250.

Back in the day, your air system alone was that much.

 

[PreacherMan]

- Limited paint events: Affordable, consistent pricing and standard of event throughout the country required to make it a success.
- Stock class events: Unlimited paint, but put a limit on the equipment.
Nicky T

This is were the problem should be addressed, 'New' Teams/players should know what an event is going to cost them, including paint so they can budget for it.

Koth/beginner's divisions should be promoted and protected, so they remain for beginners, starting with a 'three man' league, as it is easier to get a couple of friends together.

In all sports you need to get people interested from an early age and when their parents are funding it they want to know what is it going to cost them…

Evoonline may not be cash rich now, but he and others like him are the life blood of paintball, far from a parasite…. He draws others into the sport promoting it with his enthusiasm.

My son (another parasite?) got me involved with paintball, next his brother then two school friends, we have a team, without him, it would never have started in the first place, and i wouldn't be so poor. but thats another story

I bankroll them now but as they get jobs they will fund themselves, and tournment paintball as a whole.

The 20-30 young, single, affluent age group is missing from paintball, why because they started probably to young 15 to 17, wanting to play every minute they could, but told its too expensive or you can play once a month... they soon loss interest and take up other hobbies.

'Start with an Acorn, and you get a Tree'

 

[Robbo]

All that said and done Pete, now it is cheaper than it ever was to buy a tournament ready setup so that kind of negates the fact that disposable income is lower. When you consider the like of the Ion, invert mini et al, air systems from as low as £35 anyone interested in playing can be on the scene with a decent setup for £250.

Back in the day, your air system alone was that much.

Hi Dusty, on the surface, what you say looks right mate but maybe the drop in relative price was more than offset by the drop in disposable income????

In other words, it may well be that you can get full setups for 250 to 300 quid but if you ain't got that sort of dosh, and obvoiusly also have to pay for increased paint usage etc ..maybe it puts the younger demographic off ??

 

[PreacherMan]

All that said and done Pete, now it is cheaper than it ever was to buy a tournament ready setup so that kind of negates the fact that disposable income is lower. When you consider the like of the Ion, invert mini et al, air systems from as low as £35 anyone interested in playing can be on the scene with a decent setup for £250.

Back in the day, your air system alone was that much.

A one of cost of getting a set up is comparable with most other sports when your starting up ...but it is the 'on going' cost which makes paintball expensive compared with other sports

 

[MissyQ]

Another problem of course, and I speak from a personal perspective (though some may agree with me) is this:

The older I get, the more money I earn (which is nice)
The more I earn, the more I can afford to play, and buy stuff.
Unfortunately, the older I get, the less attractive it becomes to be shot 27 times by a 16yr old punk who then calls me a bxtch and tells me to get off his field...

I remember being bunkered by Vince from the Preds, back in maybe 92 or something. He shot me once on top of my head, said "sorry mate", and ran past me to shoot the rest of my team. That was a totally different situation to what I would be faced with today.

When grown men play paintball for the first time, they play with thier work colleagues, at a stag-do, or with mates from down the pub. If they saw other men, playing a more exciting version of the game they were playing, they may be interested in exploring the sport and spending thier 'hard earned' on it.
However, if they see kids, noncing it up in some sort of 'Dungeons & Dragons' style bxtch-fest, they are going to have an altogether different veiw of the game. They went to the paintball site as a way of getting away from the kids for the day, with thier mates. The last thing they want is to play baby-sitter to some uber-hormonal adolescents!

This problem is one we have created ourselves. We looked at Dynasty and said - "Thats what we need, a bunch of little fast kids". Thing is, that was the right idea, but when everyone does the same thing, it causes a shift in the global demographic, which, eventually, drains resource from the industry, which, in turn, slows down and restricts the growth process.

The reason that scenario paintball is booming (and believe me, its the only growth area in the game) is because growd-ass men are spending money and buying gear, then spending hundreds on big-games, where paint is $100/case. They are getting tons of vendors (because they spend), great special effects (because they spend) and better and better game-fields (because they spend).

I could go on, but I think I made my point.
Actually, in case I didn't make my point that well, here it is.

I don't think the 'answer' is to make everything more affordable for the younger demographic. Its a good idea, and probably should be done, but the problem will remain that it is the existing demographic that is not financially healthy enough to support a revival of the UK Paintball scene.

 

[solo69]

uk paintball teams

this is my 2p input

The problem is at grass roots with local teams forming and/or expanding,

I run a team (with alot of GREATFULL help from sponsors/others) and we have 25ish players on our roster! Problem is getting them ALL to turn out to train and play all the time? This leads to inconsistancy as a team, We do however try to play a Strong team wherever possible, but I cannot get the people to play togerher week in week out.

Solution there isnt one except making the best of what yourve got

Every player will tell you the same story we love the game and wish we could afford to play more!

 

[Dusty]

Hi Dusty, on the surface, what you say looks right mate but maybe the drop in relative price was more than offset by the drop in disposable income????

In other words, it may well be that you can get full setups for 250 to 300 quid but if you ain't got that sort of dosh, and obvoiusly also have to pay for increased paint usage etc ..maybe it puts the younger demographic off ??

You may be right but it seems to me all these kids can have the latest xbox game, or fancy fashionable headband, or hard to get lense for their uber rare 1of1 mask.

All the gear and no idea. Boxes of training paint can be had for £25 and less which is probably less than the price of a club door fee and taxi home on saturday night. How much will be dropped on beer and fags in a week?

Not wanting to pick on anyone but Evoonline is one of the most vocal about the cost of paintball. How many markers have you had Dave? How much cash have you dropped on gear this year yet you complain about the cost of playing? Like I say, I don't want to be picking on you alone, there are loads in the same boat. Just check the feedback section.