Are we going about it the wrong way?

[T.B.F.K.A.T.L.]

Originally posted by L J

the only way i could possibly be more rude, is to become TL and post the 'worst posts ever' he posts

Oi I resent that comment LJ.

Right my views on the whole subject.
Yes fishing does have a huge following but next to no Media coverage, but you can hardly use fishing as an example, due to the fact that the human race has been fishing since the dawn of time, it is only natural that certain sorts will find this pastime relaxing. Also Grandads, who fish, take thier grandsons down to the river/lakeside and bring them into the sport. Due to this everybody knows what fishing is. Now how many people have you spoken to who ask you what you did at the weekend and when you say paintballing they say"whats that then?".
Its a sad fact that there are still people out there that have never heard of paintballing let alone know what it is in any format that it is played.

The only way to rectify this is to gain Media attention and the only way to do this to the general public is to follow the PAL. Now I'm not advocating that this is the 'be all and end all' of tournies it just seems to be the one that is pushing to get the public interested in the sport. Even if said media coverage is only in local newspapers, its still a way forward. Seeing as People involved in the TV media will start to notice these articles in the papers and as everybody knows TV likes to show unusal things.

Yes we do have Paintball on Tv at the moment in what ever form you see it good or bad. But it always goes out on the same channels in the same time slot, Jackass and Dirty sanchez etc. Now all the people who watch thse programs and have the desire to play would have probably been to a site by now or thought about it. Hence the reason why a couple of months ago when I took part in the filming of an advert for Skirmish they said they were going to slam it into the middle of these programs because they know that this is where their target audiance lies.
Now the problem is how do you pull in the other 95% of the public, well news reports are a good start. Even if the Tv is only on and the people are only listening but not actually watching the chances are that they will hear the words Paintball and the local team and wonder what thats all about. Those that are interested in playing will investigate a bit more, thus another source of new players.

I know I have gone away on one here but I feel that Tv coverage in whatever form is the way forward. And you have to remember that you have a captive audiance when they are in front of the haunted goggle box. Whereas flyers and posters etc is not the way to go due to the people already being at a site and playing paintball, those that want to take it further end up doing so anyway by asking if there is a way to make it cheaper or asking the marshalls about it, who mostly play on teams. We need more blood coming into the game at the recball level not trying to convert those that are already there.

There is also another bonus of bringing more people into this level
and that is more recballers paying customer prices for paint increases the revenue of the sport thus decreasing the prices at the higher levels.

 

[Munkeh]

i think PBing is quite well known as a "wargame" already. the point i was trying to make was that if we could "convert" just a small percentage (5%?) of punters to rec-ball then our playing base would sky rocket! Which could only be a good thing...

 

[L J]

Originally posted by T.B.F.K.A.T.L.
Oi I resent that comment LJ.

you were the one that told me to say it
munkeh, i agree with your last post, all my mates whenever i say im going to a paintball tournament, they automatically assume its in the woods etc, even had one guy (who we have since proven is a fool,((he had a kid at the age of 16))who said i was an army wannabe....)
ive tried to explain tournys to my mates, but never had a magazine/photos on hand to show em

 

[stongle]

hmmm

hmmm, LJ, I seem to remember one of your posts from last year about you wanting to wear your WWII era Army Sergeants Uniform to Kenny's or something (god I have a memory like a frickin elephant).

I hereby put it to you that you are a born again warmonger, but a warmonger nonetheless (either that or you was doing it to impress Rancid).

And another thing we're moving away from banning people and rather feeding em to Rancid's rabid goats. Anything they don't eat we bury, hey Essex's a big place, so watch it. I know roughly where you live, and there's not that many blue haired fools in Essex.

Look it's just as likely that people will move into Air soft than Paintball from rec or cough punter cough days, perhaps the Super Air / Speedball Tournament scene is courting the wrong player base? And the only way that'll become more popular is if a few of the elitist bunch stop taking disco biscuits and come back down to earth (or Baca throws em off Brooklyn bridge and gives em the old Money Talks Bullsh*t runs the Marathon speech). We need a consolidated extreme sports agenda for Sup-Air / Arena Ball and a totally different strategy for Rec (lest they all become MP5 toting maniacs).

I think we need to put more markers into peoples hands, but we can't force em too much. Perhaps the best way to get people out more in the rec scene is offer them more scenarios to play, rather than straight Commando simulations??? Maybe have like Ghetto balling, bloods versus crips etc, Peckham Wide Boys versus North London Triads etc? I'm sure we could knock up a few arenas to mimic the broadwater farm estate.

 

[Jasper]

My teams site in Carlisle has thought about this and although we have punter games every weekend we have also setup mini tournaments of 5 man teams the first one in september only attracted 4 teams from our city the one in november attracted 10 teams the one in january we are expecting close to twenty teams and Carlisle and the surrounding area is a lightly populated area.

The site owner has also opened a shop in Carlisle and is creating allot of interest, he is also putting a four page flyer every month in the local gazzette which is a free paper which goes to every household in Cumbria (that begins in January) that will have pictures, offers and info on paintball.

Media coverage would be great but the most important thing is getting as many people as possible involved in the sport at any level.

Its all good

 

[Twiglet]

I think that part of the problem is the stigma attatched to paintball by people who don't really know what it's all about. I have had the odd comment from people when I tell them that I marshal, who have said things like, 'ooh, isn' that awfully violent?', and I've also had punters telling me that 'it's like real war, innit?!'. This is the main problem we face when trying to get people into the sport. The main way that we can combat this, unfortunately, is by word of mouth; by encouraging friends, colleagues, etc to grab a marker and give it a try - it is sooo true that so many people just haven't even heard of paintball, let alone the fact that it's a pretty big sport!! Of course, if we could push the sport into even local newspapers, this would help greatly to get people to find more about the sport, and things like Campaign Cup this year being shown on Trans World sport (even if it is at stupid o'clock in the morning!) really does get those few extra people involved.

Sorry, I realise this post is a whole load of waffle, but I hope it had some bearing on what we were talking about (sort of forgot half way through!!)

Sarah x