Legacy out of NXL, LTZ to follow

[Baca Loco]

Markie - the gun thing wasn't his biggest sponsor, it's things like paint and entry that's the killer.

And it's confirmed by Bob he's not going, this isn't a rumor.

Martin, you're right, while it's a long while coming to get to this point it's not as if there wasn't signs. It's also worse than we've known for a long time.

It also raises a lot of questions.

1) What'll be the effect on the leagues because the PSP is industry owned, it reflects on them, and as you say the NPPL is "cheaper" at the moment at least.

2) who'll be next? these two aren't the only ones suffering and at want point does an adjustment become a collapse.

3) What's the root cause? Was it over stretching, bad business, industry troubles, lack of expected sales or what? because each of them raises their own questions...

Bob's prob is the gun isn't selling and he doesn't have an established distribution network.

1. Both leagues have and will continue to have "issues". Look at NPPL registration numbers. And team implosions in the NXL will have crossover impact to one degree or another.

2. I could tell you who's likely but try this on for size. How many Pro teams is SP sponsoring this year and how many do you think they'll be sponsoring next year?

3. From an industry side variations on all the above probably. From a team-side an unwillingness or inability to build a different, less dependent, sort of sponsorship model. None of this is new to the teams leadership yet the last two years everyone has been scrambling over smaller slices of the same old pie. (With a couple of notable exceptions.)

PS--a little behind the curve in getting this news out, Beaks. There was another big rumor last weekend too, a repeat of one that made the rounds a few months ago. One of these days that rumor is gonna come true and when it does ...

 

[Robbo]

2. I could tell you who's likely but try this on for size. How many Pro teams is SP sponsoring this year and how many do you think they'll be sponsoring next year?

Well, after making nearly 30 of their employees redundant recently in what was termed a 'seasonal adjustment' (when I was told this, it did make me think coz sure as hell I couldn't remember the same thing happening last year or any other year for that matter) then things don't look secure for any SP team ... well apart from two or three maybes.

 

[Markie C]

So i was right on one of my points that the bob long gun isnt selling that well to support a team ?

But wouldnt it make it look even worst that the man team for bob long cant fund a season in the nxl thats just more bad press isnt it ?

 

[shamu]

Bob is also losing his main sponsor. Hybrid is in the midst of a lawsuit with KEE/Empire plus there are rumors of manufacturing issues. It sounds the lawsuit was the final straw for Gary, so he's leaving paintball. With the lose of Gary's backing and the lawsuit, things don't look too good for Hybrid.

 

[Stan]

Hybrid is in the midst of a lawsuit with KEE/Empire plus there are rumors of manufacturing issues. It sounds the lawsuit was the final straw for Gary, so he's leaving paintball.

Do other sports have so many lawsuits? It just seems as though the guys running these companies are throwing money at lawyers when, according to the paintball media, the paintball pie is shrinking ever smaller whilst people scrap over the crumbs. I just don't get it...

 

[Chicago]

Do other sports have so many lawsuits? It just seems as though the guys running these companies are throwing money at lawyers when, according to the paintball media, the paintball pie is shrinking ever smaller whilst people scrap over the crumbs. I just don't get it...

No, but, other sports don't have piles and piles of equipment and brands to sue over. It's kinda hard to sue over soccer balls and shoes.

 

[Chicago]

Robbo is right - this has been a long time coming.

It makes no business sense for paintball companies to sponsor paintball teams. For the price of sponsoring one Pro team for a year, you could sponsor a whole scenario league.

It used to happen anyway because the people who owned the paintball companies were the same people playing on the teams, so, if you're going to pay lots of money to fly your team around the world to play paintball, you might as well plaster your company's logo all over your stuff. But now those guys don't play anymore and the people who are buying up these companies never did play.

Paintball teams will need to get smarter about their budget (maybe the player you spend $400/week flying in for practice from the other side of the country isn't financially worth it; maybe you need more reball practice) and get better about reaching out-of-industry sponsors.

 

[Bngi]

No, but, other sports don't have piles and piles of equipment and brands to sue over. It's kinda hard to sue over soccer balls and shoes.

You are kidding right?

 

[Dannefaerd]

It makes no business sense for paintball companies to sponsor paintball teams. For the price of sponsoring one Pro team for a year, you could sponsor a whole scenario league.

Yeah. Maybe something similar to what Chuck is talking about at JT with the assistance at grassroots level for highschool teams in the States. What is, for me, the first tangible proof of looking to grow the sport from the bottom up at the industry level.

But now those guys don't play anymore and the people who are buying up these companies never did play.

And those that did play - and are still in the industry - are getting more concerned with returns and sustainable business.

Paintball teams will need to get smarter about their budget (maybe the player you spend $400/week flying in for practice from the other side of the country isn't financially worth it; maybe you need more reball practice) and get better about reaching out-of-industry sponsors.

Which implies a level of understanding marketing and sales cycles that teams (as a general rule) just don't have. It's not rocket science ... and I'd expect the smart teams who know they don't have the knowledge to move towards an sports agent type deal (as Dynasty and Mr Lang both have).

There are a multitude of answers here. But the obvious one for me is for the industry to be focussing on the building blocks of the sport/game we all love to play ... concentration on working with the commercial fields to grow the entry level walk-on player base and to provide a best practise blueprint on transitioning the casual player through the hierachy of value into committed repeat players. (But then again - dreams are free)

In the short term (if the industry is smart and does do this) tournament ball will be static at best ... but we need strong foundations for anything more sustainable and to allow paintball to truely explode at a tournament level.

 

[Robbo]

You can actually grow the sport from both ends, by concentrating on grass root site development or in fact, by airing top end tourney ball on TV.

The latter has a recent proven track record whereby the recent televised paintball was directly coincidental with a resurgent sales increase.

This sales increase had an effect of masking over the real sales slope and once the TV coverage finished, the slope changed direction back to what it was before.

This suggests that if we put TV back on, then it will nudge the slope upwards and therefore it is now an industry responsibility to share production costs in putting paintball back on TV.

But this time, we are putting it back on to survive because if we don't, the future is quite clear and some big names are gonna bite the dust; nobody really should be wanting to play Russian roulette by not investing in TV production.
I have mentioned the Bruce Friedman guy before, he is the person responsible for buying the NPPL but he has a much wider vision than that, the acquisition of the NPPL was just one piece in his paintball jigsaw.

I believe, he will head up an initiative and if the industry don't back him, then they run the risk of being left out in the paintball wilderness and with winter coming, it won't be much fun.

There is a clarity of direction coming and it comes on the back of a dwindling sales with far too many companies involved with far too many overheads with margins that are far too low .....I wonder how many companies will actually see what's coming, and even if they do, will the accompanying clarity of direction go ignored?