7-man officially dead.
- Thread starter Chicago
- Start date
I think you'll find Bruce (and Scott) would have gone thru every option available to them to try and keep the league alive but unfortunately, the US cannot sustain two leagues in the way it was set up.
What saddens me even more is the decision not to pull his magazine away from the Pacific stable and make a go of that alone but Bruce must have done his homework and decided that even though he was one of the last mags standing, the industry couldn't even support that ......if you think about this situation alone, it's an even more serious indictment of the state of our sport than the league demise.
If you look at the bigger perspective, what a few realise but a lot don't, is that major league, be it 7-man, X-ball or whatever format, paintball, is an expensive thing to stage and promote. Players teams and trade all have high expectations that the organisers strive to meet, every time they achieve a tick in the box it raises the bar by a new notch but the expectation is to raise it again. Its a vicious circle, we have seen, on this forum, and on others, the slating organisers get when the promoters don't get it quite right, or events don't quite live up to expectations. Participants expect improvements in the standards of venue, facilities, reffing, fields, a well stocked and populated trade area, etc., etc. All this adds up to considerable investment in time money and effort on the organisers part. Over recent years their have been attempts to chase the TV dollar, but we have an game that has little or no interest to anyone else but the participants and the industry around it. Low viewing figures isn't exactly enticing to sponsors and advertisers of any proposed TV show, therefore the cost of staging events has to, in one way or the other, come from the players pockets, be it in the entry fees they pay or the cost of paint and equipment that they use with the industry paying for the trade stand pitches they take.
With the industry, promoters and media struggling to make ends meet, eventually something has to give.
Paintball is eating itself!
With the industry, promoters and media struggling to make ends meet, eventually something has to give.
Paintball is eating itself!
Perhaps the grass roots level needs to be worked over there... and every where. Get the local scene up and running, then the state competitions and then a decent single national league... just like most sports.
One format, one rule book may not be such a bad thing.
One format, one rule book may not be such a bad thing.
It looks as though it's too late to rescue HB for the PSP calendar which would have been an option if this had happened a few months earlier.
But one of the many problems with HB was the sheer amount of money it took to stage the event and so it's not really an event you wanna take on at short notice.
I don't think the NPPL guys were the masters of their own destiny in all this because up until a few days ago, there had been talks going on trying to thrash out the final integration conditions and to that end, the deal was virtually done...... it just doesn't make sense the financial rug then gets pulled away at this time unless some other party (maybe banks or investors) pulls the rug for them.
You don't sit down to extensive integration talks when you are gonna nosedive the company a few days later.
In that stable of paintball interests, you had the league itself, the magazine (Paintball2Xtremes), the Camp Pendleton Site and the website (Paintball.com), I think the league would have been the only thing that lost money, or should i say, the others had potential to make money.
In ditching the lot in one go with no prior separation of components that were viable tells a story all in itself, well it does to me.
Paintball.com can be easily sold for at least a six figure sum or certainly the latter of five figures.
The Camp Pendleton site as most Cali people know has been around for a long time and like most sites in Cali, can make real money if managed correctly.
The magazine, well, this is closer to home for me and perhaps the biggest kick in the bollox, the ditching of this suggests that even though we (PGi) and the lesser known Paintball Sports and Splatt have all effectively finished, the paintball market can't even support what's left ...now this is truly amazing because it further suggests, the printed media is under a fundamental attack from the digital revolution.
I always thought (maybe mistakenly) that people would always wanna touch, feel, carry round, collect magazines and this would never change .... I frikkin I hope I wasn't wrong but unless you can explain the decision to ditch Paintball2Xtremes solely in terms of a depressed paintball market place, then it looks as though i could be wrong.
All in all, not a good day for paintball but out of the fire comes the PSP phoenix looking even stronger and in a better position to create and shape this New World Order I keep banging on about.
And out of the tumbling ashes of the NPPL, I can just about make out the shape of the new transatlantic alliance boasting a single format and rules etc .....
It's a pity it took the death of one of us to ensure and bolster the remainder but that's just paintball mimicking life like ain't it?
But one of the many problems with HB was the sheer amount of money it took to stage the event and so it's not really an event you wanna take on at short notice.
I don't think the NPPL guys were the masters of their own destiny in all this because up until a few days ago, there had been talks going on trying to thrash out the final integration conditions and to that end, the deal was virtually done...... it just doesn't make sense the financial rug then gets pulled away at this time unless some other party (maybe banks or investors) pulls the rug for them.
You don't sit down to extensive integration talks when you are gonna nosedive the company a few days later.
In that stable of paintball interests, you had the league itself, the magazine (Paintball2Xtremes), the Camp Pendleton Site and the website (Paintball.com), I think the league would have been the only thing that lost money, or should i say, the others had potential to make money.
In ditching the lot in one go with no prior separation of components that were viable tells a story all in itself, well it does to me.
Paintball.com can be easily sold for at least a six figure sum or certainly the latter of five figures.
The Camp Pendleton site as most Cali people know has been around for a long time and like most sites in Cali, can make real money if managed correctly.
The magazine, well, this is closer to home for me and perhaps the biggest kick in the bollox, the ditching of this suggests that even though we (PGi) and the lesser known Paintball Sports and Splatt have all effectively finished, the paintball market can't even support what's left ...now this is truly amazing because it further suggests, the printed media is under a fundamental attack from the digital revolution.
I always thought (maybe mistakenly) that people would always wanna touch, feel, carry round, collect magazines and this would never change .... I frikkin I hope I wasn't wrong but unless you can explain the decision to ditch Paintball2Xtremes solely in terms of a depressed paintball market place, then it looks as though i could be wrong.
All in all, not a good day for paintball but out of the fire comes the PSP phoenix looking even stronger and in a better position to create and shape this New World Order I keep banging on about.
And out of the tumbling ashes of the NPPL, I can just about make out the shape of the new transatlantic alliance boasting a single format and rules etc .....
It's a pity it took the death of one of us to ensure and bolster the remainder but that's just paintball mimicking life like ain't it?
Let's hope Markie's band of followers is limited just to you mate
Missy, as ever, nails it perfectly.