NXL is dead, long live the NXL

[Robbo]

Bejeeeezus, I think we need to draw a distinction here between putting on a tourney for the players / teams as against staging one for a TV production; they are vastly different animals and as such should be treated differently.

Pure Promotions have at present, two main responsibilities, one is to service and provide for the teams, players and vendors at their events and the other is to push the sport forward as best they can (toward mainstream TV).

At present there is a fair amount of overlap for obvious reasons not least of which is finances. This end of the industry certainly hasn’t matured enough yet to be in a position to throw millions of bucks against the wall in the hope it will stick on some TV screen.

And Chicago, let’s face it mate, to do what these guys have done in under 3 years is one hell of an ask, they have taken US tourney ball by the scruff of the neck and revolutionized how we promote events.
There is no way you can reasonably expect their budgets to cope with the financial burden placed upon it if a serious assault on mainstream TV was made.

Nah, I honestly think the NPPL (PP) are going about things in the most optimum way they can. If and when sufficient resources become available and Mainstream TV is still high on the NPPL agenda, then I would expect them to direct those resources toward the areas you now advocate.
At the moment it’s a bit of an ‘either or’, the NPPL choose (quite rightly) to put on high class events at the root level and hope the uptake will happen, if it doesn’t then a more top down approach will be required but that will take a lot more time and resources.

 

[crazzzy]

Originally posted by Chicago

As for venues like Huntington Beach - who cares? Lose 'em.

Who cares? HAHAHA easily the most stupid comment I have ever read on any board. You seem not to be in the know if you say that, I believe 99,99999% of all paintballers care about HB.

 

[Baca Loco]

Originally posted by sjt19
Take a less widespread sport, and associate it with something that is hugely popular...... Like Denver last year, with the Warped Tour, there were thousands of concert goers who were exposed to Paintball, many of whom stayed to watch games in the bleachers before and after the concert

The Warped Tour was around the other side of the lot with the stadium intervening and it was only the line of those purchasing tickets who saw any paintball and that, from a a distance. This was the first event (as I recall) to sell grandstand tickets for spectators and as such had a large section of the grandstand roped off most of Sunday awaiting paying customers--which remained empty until opened late. To suggest there was an obvious crossover of attendees or that thousands were exposed to pball in a any meaningful way is wishful thinking.

This doesn't mean I am naysaying Missy's argument or that it was a bad idea--only that Sam's attempt to bolster it with this claim is, I think, inaccurate.

Now that I see Sam thinks he played in front of 5000 people in Tampa I am prepared to chalk it up to youthful exuberance.

 

[Missy Q]

You seem not to be in the know if you say that

yeah, what happened to that guy?
he was cool!

 

[sjt19]

Originally posted by Baca Loco

Now that I see Sam thinks he played in front of 5000 people in Tampa I am prepared to chalk it up to youthful exuberance.

Poetic licence

 

[Missy Q]

I'm with you Sam, it definitely seemed like 5000, but Baca's also right, it could have been more...

 

[Nick Brockdorff]

You guys are all missing my point completely:

Missy's getting all defensive and protective about the NPPL, because of "her" dayjob.... understandable ofcourse.... but none the less completely off the mark, as I was not saying the NPPL does a poor job.... merely that PP is attempting to win a fight that can never be won... once the PSP dies, someone else will come along, and then someone else, and then someone else.... and that will continue until the (BTW brilliant) people at WDP and Pure Promotions figure out, that as long as they are viewed as attempting to "steal" the sport by their competitors in manufacturing and a relevant part of the player base, their league will continue to face stark opposition - both in terms of competition from other leagues and in terms of players being all to keen to try alternatives.

No british football player "hates" the Premiership, no german football player "hates" the Bundesliga.... and so on.... if the premiership was a privately owned league - owned for instance by NIKE, you can bet your ass it would be a different story.

It SHOULD give people some pause, that there are in fact players out there that express such strong negative feelings towards one league or another.... and it should demonstrate clearly that we are doing something wrong as a sport!

THAT was my point.... I think the NPPL runs the best paintball events on the planet.... but that has very little relevance to the longterm development of our sport, IF (I repeat) our goal is general mainstream acceptance and media coverage.

Sam loved HB - well COOL - so did most other players there.... but the present players loving the events we go to, is not really solid grounds for making the jump into mainstream - more is needed.

Pete thinks PP has done a fantastic job? - I agree..... but what I question is if the current setup will be able to drive the sports towards mainstream acceptance and media coverage...... I think MORE is needed.

Utopia Missy said..... hmm.... it wasn't when the NFL merger happend and brought US Football forward in a big way (and believe me, their financial stakes were a good deal bigger than the small potatoes involved in paintball)..... so why should it be utopia for paintball.... unless exactly the things I pointed to - commercial and personal differences - are the problems stopping our sport from real growth?

One format, one management, one coordinated plan on how to attract media, one major league to attract corporate sponsors..... ONE SPORT..... why is that so hard to understand?

Nick

 

[Chicago]

Originally posted by Missy Q
if the bench-mark for failing to get the NPPL on TV is having 2 consecutive years on Fox running through Christmas then what would be considered success?

Putting paintball on TV in the context of a sporting event, not an infomertial. The current program is an infomertial with some paintball thrown in the middle - NPPL pays Fox for the air time, NPPL sells product spots to themselves and others.

 

[Chicago]

Nick gets it.

And I'm sure many people CARE about Huntington Beach. But it's completely useless in a mainstream, including TV, approach.

 

[Gyroscope]

It seems to me that a lot of the purpose of a pro paintball team is to sell product. The target market is currently players who would like, for the most part, to be pro paintball players. This sounds more like a pyramid scheme than a sport.

How effective would pro teams be at selling products from outside sponsors? I am not certain how well NASCAR participants market Home Depot or Coca Cola, but it seems that these companies think that they do a pretty good job. What incentive do paintball companies have to get paintball teams wearing Home Depot or Coca Cola logos? Doesn't that ad space on player jerseys crowd out the Dye and WDP logos? I can see the incentive to get leagues or events sponsored by outside companies, but that doesn't do players much direct good, does it?

Maybe I am missing something obvious, but I think there are a lot of unspoken expectations about outside sponsorship. I think many of those assumptions are based on what each party needs. I don't see how WDP is automatically going to make more money from televised tournaments that are sponsored by Fuji and Walmart. I guess that more paintball equipment may be sold, but there is a finite number of guns that can be sold, since paintball is a sport for the modestly well-to-do. TV exposure may help paintball companies reach that saturation, but once every kid in America owns a 2007 Angel Speed, what happens to the market? When the 2007 and-a-half Speed comes out, how many people are going to go buy one? Won't massive numbers of decent secondhand paintball guns choke the market?