P8ntballer.com hasn’t really been a prolific sponsor of teams in the past but that’s because we must be the smallest of all concerns in our industry and have zero resources to back anyone other than ourselves.
Apologies for the hard luck story but it’s actually painfully true ….
However, we do make exceptions, one of which was Team Unlimited headed up by the now deceased Alex Heath – as most of you will know, Unlimited was a team made up of disabled players and so it was a no-brainer for me when Alex called me up and asked if we could help.
However, a week or so ago, I got contacted by Emma-Jane Stewart with a similar request for help - I knew Emma after I gave a training day seminar thingy where she was one of the players in attendance a couple of years back - I didn't really know her that well but I thought I'd better listen to what she had to say.
She went onto explain how herself and four others were going to start a new team called Infinity.
For whatever reasons, they felt they needed to make a new start and to try and do it differently this time with a new approach and in a different direction.
Now, I’ve heard all that clap-trap before and when you scratch beneath the surface a little, a lot of teams requesting sponsorship just want free stuff and wanna do fuhk-all for it.
Nothing wrong in that I suppose but sponsorship has to be a two-way deal, and any heart-felt assurances that these teams will credit their sponsors on the winners’ podium tends to run a bit thin … bottom line is though, the chances of any of these teams getting anywhere near a winners’ podium is about as likely as getting one of your invoices paid by barnett ….
All of the paintball industry are constantly inundated with these type requests and they are subsequently diverted to the virtual dustbin but every now and then, one of these requests contains the right words at the right time ..
The first thing out of Emma’s gob apart from the usual social niceties was, ‘Look Pete, we can do a lot to help you’ ….. I have to say, it’s not often I get calls that begin in such a manner but even so, I was kinda wondering what the hell she was talking about - she went on to say that she could help promote our p8ntballer.com brand at major events in the UK and Europe, and thankfully, she gave me no lame-ass assurances of podium credits to p8ntballer.com.
I don’t think this was because of any lack of ambition or because she believed they’d get nowhere near a frikkin podium [unless of course the podium needed sweeping] but she wanted to emphasise the more positive, and effective ways of promoting her sponsors i.e. P8ntballer.com …
Well, I’m all for that but the truth is, there’s not too much anyone can do to help/promote p8ntballer because virtually everyone in paintball already knows us and so any marketing would be effectively academic …. But that’s not the point … leastwise for me it ain’t.
The important thing to me was she offered to help.
I have to say, I was quite impressed but it takes more than that to convince me to sponsor anyone !
However, Emma believed there was a problem ….. and it’s the fact she’s putting together a team that’s populated by girls … not so much a girl paintball team but a paintball team that has girl players - a distinction she took great pains to establish.
I’m afraid I’m old school and as such - I’ve not really been a major advocate for the emancipation of female paintballers in the past as they struggle to be taken seriously in what’s let’s face it, is a male-dominated sport.
I don’t mean in terms of comparative athleticism or technical abilities, I mean, sometimes, us males really can’t see much past the fact it’s a girls’ team.
It’s probably due to the fact of how we’re wired up but I got all that shoved down my throat when I saw the Fat Ladies’ Charms smash the pro team, Joy Division, a few years back in Paris - If I hadn’t seen it personally, I wouldn’t have believed it … What made matters worse, some of the girls on FLC were playing against their boyfriends on Joy Division …. How those particular guys ever played again is beyond me .. [/sexistpig]
Anyway, three of girls who will be playing for this new team, Infinity, actually played for Fat Ladies Charms before they split up - Emma-Jane Stewart, Alicia Turner and Emma Baker [Lemon] … I’ve known Alicia and Lemon for nigh on 10 years now and so when Emma-Jane pitched her deal, I was already half-inclined because of who she’d got playing with her.
I ain’t got boat-loads of cash [I’m skint FFS] but I can help them out with the normal Ts and Hoodies gear and I’ll also try and help with other sponsor deals and create their own forum on our front page along with a few other things.
Emma also asked if I’d help them with training but I had vowed never to get too involved with any teams but I eventually got talked round it and so I’ll see how that part of the deal goes.
It’s gonna be a real challenge that’s for sure because it means trying to engineer a whole new mind-set that’s more appropriate for girl teams.
The trick is, to focus on their strengths and not try to make them play like guys … they can’t play exactly like guys, that’s anatomically beyond them but that doesn’t mean the girls can’t compete, that’s another matter altogether.
It should be fun anyway ..
One last thing though, all they have to do in return at these training days is, to make the tea, iron my jersey if it gets creased after I shoot them all out and to clean up behind us at the end of the day - sounds like a great plan to me [/MCP] ....oink!! oink !!
Apologies for the hard luck story but it’s actually painfully true ….
However, we do make exceptions, one of which was Team Unlimited headed up by the now deceased Alex Heath – as most of you will know, Unlimited was a team made up of disabled players and so it was a no-brainer for me when Alex called me up and asked if we could help.
However, a week or so ago, I got contacted by Emma-Jane Stewart with a similar request for help - I knew Emma after I gave a training day seminar thingy where she was one of the players in attendance a couple of years back - I didn't really know her that well but I thought I'd better listen to what she had to say.
She went onto explain how herself and four others were going to start a new team called Infinity.
For whatever reasons, they felt they needed to make a new start and to try and do it differently this time with a new approach and in a different direction.
Now, I’ve heard all that clap-trap before and when you scratch beneath the surface a little, a lot of teams requesting sponsorship just want free stuff and wanna do fuhk-all for it.
Nothing wrong in that I suppose but sponsorship has to be a two-way deal, and any heart-felt assurances that these teams will credit their sponsors on the winners’ podium tends to run a bit thin … bottom line is though, the chances of any of these teams getting anywhere near a winners’ podium is about as likely as getting one of your invoices paid by barnett ….
All of the paintball industry are constantly inundated with these type requests and they are subsequently diverted to the virtual dustbin but every now and then, one of these requests contains the right words at the right time ..
The first thing out of Emma’s gob apart from the usual social niceties was, ‘Look Pete, we can do a lot to help you’ ….. I have to say, it’s not often I get calls that begin in such a manner but even so, I was kinda wondering what the hell she was talking about - she went on to say that she could help promote our p8ntballer.com brand at major events in the UK and Europe, and thankfully, she gave me no lame-ass assurances of podium credits to p8ntballer.com.
I don’t think this was because of any lack of ambition or because she believed they’d get nowhere near a frikkin podium [unless of course the podium needed sweeping] but she wanted to emphasise the more positive, and effective ways of promoting her sponsors i.e. P8ntballer.com …
Well, I’m all for that but the truth is, there’s not too much anyone can do to help/promote p8ntballer because virtually everyone in paintball already knows us and so any marketing would be effectively academic …. But that’s not the point … leastwise for me it ain’t.
The important thing to me was she offered to help.
I have to say, I was quite impressed but it takes more than that to convince me to sponsor anyone !
However, Emma believed there was a problem ….. and it’s the fact she’s putting together a team that’s populated by girls … not so much a girl paintball team but a paintball team that has girl players - a distinction she took great pains to establish.
I’m afraid I’m old school and as such - I’ve not really been a major advocate for the emancipation of female paintballers in the past as they struggle to be taken seriously in what’s let’s face it, is a male-dominated sport.
I don’t mean in terms of comparative athleticism or technical abilities, I mean, sometimes, us males really can’t see much past the fact it’s a girls’ team.
It’s probably due to the fact of how we’re wired up but I got all that shoved down my throat when I saw the Fat Ladies’ Charms smash the pro team, Joy Division, a few years back in Paris - If I hadn’t seen it personally, I wouldn’t have believed it … What made matters worse, some of the girls on FLC were playing against their boyfriends on Joy Division …. How those particular guys ever played again is beyond me .. [/sexistpig]
Anyway, three of girls who will be playing for this new team, Infinity, actually played for Fat Ladies Charms before they split up - Emma-Jane Stewart, Alicia Turner and Emma Baker [Lemon] … I’ve known Alicia and Lemon for nigh on 10 years now and so when Emma-Jane pitched her deal, I was already half-inclined because of who she’d got playing with her.
I ain’t got boat-loads of cash [I’m skint FFS] but I can help them out with the normal Ts and Hoodies gear and I’ll also try and help with other sponsor deals and create their own forum on our front page along with a few other things.
Emma also asked if I’d help them with training but I had vowed never to get too involved with any teams but I eventually got talked round it and so I’ll see how that part of the deal goes.
It’s gonna be a real challenge that’s for sure because it means trying to engineer a whole new mind-set that’s more appropriate for girl teams.
The trick is, to focus on their strengths and not try to make them play like guys … they can’t play exactly like guys, that’s anatomically beyond them but that doesn’t mean the girls can’t compete, that’s another matter altogether.
It should be fun anyway ..
One last thing though, all they have to do in return at these training days is, to make the tea, iron my jersey if it gets creased after I shoot them all out and to clean up behind us at the end of the day - sounds like a great plan to me [/MCP] ....oink!! oink !!
