To all concerned...

[biigjim]

Jim, you name it, we've tried it mate, whether it be X Games, Y Games or Z Games, at one time or another, one of the paintball leagues has approached, or been approached by, one these media platforms.

The mainstream paintball bus has been and gone ....long gone.

Fair enough, i'm sure my ideas aren't wholly original... but as i said just thinking out loud, i've only really got into PB this year, (after finally getting my arse out of 6-8 years of rental days) and obviously am not massively well versed in the past occurences.

I suppose the point i was trying to make originally is that the gap between the sup air and woodsball appears quite large, now i'm only speaking from my experience, but for me the progression from rental, to scenario type games is a natural progression. For a rental day i would go to a site rent the gear and spend the day running round the woods, as organised or disorganised as you like, blatting away merrily.
On a scenario game, it's much the same. You can just pay your money bring your paint and run (or plod like a lazy rhino in my case) around all day blatting merrily away if you want to.
For me as a relative newcomer, the sup air side of things just seems quite daunting, from what i read on this site, there are various positions, tactics, "lanes" and all sorts, quite confusing if you have no idea what a "snake" is. I suppose i'm trying to say that i for one, would potentially benefit from, something along the lines of a newbie guide to sup air. Perhaps an idea of how it relates to woodsball and scenario games, if it does at all, where the best places to go in my region are, and who are the best people to talk to, for advice etc at these places.
Now i'm not saying i'm gonna go down tomorrow and get straight into sup air if these things happen, but who knows, if not me now then someone else in 6 months may benefit, who knows?

 

[Lucky]

something like the X games, if you wanted to introduce PB to a larger audience then at least look for a platform to target your prime demographic.

We won't get to the olympics and my local X games event was held at........oh errr it wasn't!

Something that i feel is "possibly" plausible, is to hold exhibition events at the "County Show Circuit".
They are held all over the country, on vast area's of open land, and they attract many thousands of captive audiences looking for things to watch. Obviously someone would have to get the ball rolling, but in these shows i see a way of putting us up before the biggest possible audiences.

Everyone could pick holes in this but it's a more grounded and realistic approach than most other idea's

 

[Lucky]

well i have only just started paintballing but the lads that i will be going with have been doing this for the past 3-4 years and have never had a problem !

This just shows your inexperience and naivety. I'm not picking holes here just trying to get you to see the bigger picture, and to help you.
My conviction happened on some old waste ground out past the local woods where the lads that i had been going with have been doing this for the past 3-4 years and have never had a problem ! (sound familiar)?
95% of the time these things are ok, but trust me, if the $hite goes down you'll wish you never did it. The look on your parents faces after their house was raided and searched by a minibus full of armed coppers, is not one you forget "ever"!

how the hell do you expect people to start playing how many 12-16 years olds have paintball guns ! the responsible adult would only let there child use there gun while they are there ! you dont have to watch them ! play the blood sport with them ! and besides were talking kids here there not going to be running around with £800 markers that fire 30-40 bps just use a little cheap one ! that is not so powerfull but still gets them in to the game !

All the sites i have marshalled at have had plenty of kids with their own guns, but the parents drop them off at a registered site....not the local woods!
I've seen plenty of "kids" with £800 guns, you'd be suprised what little jonny can get if he asks sweetly
A £100 marker or a £1000 marker produce the same "power", even a cheap marker will hit 20bps, so what exactly was the point you were trying to get across.
If you want to get kids into the sport, take them to a site with decent rental guns and start a training academy or something similar.
Don't buy them even a cheap gun as the temptation for mischief is to great and someone will get hurt!

 

[OddJob]

I'm not sure what you are trying to get at. I think that it is 'show them and they will come' idea.

Christianity and Islam have been around for many thousands of years, we all know about them, but what percentage of the UK would say they are practicing of those faiths? I do not want to start a debate regarding religion here, it is a metaphor. Just because people know about it does not mean they will want to partake, or be able to. I'm sure the marketing people from the NPPL, PSP, Millenium and all the other tournament leagues have wondered how to drub up interest and we have thusly seen the results.

Presently it should be about keeping what we've got as I don't forsee droves parting with money they don't have on kit and markers which will set them back the best part of £1000 with the credit crunch hitting. If Woolworth cannot make them part with their money, a niche 'sport' is more likely to struggle.

 

[Robbo]

I'm sure the marketing people from the NPPL, PSP, Millenium and all the other tournament leagues have wondered how to drub up interest and we have thusly seen the results.
.

Firstly, as far as I know the PSP has not and does not, do any outside promotion of paintball to speak of.
The Millennium used to take a piecemeal attitude toward promo with the Toulouse event being the only one where any significant promo was done....

The NPPL in this sense, were the guv'nors, they really went for it and did some real good marketing........and look what happened ...... says it all really.

 

[MissyQ]

To all concerned…

I’ve been threatened with the sack many times if I talk about tourny’s. Because woodsball is the bread and butter to site owners, at £6-£8 per 100 paintballs you can see why =£120 per 2000. I have been told hundreds of times I can only talk about site guns, Inferno’s or Tippman’s or how much webbing/camo costs etc, you get the picture. Best of all is not to talk tourney to players in case they don’t come back to the woods.

You can have your idea's, but its not OK to pursue these while being paid to do something else. The kids at Mcdonalds are not aloo9wed to say that people would be be healthier if they went to Subway instead. This is normal, and if you continue to work against your employer you should be fired. Thats reality.

How many adverts do you see on tourny’s? Ask shop keepers / sales in anything be it supermarkets – garages in your own vicinity, and they still don’t have a clue that it, or you even exist! Have you ever tried explaining to anybody what you do? Guaranteed that they just look at you with a blank expression and in disbelief, until, you demonstrate.

Exactly how do you demonstrate?

So now I do promotions with my team members in the streets, indoor markets anywhere I can, I’ve even had the police come up to us and ask if we were motocross riders with guns, until we put masks on and talk about it.

Attracting attention from the po-po's is never good. Donning masks to talk to them may also appear strange, in reality.

I’d like to mention every time we’ve played them, they’ve lost every man to our full squad remaining, and they are the professionals, even my young sons can see the difference. I would prefer to rely on paintballers for shooting.

I'd stick to using the armed forces, but thats just me. Its a little different when people start dying - can't see your average paintballer sticking around long after that.....

I just love it when I stand outside entrances to woodsball sites to demonstrate and still get asked to leave by owners / staff.

You sound like a nice guy, but you should not be doing this. This will get you a reputation you don't want. People will run their business's however they see fit, as is their right. Standing outside trying to convince their customers to try something else is very bad form under any circumstances. God help you if you ever did that outside a paintball field I owned.

When you 'demonstrate', do you hold placards? Is it just you doing this?

Ask Robbo, he’s been a fantastic emissary for the game. There should be at least 1 million of him in this country alone,

Just in this country huh? So I guess a country like China would need, like, 250 million Robbo's?

Who are Nexus? Who are the Care Bears etc. people talk about these teams here and abroad, but who are they? If players don’t know, how is the public to know about us?

I know who Nexus is...

 

[biigjim]

constructive missy, really constructive. So you pick someone else's post apart and yet offer no alternatives. Hmmm helpful.

 

[MissyQ]

I doubt there are many people that post on here that have tried more alternatives than I have pal. Notice I said 'tried' and not 'offered' - that means I spent the money, I didn't just talk the talk...

...and I think it was for the main part a very contructive post. It was constructive to add the perspective of the business operator, which had been completely ignored. This (well-meaning) care-bear guy needs to understand that if he is is waving a 'don't play here - play tournaments!' sign outside someones field, then thats not a productive use of time, and its also bang out of order. If he's attracting police attention by riding around with a gun, then thats not productive either, in fact it's most definitely counter-productive to the sport as a whole.

Obviously I couldn't resist the Robbo one, and surely someone had to speak out against there being a brazillian new Robbo's worldwide. The earth is barely big enough for one!
Actually, the collective noun for a brazillian Robbo's would be a 'Roberto' - and you said I wasn't constructive!!

 

[Dave284]

Missy, i completely agree with you on this thread. I for one think that this is one of the worst threads i've read in a very long time, half the posts are wild eyed pipe dreams. Bigjim, i offer no alternatives, i will continue to support my local scene by paying these tourney fees as often as i can, and playing walk ons as often as i can.

 

[MissyQ]

Missy, i completely agree with you on this thread. I for one think that this is one of the worst threads i've read in a very long time, half the posts are wild eyed pipe dreams. .

Then you should read the 'Paintball on TV' thread...