Jeeez
Originally posted by Nick Brockdorff
1) I think Manning could use some help here.... because Jay just thrives on playing the devils advocate.....
2) I'M WITH MANNING !
(Jay - sometimes the cup IS half FULL 
)
3) The target audience for a paintball tv show, is the people that have tried playing paintball..... and they number what ? - 50 million people - or something ? - And the number just keeps growing.
ANYONE who has ever played a game of paintball, will be able to appreciate the skill level of the best players in our sport.....
4) YES - it IS a valid point that it would help paintball, if the paint shot was visible to spectators and viewers..... and it doesn't take that much to accomodate that need.... dark surface, dark baricades, light/white paint.... job done.... provided the cameras used are set up for high speeds.
5) Take Formula 1 racing for example.... Yes, a lot of people watch it hoping to see a crash... but when poled, the majority of the viewers that sit through 2-3 hours of cars running around and around and around, with not much exitement going on, watch it because they can relate to someone driving a super car very fast and with skill..... because the viewers have drivers licenses.
6) Also, it is extremely unnuanced to think tv coverage just changes everything overnight... it doesn't.... putting paintball on tv will create a steady growth of both the sport and the audience... the two go hand in hand.
Fields will see an increase in business, from people that have watched the sport on tv and want to try it, and in turn, the audience will grown, and so on......
TV will not revolutionise the sport over night - it will add to the already tremendous growth our sport is seeing (still the fastest growing sport on the planet).
For the players, it will mean a just as steady increase in their markedability and worth, and big bucks will not be lining their pockets overnight.... it will happen gradually.
Nick
1) Devil's advocate? Me? Never!
2) Booooh!
3) Agreed. But you'll also agree that appreciating someone's skill does not equal finding watching those skills in action entertaining.
4) Highly visible paint (almost fluorescent if possible) would dramatically improve watchability (new word for the day) dramatically. Agreed.
5) I think you misinterpret the reason why people watch F1. I don't watch it. To me it is indeed a bunch of cars driving laps for a few hours. But to the dedicated viewers it is much more than that. They get all misty eyed watching some guys battle it out for a few yards, and there is a lot of that going on. If there wasn't, they'd just continuously show the guy in the lead. But they show the best juggling for position that's going on at that moment. In other words, they also only focus on the stuff worth showing, and some of us don't even get excited over that.
6) Couldn't agree any more with you.
You may notice that I only really differ in opinion in a small degree. If they manage to make paintball a more visible game, it would have far more potentialon tv, we even agree on that. All I'm saying is that in it's current form it won't be that interesting to most people. It would the difference between watching some dudes pointing sticks at eachother, and lines of "tracer bullets" ripping across the field, tearing into their targets.
Oh, and my cup is never half full, I always drain mine in one gulp.
