NXL is dead, long live the NXL

[Robbo]

Originally posted by Missy Q
While I respect the mans vision (Sergey), he assumes a healthier and more professional industry than exists. He assumes an ability to make long-term loss-leading investments. He also assumes the industry can be cohesive and co-operative. Unless he plans to finance his grand scheme himself, and establish his own obedient infrastructure that will protect his investments rather than exploit them, it ain't going to happen.

I believe the Russians weakness is his familiarity with a sensible environment, where things follow a plan and make sense.

Missy, (hope u r feeling better by the way), you are right and wrong, Seregy does assume a more coherent industry than perhaps he should do and this is the one time where I was right and he was not so because way back when we were discussing whether or not he should stump up with the asking price for NXL membership, I advised no because of the people involved, or rather the chemistry involved.
He was of the opinion that the marketability and consequent momentum generated by XBall would see it thru, no matter who was running ti.
I had my doubts and if Sergey did get it wrong, it was more because he hadn't had the experience of working with all those involved.
His yardsticks were of course responsible businessman and we both know you cannot apply those type rationale to Paintball.

I tell ya this much Missy, if he does take control of that NXL, then it's gonna be a whole different ball game and a few things will inevitably happen, the future would look brighter, people would make money, paintball would evolve and you guys would have one helleuva fight on yer hands coz at the moment, all I see is the towel being thrown in by way too many people.

 

[Missy Q]

well that demonstrates how I am 'right' Pete. What about the 'wrong' bit....?

Seriously though. A man investing heavy cash into paintball at the moment would not fit the profile I have of Sergey, or any astute investor for that matter.
He has unecessarily blown 200g. That may be small change to him, but throwing good money after bad also does not fit his profile. He would expect (and rightly) the other owners to also invest in the NXL's future and firm up the collective investment in the format, and I don't think they would. Like you said, too many people just want out, and you can't steer a ship if the crew already bailed.

I think most want the NXL to work a deal with the NPPL (not the one they want, but one that ensures the longevity of the format within a better infrastructure), a merger of formats, and a reduction in the amount of top level events, facilitating better prizes, more sponsorship dollars and an easier calendar. If Sergeys plan works in this direction I see very little resistance from either side.

Some facts remain though. The NPPL events sell out in hours. The PSP events do not sell out at all.
My question is, if the format is so much better in the PSP, and the events are cheaper to enter, is there not a fundamental problem with something, and if so, what? And can Sergey fix it? In fact, can anyone fix it?
Or perhaps the format is actually not as popular as people think in the microcosm of paintballer.com?
If you get enough high profile X-ball players to say that X-ball is the better format, does that make it so (in the real world)?
Personally I question if the format is affordable to play. If the format is not affordable to play, then it has no legs within the current industry structure (being that an events success is (partially) gauged on the amount of teams entered).

AQnyway, back to topic: Sergey has a role to play in Paintball, but I am not quite sure what it is yet.

 

[Robbo]

Originally posted by Missy Q
well that demonstrates how I am 'right' Pete. What about the 'wrong' bit....?

Seriously though. A man investing heavy cash into paintball at the moment would not fit the profile I have of Sergey, or any astute investor for that matter.
He has unecessarily blown 200g. That may be small change to him, but throwing good money after bad also does not fit his profile. He would expect (and rightly) the other owners to also invest in the NXL's future and firm up the collective investment in the format, and I don't think they would. Like you said, too many people just want out, and you can't steer a ship if the crew already bailed.

I think most want the NXL to work a deal with the NPPL (not the one they want, but one that ensures the longevity of the format within a better infrastructure), a merger of formats, and a reduction in the amount of top level events, facilitating better prizes, more sponsorship dollars and an easier calendar. If Sergeys plan works in this direction I see very little resistance from either side.

I never said he would invest a lot of cash into paintball at the moment
Sergey believes not so much in the NXL but in the format and as such would try to steer the NXL toward maintaining XBall's survival.
Me and you have talked many times on the subject of integration and you are well aware of my thoughts on it and if Sergey truly believed he could uphold the integrity of XBall within the structure of the NPPL, then he would not even blink in advocating it.

I readily concede that the NXL is becoming increasingly like a beleaguered ship as it takes on even more water but if Sergey decides to go off on his own and create what he might want to create (and I am not saying or suggesting he might in any way) then he will make a success of it.
The politics of all this, he will leave to others, he isn't concerned with all that cr@p, he will just do what he feels needs to be done.

That said, if I was him, I don't think I would be too inclined to put any more money in, well not the sort of money required to turn paintball that far around.
See ya in San Diego mate !

PS Tell B to duck when my plane lands !

 

[Chicago]

So...

How would someone get ahold of Sergey?

 

[Dannefaerd]

Short of calling Robbo at PGI Towers and asking for the phone number ... you could always use the feedback form on the Russian Legion website, or you could email the bank he's running

(Just being a cheeky ******* ... sorry)

 

[Nick Brockdorff]

Pity that the people running the NXL were so inept at it

To my mind, if it is still the goal of paintball to become a widely televised sport, a format with more "longevity" than the current 7-man capture the flag game IS needed.

The major flaw of paintball has always been that we only play to "first point scored" - no matter how short a time that may be.

Nobody would go watch football , or hockey, or US football - or whatever - if the first point scored meant game over.

People love sports where the game goes back and forth, where there is a chance of a comeback, where the exitement is maintained for more than a few minutes.... and if paintball wants to become a major sport in terms of spectators and media, we need a format that caters for those wants in the average spectator.

- Then again, we might not want that at all.... but then the sport should be upfront about it, instead of doing things half-assed.

Also - paint NEEDS to be visible to spectators - both on site and watching through media... it's astonishing to me that nobody has yet understood how that would transform paintball into something a lot more exiting for the general public to watch..... for starters ONLY white shelled paint should be allowed at major events, and both flooring and bunkers should be in colours in stark contrast to white........ and paintball manufacturers should be incouraged to come up with an even better solution to making paint visible in flight asap.

Nick

 

[Robbo]

Chicago Why do you want to get hold of Sergey?
Email me if you want on robbo@aceville.com

Nick I think the most important point you made was by highlighting the condition, 'IF it is still the goal of paintball to become a widely televised sport.
I honestly believe the NXL debacle has knocked the bollocks out of any serious investment programs any of the industry might have had, or even of outside sponsors getting behind us.

The NPPL are certainly still in the ring slugging away but it's a fight that most of us were led to believe would have been a done deal a few rounds back.
In all the time I have been connected with the reinvented NPPL, I have heard many times of outside sponsors, big TV deals and so on and none of them has borne fruit to the point where mainstream Paintball has come out of it.
In fact, playing the NPPL is becoming increasingly more expensive to play for us.
I cannot see the NXL as it is now being picked up by anybody, the only way forward for them is this :- They have to either appoint Sergey as their main man and see what happens or they must integrate with the NPPL (if some of them are able to put egos on back burners) and hope they can piggy-back the NXL onto any potential success they might have.

It might well be the XBall house of cards comes a crashing down because I wonder how fragile this whole situation is, because what exactly holds XBall together if the NXL folds???

Think about it Nick, the NXL’s real existence has now bought deeply into question with the demise of the Dick Clark deal. It costs sooooo much to keep these teams involved and so, in the contracting market we now have in the US, purse strings are gonna be tightened and what better way to save a few bucks than to pull the plug on a loss making venture?

Now if the NXL is consequently folded, where does this leave the PSP?
Historically, it was only ever Renick and Jerry who made any money from holding this series of events, the others ain’t gonna be bothered too much if it goes ping pong.
It’s only aggravation that most of the PSP guys can do without and the only reason the PSP has any momentum in this situation is because some of them do not like the idea of handing over complete control of pro team confrontations to the NPPL.
The top end tourney circuit would then be controlled by Pure Promotions and this may not sit well with some of those guys on the PSP, if patent issues between Smart parts and WDP are resolved then perhaps there will be some headway in this department but it still leaves Jerry out on a limb but I think he would have little influence in matters if SP and WDP had sorted things out and the process of integration had begun.

And so, is the whole PSP / NXL thing like a house of cards just teetering after the Dick Clark reinforcements have been taken away?
And if it does go this way, the hand the PSP/NXL guys have got when they sit at the table to negotiate any integration with the NPPL is gonna be about as effective as sitting there with a king high against a straight flush in a game of poker.

From the NXL's point of view, Sergey seems to be shaping up as the only saviour and even then it’s not a done deal because it may well have gone too far and Sergey may not even want to take it on, either way, options are closing down fast.

And then to cap all this bull**** we got a split tourney circuit shaping up nicely in Europe for next year.

 

[Matski]

In terms of outside sponsors, and TV coverage, it's unbelievable how quickly everyone seems to just 'expect' a big bang of TV deals and Nike investment just because everyone thinks the game deserves it. It's an incremental process, and it will stay at that pace until a handful of major outside companys decide to dip a toe in the water. When that happens, maybe many others will see the need to get in there too, and it will speed up. At present though, it remains a process of continuously improving events and increasing awareness. Expecting results after only a year or two, is a little premature. Even with Sergie behind the NXL, it's still gonna be a case of pouring money in until eventually something happens. Whatever happens it aint gonna get cheaper for anybody.

 

[TJ Lambini]

The sooner everyone forgets about TV and takes it entirely out of their equations when it comes to making business decisions, tha better.

 

[Nick Brockdorff]

Pete:

But - all that is just "politics" - and none of it SHOULD be relevant to the longterm development of the sport.... and I would argue that it isn't.

You've been around even longer than me, and know how alligiances change and relationships fluctuate.

All the things you mention will have effect in the next year or two... but to me, that is not really all that interesting.... because the fact that someone is momentarily "in power" is just a trend.

Paintball will NEVER become a big sport, until all the petty rivalries are dropped..... Lots of the current promoters out there walk around with notions of grandeur, and think that if only they can beat the opposition, they will be sitting pretty.

That is not the nature of things...... which instead is that whenever one force becomes to dominant, another will rise to rival it..... and it will continue to be so until the big wigs of paintball wake up and smell the roses - and stop conducting business like they were still two guys in a basement making paintball pump guns.

All those "personalities" can continue battling eachother forever.... and nobody will ever win, because sport is an area of life that is much more inflicted with passion than "normal business" - and the participants of the sport will only accept one longterm solution, which is a league that appears to encompass all and leave nobody out in the cold.... otherwise rivals will continue cropping up.... which is really what continues to mess up paintballs development to the next level.

I'm amazed that nobody has learned from the history of other sports, that were all at one time in the same place that paintball is today, and which have all had to succumb to the truth that only a solution that benefits all will bring a sport together.... force or dominance cannot do it for any significant period of time.

Anyway - enough philosophy

Development of paintball has to happen at two levels:

1) A league has to be created - with professionel management that is not "owned" by any one partner - that includes, or has the support of, all the major players in the sport.

2) The sport has to decide on ONE format that is exiting for both players, spectators and media - and then push that format wholeheartedly.

Unless both those things happen, this sport is going nowhere fast.... or at least going to a place that is NOT in keeping with the level of participation the sport enjoys a grassroot level.

Nick