To all concerned...

[rewind]

wasnt gonna post up, coz most of my thoughts have been said already, but.

Ive found that if you try and explain tournyball to 'outsiders' whos mentality is that paintball is large men on a stag do playing army and pretending to be rambo, you wont change their minds, and they think your jsut an eccentric, and ignore you.
Ive driven my mates nuts with trying to get them to come along.

Now, when ive been training on a sup' air field next to the site entrance to a woodsball place (UCZ), you get a lot of punters seeing you play, and think its the next step up from woodsball, and is the better option, we jsut gotta show them how easy it is to get into it and how fun it is, by doing what dev and dave said, and jsut talking and slowly explaining it to them and offering them a go.

 

[Jon C]

this is me being negative but hey, Painntball is NOT a sport, its not recognised by the sports council, the olypmic comittee or any one else. How many people have called it a sport on this thread?

Its a hobby and always will be!!.

 

[Jon C]

time to chat to punters at your local site isn't gonna hurt and might even be a good thing

One other thing why do players of this "so called" sport call rental customers punters, its in my opinion derogatury, its these rental customers that allow you to be able to buy paint at £20-25 a box, sites use a lot of paint probably around about 99% of all paint used in the UK. No sites, No customers, No tournament paintball!!

 

[backer4life]

I love Paintball but I think the problem is people don't want to spend so much on it.

I used to pay out nearly £350 a month on paint, training and tourneys. Thats a massive amount of money when you start adding it up over a year or so. Plus after 2 years your gun is then outa date so you have to spend another £700.

Just think about what you could spend that money on?? a car? a holiday? home cinema?

Yes the games amazing but simpley from the cost I can't afford it and I know atleast another teams worth of good paintballers that have had to resort to playing at walk ons once every cuple of mounths.

I think the costs just need to be brought down. The site owners need to stop putting such a mark up on everything and think about there passion for the sport insted of the money involved.

 

[Jon C]

I think the costs just need to be brought down. The site owners need to stop putting such a mark up on everything and think about there passion for the sport insted of the money involved.

No offence but at the end of the day the site owners are businessmen, they dont run a site for fun its hard work, damm hard work and im sure they would like to be able to draw a wage for themselves!!.

And before anyone says they are making a killing - no they are not making anywhere near what you think they do with the overheads that they have, granted they are making money but its only fair, you dont see McD's saying we will drop our prices as we have a passion for food!!

 

[rewind]

valid point, however i think the main thing that puts tourny players off playing rentals, and potentially rental players is that as tourny players we pay what, £20-£25 a case, with that the producers, the shippers, and the immediate seller all make profit on that mark up. And the same is true of the rental sites, so they make a lot more off the paint. The trouble is, that paint is the real only source of income for these sites, as money also needs to go on staff, rent, cleaning, spares, new markers, masks etc ( masks and markers are more initial costs mind) but the way the current economic climate is going, people cant afford to play paintball as a fun day out, so they dont go. The paintball sites then have to raise the costs to make ends meet, because they are getting less sales, and because of the raised costs, people are less likely to play. Its a vicious circle.

'punters' as they are called dont play for the industry of paintball, they play for the stag party, birthday party, or office team building exercise, so keeping costs high to keep the industry affloat, isnt really a usable excuse.

That being said, I appreciate everything that goes into these sites, and where the money goes, and how hard they are to run, and im in full support of the industry. We all need to do ou part.

 

[Dave284]

I think the costs just need to be brought down. The site owners need to stop putting such a mark up on everything and think about there passion for the sport insted of the money involved.

being friends with a few site owners, recball this is. i know they do not make as much money as you think.

 

[Fisz]

I'm not sure I can be bothered to write a response...at least not a long one...


Expensive paint??? Ha!! How many Reball places are currently operating in the UK? How many closed up??

 

[MissyQ]

I love Paintball but I think the problem is people don't want to spend so much on it..

Then we need different people. People who WILL spend the money for the experience they get in return. If people can't afford to play they should do something else.

Plus after 2 years your gun is then outa date so you have to spend another £700...

Not True. You don't have to spend this money. fanboyism and trend-following are not excusable reasons for pleading poverty.

Just think about what you could spend that money on?? a car? a holiday? home cinema? ...

Exactly. So, use the same gun for 4 years, and go out and buy a car...

Yes the games amazing but simpley from the cost I can't afford it and I know atleast another teams worth of good paintballers that have had to resort to playing at walk ons once every cuple of mounths. ...

As above, if you can't afford it this does not mean it is too expensive, only that you don't have the money. I would like to drive a Porche 911. I can't afford a Porche 911, so I drive something else. I don't write to Porche and tell them their cars are too expensive.

I think the costs just need to be brought down. The site owners need to stop putting such a mark up on everything and think about there passion for the sport insted of the money involved.

This is plunging new depths of naivety. If the businessmen of paintball did this, there would be no decent Paintball fields to play at within 5 years. The degeneration of the industry would accelerate exponentially, and worst of all, you would probably still think it was too expensive.

 

[Cook$]

I would like to drive a Porche 911. I can't afford a Porche 911, so I drive something else.

Blinged out Hummer with 28" rims?