loads of people selling up ?

[Tartan Blaster]

Yet despite everyone pointing to people to blame and saying paintball is going down the drains we are still attracting a large number of new players. I think the simplest reason for more people selling up is that due to the increased competiveness of tourney ball players need to have a higher level of fitness which may rule out ,unfortunately, some of the senior players. Yet I do not think we should sacrifice the quality of paintball just to keep players in who have already played a good 10 years. I think we do need to have more affordable alternative to tourney ball allowing players to play regulary without having to join a team or spend thousands on punter days yet that is quite different to banning all under 18 year olds from playing the sport. At the end of the day paintball is still a young sport but no one can continue to compete forever and we may just be seeing the first wave of players who though still enjoy the sport just can't keep up with the faster pace.
But thats just my take on it

 

[Mario]

so like i said, cause its sh*t.

 

[TheRenton]

lets elaborate on that a bit Mario, Paintball isn't sh*t, but UK Paintball is

 

[Matski]

I think it's due to the whole blur we have between rec ball and tourney ball. 90% of teams in the UK are made up of, or consist mostly of, players who play 'for fun'.
I don't see how anyone can play a tournament 'for fun', you play to win and the fun is a bonus on the side - off the field, during the travelling etc or maybe when you win.
I think some players just eventually realise that if you try to play for fun in a dog-eat-dog environment you will just keep getting your ass handed to you...on average. That happens enough times when your motivation is to 'have fun', and paying to be a target all day starts to feel a lot less enjoyable.

The irony is that often these people who play 'for fun' still take their local pissy tournament deadly seriously - kicking off at refs and other players over the usual rubbish. Players should decide what their real goals are, then maybe they wouldn't feel like paintball still owes them something they expected it to deliver because they showed up and paid their entrance.

 

[Steve Hancock]

I think we do need to have more affordable alternative to tourney ball allowing players to play regulary without having to join a team or spend thousands on punter days

What - Like a decent walk-on scene? As Robbo said in a series of articles last year this would do wonders for UK paintball.

EDIT A decent walk on scene would provide somewhere for the just-for-fun players Matski mention to play. Perhaps part of the issue is the mixing of competitive scene and the fun scene. /EDIT

And robtattoo - banning under 18's? For goodness sake! Such harsh regulation is not a practical option, nor is it even an attractive hypothetical. Far better try and reform paintball’s culture, rather than just blaming its problems on one group and getting rid of them.

 

[Tartan Blaster]

Yeah pretty much a better walkon scene but also more local tournaments. As I agree with matski you can't compete in national competitions and only have the goal to have fun (as you won't) but it would be good to have friendly local tournaments were you could so ex proballers don't have to completely leave the excitement of tourney ball to go shoot some punters in thw wood

 

[pestilence]

Its swings and roundabouts.

Yes tourney players have a natural life expectancy. when i first took up tournaye ball a player would be expected to last 3 years, I would suggest that with the economy in the state it's in at the mo, that perhaps this has reduced somewhat.

Paintball - like anything goes through boom and bust cycles. 3 years ago PB was getting everywhere! CC was at Crystal palace, there were numerous shows on TV (The Mole, Mission Paintball, etc) - now - virtually nothing, apart form the odd muppet on whatever jackass clone is doing the rounds.
so there's no wonder why there's not enough fresh blood coming in. - that would also explain why your markers worth tuppence 2 weeks after you bought it - there's less 'newbs' coming in to keep the demand high -therefor Joe seller has to cut his prices just to get shot of the thing.

and lastly - the UK tournament scene. I would suggets that from the 'boom' of 3 years ago - so many tournament cropped up, that it overstreched the playerbase trying to attend. upshot of that is both player and tounrament vendor burn out.... hence your now left with a hardcore few.

I know as I'm now constantly trying to drag up intrest from the guys i played with 3 years ago - and TBH most just cant be arsed.

I guess a intresting benchmark would be to look at PGI sales... are they on the increase? Decrease? it may help to ascertain if indeed the popularity of PB is declining or not......

 

[WKD]

Aaahhh f*&k it anyone for golf

 

[duffistuta]

Its swings and roundabouts.

Yes tourney players have a natural life expectancy. when i first took up tournaye ball a player would be expected to last 3 years, I would suggest that with the economy in the state it's in at the mo, that perhaps this has reduced somewhat.

Paintball - like anything goes through boom and bust cycles. 3 years ago PB was getting everywhere! CC was at Crystal palace, there were numerous shows on TV (The Mole, Mission Paintball, etc) - now - virtually nothing, apart form the odd muppet on whatever jackass clone is doing the rounds.
so there's no wonder why there's not enough fresh blood coming in. - that would also explain why your markers worth tuppence 2 weeks after you bought it - there's less 'newbs' coming in to keep the demand high -therefor Joe seller has to cut his prices just to get shot of the thing.

and lastly - the UK tournament scene. I would suggets that from the 'boom' of 3 years ago - so many tournament cropped up, that it overstreched the playerbase trying to attend. upshot of that is both player and tounrament vendor burn out.... hence your now left with a hardcore few.

I know as I'm now constantly trying to drag up intrest from the guys i played with 3 years ago - and TBH most just cant be arsed.

I guess a intresting benchmark would be to look at PGI sales... are they on the increase? Decrease? it may help to ascertain if indeed the popularity of PB is declining or not......

In the UK they are static and have been for yonks...UK subs base is reasonably static too, though we have a low retention rate, which means that as existing subscribers drop off the end (due to quitting, presumably) new ones take their place.

We do the odd newsstand promotion where we'll whack a load more copies out and spend some money at Smiths, but the results are negligible and to be honest with you it's a bit of a waste of moeny, but we do it once in a while for increased visibility and to get into some new outlets.

 

[Baca Loco]

Yeah pretty much a better walkon scene but also more local tournaments. As I agree with matski you can't compete in national competitions and only have the goal to have fun (as you won't) but it would be good to have friendly local tournaments were you could so ex proballers don't have to completely leave the excitement of tourney ball to go shoot some punters in thw wood

A couple of things that may or may not be relevant to the UK scene.

Motivated by the urging of a friend of mine who started an over 40 team I've approached Lane (PSP) about the notion of having a Senior Division option like the Young Guns at PSP events. I think over here we can get lots of teams that fit the criteria if only they had a place to play. It's a more affluent player base and would give old guys who still want to play an opportunity to compete against similar teams and players. (Older, slower, diminished skills, etc. but still keen to play.)

And speaking of Young Guns I know y'all have events like KOTH which I've presumed was primarily aimed at newer teams and younger players but over here we have quite a lot of local field "tournaments" which are really simplified tourney formats run on a single weekend day and aimed almost exclusively at introducing tourney-type play to the new players, young players and so on. It's not much more expensive than an ordinary walk-on day if at all and it allows players thinking about to get their feet wet as it were.