Okay, on this whole reunification thing...

[Robbo]

hhmmmm, ...

Originally posted by BlitZZkrieg Mueller
@robbo, for the benefit of paintball as such, one worldwide circuit would be the best, no doubt about that. But isnt there a quite good chance of that thing happening, but with having just the nppl being the world series?
If vendors have to decide for finacall reasons where to go, what would you seriuosly think they are going to? Where would you go?

From my little outsiders perspective it all looks like everyone is accepting (now) that the nppl is the big cake with all the cherries on top.
With that in mind where is the real benefit for a series like nppl to share themselves to the ones who tried to stop them. Like Miami in 2003 where it was more then obvious that some vendors didnt come of political reasons. Might be ironic but 2 years later, it looks (as said from my little perspective) that everyone is trying to be at the cup.

The Paintball landscape has changed somewhat of late with US companies feeling an unprecedented pinch of a contracting market.
If this were the only dynamic (apart from common sense) that was being bought to bear on integration proceedings then the deal would have been done and dusted in Orlando believe me.

Unfortunately, paintball has this unerring knack of stepping on its own dick.
Politically and financially, the NPPL stands to gain quite a lot in joining with the PSP and XBall but I'm afraid the priorities of such benefits seems to have been overlooked in favour of 'other' considerations.
The recent ESPN TV deal may well have complicated matters in maybe further empowering NPPL's hand but unification is still something that needs to be done.
I honestly believe that if you took a trusted representative from the PSP / NXL, say Dave Youngblood and then took Ged Green to represent the NPPL and PP, sat them down at the table, the integration would be effected in one afternoon and the little people can run around afterwards sorting out the details.
I know this is only my opinion but from what I do know, I honestly believe that as soon as you begin to increase the number of chairs at the negotiation table, you proportionately decrease the chances for a successful outcome which is ironic when the principles from both sides ostensibly want the same thing.

 

[BlitZZkrieg Mueller]

hmmm, ....

ups, not intended but true, of course I meant the commanders cup, what else, ...

 

[Missy Q]

the ESPN deal has complicated the deal in that they have bought into the Super 7 format. If they wanted the X-ball format they would have bought into that instead (so long as Jerry was disowned/hidden/bumped off).
The fact that 7-man is what ESPN has chosen means that it is entirely likely that's what they will get. If a merge of formats was something the PSP wanted then thats going to make things more difficult for sure.
It has always been said (by most) that Paintball must be willing to take the form of what the TV companies want to see on TV. At one stage teams were going to be asked to wear clown outfits, big-ass 'it's a knock-out' shoes and play with a couple of C-list celebrities on their teams, luckily thats not the case now......

It is clear that too many cooks have a dangerous opportunity to spoil the broth though. In fact there are at least a dozen classic cliches that would be more than adequately used. A bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush perhaps?

Either way I for one hope that a merger happens. I'm knackered!!

 

[Robbo]

Originally posted by Missy Q
the ESPN deal has complicated the deal in that they have bought into the Super 7 format. If they wanted the X-ball format they would have bought into that instead (so long as Jerry was disowned/hidden/bumped off).
The fact that 7-man is what ESPN has chosen means that it is entirely likely that's what they will get. If a merge of formats was something the PSP wanted then thats going to make things more difficult for sure.
It has always been said (by most) that Paintball must be willing to take the form of what the TV companies want to see on TV. At one stage teams were going to be asked to wear clown outfits, big-ass 'it's a knock-out' shoes and play with a couple of C-list celebrities on their teams, luckily thats not the case now......

It is clear that too many cooks have a dangerous opportunity to spoil the broth though. In fact there are at least a dozen classic cliches that would be more than adequately used. A bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush perhaps?

Either way I for one hope that a merger happens. I'm knackered!!

Missy, I wasn't aware the PSP wanted a merging of formats at this stage, I thought they wanted parallel staging ???

 

[Missy Q]

I am still a little confused as to what 'parallel staging' actually means, or how it really benefits either side.

 

[Baca Loco]

The Contrarian View

Originally posted by Missy Q
It has always been said (by most) that Paintball must be willing to take the form of what the TV companies want to see on TV. At one stage teams were going to be asked to wear clown outfits, big-ass 'it's a knock-out' shoes and play with a couple of C-list celebrities on their teams, luckily thats not the case now......

Well, it seems what TV wants is 3-man Rage in the Cage and then 7-man NPPL. Perhaps what ESPN really wants is Paintball (delivered by peeps it can feel confident dealing with) and they were sold on 7-man. Just a hypothesis.

PS--oh, and what Mueller actually said was, "cup" not "Cup."

 

[Nick Brockdorff]

I kinda like the irony of this debate

It's not so long ago we were all raving about DCP putting NXL on TV and how the X-Ball format would own the paintball world.

- And then they had idiots produce it, so that the impact of the broadcast(s) was little to negative.

Now we are all saying the exact same things about the NPPL - with not a single frame of footage having been produced yet.

I personally HOPE the production can capture the exitement of paintball and convey it to a large ignorant audience..... but let's not forget our history here... and keep our fingers crossed that this is not yet another instance of paintball stepping on our collective (and by now pretty abused) dick.

Nick

 

[Missy Q]

wow Nick, got sick of insulting refs and started on the potential paintball audience now huh? You know people don't like being called ignorant, right?

I think there is a difference between WGN and ESPN. If everything I hear about the ESPN deal happens then it is (by and large) the TV deal that everyone wanted. The WGN deal was more like the deal that no-one wanted, which is a subtle yet important difference.

And for the Cup/cup thing - it's a week too early to send the Jury home on that one, but then you are old-skool, and probably wanted the orlando event held closer to old-town so that you could walk there from the Days Suites anyways
Ulf is younger, doesn't have the burden of living in the heady days of the late 90's, and so feels differently

 

[Robbo]

Originally posted by Missy Q
I am still a little confused as to what 'parallel staging' actually means, or how it really benefits either side.

I woulda thought parallel staging was self explanatory but hell Missy, I will help ya out ya big fat dumpling.

It is where you guys (NPPL) run both the 7 man format and alongside you also run XBall in its PSP and NXL guises.
All done at the same event and thereby keeping both camps happy with there not being a forced single format that would no doubt preclude any unification as the PSP / NXL guys ain't gonna yet throw in the towel on XBall.
It benefits you guys in terms of consolidating the sponsors and upholds the other mob's requirement to keep XBall alive.
Don't do much for the single format world series ideas but hey, you can work on that after unification of events

But I do understand why you might not want to go down this road but as I have said before Missy, get the unification done and worry about the details afterwards.

 

[Baca Loco]

Originally posted by Missy Q
wow Nick, got sick of insulting refs and started on the potential paintball audience now huh? You know people don't like being called ignorant, right?

I think there is a difference between WGN and ESPN. If everything I hear about the ESPN deal happens then it is (by and large) the TV deal that everyone wanted. The WGN deal was more like the deal that no-one wanted, which is a subtle yet important difference.

And for the Cup/cup thing - it's a week too early to send the Jury home on that one, but then you are old-skool, and probably wanted the orlando event held closer to old-town so that you could walk there from the Days Suites anyways
Ulf is younger, doesn't have the burden of living in the heady days of the late 90's, and so feels differently

There is a difference between being ignorant and being stupid. Seems to me Nick meant ignorant in a dictionary definition sense, ie; uninformed.

I'm looking glass half full here and judging any and all tournament-like pball on TV a good thing as I'm inclined to think any successes will carry over.

Radisson, thank you very much. Despite the Old Skool origins the thing that disappointed me the most about the first Cup in the Cow Pasture was the 3 lame ass, hacked out of the scrub at the last minute sorta woodsball fields they added when they had, as I recall, 7 (6?) perfectly good Airball fields and 3 Hyperball fields.

Pete--I don't see how shared staging would work when both camps want essentially the same list of feature teams to headline their respective Pro Divisions. (I confess tho I'm not looking very hard. )