madrid marchalling

[Robbo]

...Pedro should NOT host another MS event.

He won't be...trust me on that point !

 

[Oli HPG]

Good idea...will present your idea to the team!

 

[Oli HPG]

He won't be...trust me on that point !

Your word in god's ear channel! My guys did want to play the event. But it was such a mess from start to finish that I decided not to field a team.

Mark: HPG should not be put as " accept the points"! Once again it looks like that too few people have got the balls to say what they really think. I have plenty of text messages and pm's from team captains complaining about the matter. Shame that they do not speak their mind on here!

 

[Steve Hancock]

I would imagine that most refs are ex players, and almost certainly Sunday Leaguers.

I wouldn't have a problem with domestic players reffing the internationals. Should have been clearer, its not players that I think shouldn't be reffing, its players who participate in that league/at that level.

I see your point but in Paintball's infancy as we are I dont think there are any alternatives - certainly don’t know many people willing to travel to each event to be judges.

Participant reffing isn't the only option - it is the easiest option. Yes it might be more work and cost to hire actual officials, but a necessary one IMO. A number of UK refs fly out to the PSP events, I'm sure it wouldn't be logistically any harder to have them fly to euro events. But between penny pinching a politics I don't see this happening. Those are our real problems.

The bottom line is that the sport is driven by participants.

Our sport is driven by an industry obsessed with fighting to get a bigger slice of the pie, the pie being the participants' money. The running of the sport is not representative of the participants in any way, so I don't feel they have much of a say. Sure they can vote with their wallet, but that will only work if it happens en-masse. But in a way you're right, the participants are the only people funding paintball/the pie eaters. This is because our sport is an organisational farce that no one apart from us takes seriously, why would a spectator pay for the some of the crap we put up with. If we want to get past this, one of the man things we need to do is build credibility. Credibility, like actually having officials.

EDIT: Sorry, that kind of comes off like I'm ripping into you, what with it being a reply to what you posted. Not having a go at you, the vitriol is aimed at the pie eaters.

BTW - The pie/pie eater analogy is borrowed from one of Baca's deadbox articles.

 

[Chicago]

Burn it? Wouldn't it be better to spend $500 each on booze and hookers? That way at least your BBQ would be fun....

But then they wouldn't get to complain about how it wasn't fair that THEY had to burn their 500 while the neighbors got hookers and alcohol.

 

[Robbo]

I wouldn't have a problem with domestic players reffing the internationals. Should have been clearer, its not players that I think shouldn't be reffing, its players who participate in that league/at that level.

Participant reffing isn't the only option - it is the easiest option. Yes it might be more work and cost to hire actual officials, but a necessary one IMO. A number of UK refs fly out to the PSP events, I'm sure it wouldn't be logistically any harder to have them fly to euro events. But between penny pinching a politics I don't see this happening. Those are our real problems.

Our sport is driven by an industry obsessed with fighting to get a bigger slice of the pie, the pie being the participants' money. The running of the sport is not representative of the participants in any way, so I don't feel they have much of a say. Sure they can vote with their wallet, but that will only work if it happens en-masse. But in a way you're right, the participants are the only people funding paintball/the pie eaters. This is because our sport is an organisational farce that no one apart from us takes seriously, why would a spectator pay for the some of the crap we put up with. If we want to get past this, one of the man things we need to do is build credibility. Credibility, like actually having officials.

I think that last paragraph pretty much sums up the state of paintball and also gives us a little insight into the problems anybody faces when trying to put our sport on an even footing.
Evolution tends to sort things out over time and I think in this case, paintball isn't immune although it's gonna be financial pressures that shape our emergent genotype.
As I see it, 2007 will bring unity in the US with the PSP/ NXL and NPPL adopting a unified 7 man format and league.
Secondly, the pressure to follow suit for the Millennium will be irresistible in that if they don't jump on board, it will precipitate the NPPL coming over and taking over...either way, we are gonna see a world unified format and league.

This is the top down evolution I was referring to some years ago when some people in this country were trying to tell me they were gonna change the face of UK ball and then consequently European ball and ultimately world paintball by the bottom up approach.

These people had little idea when it comes to the true dynamics of paintball and what makes it tick, they had their ideals, and that's all.
Their plan was unworkable as they couldn't even negotiate the paintball and political landscape in this country, let alone trying to influence anybody outside of the UK.

And so, the real evolutionary forces are now being bought to bear, and these are people already in positions of real power and people of real influence, and real money.
The destiny of paintball worldwide is inextricably linked to these three influences.
Paintball's ultimate direction is undecided with Billy and Adam Gardner's (along with Jerry Braun) TV initiative on one side with Ged Green (NPPL) and Dave Youngblood (PSP / NXL) on the other.
Europe is tied into the latter pairing and so as far as we are concerned, our short to mid term prospects are aligned with the NPPL / PSP alliance.
I cannot see Billy and Adam's foray into TV being ultimately successful purely because of their tie in with Jerry.

Steve is right, the player base has little to no influence but then again, we don't exactly help ourselves in this respect because we ain't exactly quick off the mark when it comes to organising ourselves.
I would like to use the phrase of 'shooting ourselves in the foot' but in this case, we'd probably miss