Fed Update Press Release.

[The Federation]

Over the last few months the Federation members have found it not only hard to find suitable time to arrange a meeting but to also find the Fed's direction and purpose. The Federation was formed with the sole purpose of making UK Paintball better, with no financial gains or rewards, just an ambition to try and put things back on track. The initial focus turned towards ‘Tournament’ paintball as it was felt it was an area that the members could best serve. There have been several initiatives that have been introduced and paths walked. Some have been more successful than others.

The tournament scene in the UK is stronger now than it has been in a few years with new venues and events series starting to open their doors to players up and down the country. Clubs have been formed and a new found structure that should help Paintball grow is starting to emerge.

The Fed has held two annual Fed Cup events that have been ‘heavily’ funded by the Fed board members making entrance fee’s low and the prize fund HUGE. But attendance of the Fed Cup has been poor. At a recent Fed Meeting it was decided that the Fed Cup would NOT happen in 2011 as it was felt that if the players do no want it then what is the point wasting our energy in a project that simply was not wanted or needed. We understand the costs of playing a two day event and the Federation does not want to add to burden of playing costs through the season.

So what happens to the Fed now? The focus of a year-end event has gone (for now) and it's time to look at what is needed within our sport to help it flourish again. The Fed is going to continue to work on the tournament side of Paintball looking at Rules, Affiliation, Club Structure, Nationwide Disciplinary Committee, and Heath and Safety to name just a few of the areas that the Fed will continue to focus on.

Many of the building blocks for improvement have already been put in place, but time, life and energy seem to stop this foundation from growing. We realise that the Fed needs to continue to push forward and we will endeavour to do so. It takes time. We are not all seeing, all powerful people with magic wands but we are trying to do something good for us all.

Over the next few months we will do our best to bring some structure to what we are doing as the Federation and also to the work we are undertaking to hopefully continue to improve on what we have already started. Please bear with us and give us your support.

 

[head_-_shot]

I have just a suggestion,
As I believe you are the voice of the average player

And have some sort of communication with the major players in the industry

I won't post up here, but would I be able to PM someone suitable a reasonable suggestion as to how we could improve paintball in the UK, unless this has already been discussed?

Many Thanks
Sam,
London Defiance.

 

[Piper]

What's wrong with posting here?

 

[P8ntballer.Com]

I have just a suggestion,
As I believe you are the voice of the average player

And have some sort of communication with the major players in the industry

I won't post up here, but would I be able to PM someone suitable a reasonable suggestion as to how we could improve paintball in the UK, unless this has already been discussed?

Many Thanks
Sam,
London Defiance.

Head shot, there is no problem in you posting here as Pipes suggests; after all, this is a forum for the interchanging of ideas but if you wish to talk to someone on the Fed, then you can either PM myself or talk to Ledzy using the user name displayed in the first post.

I would much rather you post your suggestion here if only for others to share your take on things.

Robbo

 

[head_-_shot]

Sure thing,

 

[Just Gill]

Head-Shot I can't PM you as your inbox is full. Feel free to PM me also!

Gill

 

[shoaibaktar]

Federation ....what for??

Since my son took up paint ball about 16months ago Ive seen a great deal of your secret sport. Coming from a traditional sports background where Ive (volounteered) to be a league secretary and club treasurer,Im interested at the ultra fluid administration of your sport.The large sport model of top down management a governing body/federation model with clubs/teams choosing to participate in your ordered/regulated product seems unworkable .mainly because this is a customer driven ,bottom up /organic sport. The customer and his spend is too arbitrary to be steered from above .The clubs who are your members,themselves are too loose in structure to enable any sportwide structure.
In the major sports kit suppliers,event/league organisers,and administrators can set the rules of governance because they fund the project initially and the clubs then buy in and fund in a secondary way. Paintball is still too seperatist to date ,to achieve this. A club input would definitely help to strentghen the mandate of your body.Also hopefully giving the player a stake in his sport.Fewer better organised clubs,with several teams will provide loose players with an island to aim for and to cope with varied ability levels under one roof.Your teams are closer to pro cycling teams who dissolve and form on a regular basis leading to instability and no growth potential.I believe with a strentghening of the bottom end through industry initiatives that you will gain a sport you can improve and regulate.Funding a moving arena round major eventsi ,ie large country shows , Olympic related major music events ,to demonstrate this sport to a largely unaware public . Im aware the logistics of a junior section is akin to opening a pandora s box of problems, but ultimately is what has provided the main sports with their long term members and junior sections have a route to funding none others have Dads wallet!
I realise nothing here will be new to your members who im sure have spent many hours attempting to find that elusive answer.Its just that as a primarily commercial orientated sport, sports grants and funding from government are not going to help empower the federation.So as your sport does not fit the major sport model development ,it is to yourmembers and their organisation that it seems to me that your sport must look to.

 

[Richiemonk]

ermmmmm.......fair point

now one question, can any of my fellow ballers translate some of those big words into language that a paintballer will understand pleeeeeeease

 

[shoaibaktar]

as the author Iam reluctant to patronise ....but ok here goes .The sport of paintball needs to grow from players up , not Fed down . The key to growth is fewer little temporary teams ,forming ,playing a season collapsing . Bigger clubs for players to come into (noob) get coaching from said club ,(player ) move up through club , play 1st team at Millenium (goddam Pro) . The team ethic and group/team morale will keep club going and costs down .These clubs can then tell the Fed what players want. The Fed can bring the cash and expertise to set up ,coaches ,referees ,junior/novice section. The Fed is struggling to"put things back on track," because its not on a track to grow as a sport just continue in the same limited state. You are the customer when they find out what you want ,then they can start to make that happen. Soz if I didnt make it understandable ........ my fault not yours

 

[Robbo]

I'm pretty sure some of the things you suggest are closer to the truth than a lot of the points we have voiced on here; the growth curve our sport experienced in the nineties was steep, so steep in fact, it paved the way for even idiots to make money but those days are long gone and the genie is kinda hard to get push back in the bottle; our playing demographic has changed over to a much younger [approx 10 years] less financed group of individuals.

Whereas the previous demographic could buy product and play based upon his/her own decisions and finances, a lot of our present customers are reliant on their parents which is made even more acute a problem when we factor in the attendant expense of playing our sport.

A lot of us in the industry have spent many hours trying to nail down the real reasons for our decline and hopefully come up with a practical expansion package that would inspire growth; we can't turn that clock back no matter how much we try; it's not so much the sport has changed now [which it has] but it's the customer who has changed that seems to be the biggest problem.

In our halcyon days, yet still a niche sport, we were a lot more organised and open to formalising.
Leagues, event series and membership schemes were bubbling up a lot of the time with the main point here, the customer base at that time was responsive; all we needed then was to have a single direction and not the multitude that was being offered to the players at that time.
It seems our present player base resists any initiative to try and inspire growth and they react this way more through indifference than anything else thus neutering any chance of structure and accountability ... and so .... human nature then kicks in and we, the industry, all lose heart because that ole horse ain't drinking no matter what we try.

You may suggest this runs contra to your 'bottom up' strategy but I think you've missed the point here somewhat, initiatives were responded positively by players in the nineties because they were older and financially independent, generally speaking.
It's no good trying to institute a bottom up approach because you'd get a hundred different suggestions with the common denominator response being, 'we just wanna play paintball' ..... that's hardly the bedrock of any new initiative designed to promote the numbers game, growth.
The attendant expense of playing puts us on a knife-edge .. it doesn't take much these days for kids/parents to seek out an alternative to our game when parents or prospective players start looking at price tags.

We got some very sharp minds in our midsts, many of whom have focused on this problem; the success of which, is still 'a work in progress' I suppose ... but then again, I'm the eternal pessimist ..... or is it pragmatist?
I'll tell you which one in 5 years time