R
raehl
Guest
Uhm... why?
Why do you want international standards? No other sport has them that I can think of. Trying to make everyone play the same way is both a waste of energy and counterproductive. The way kids play a sport when they're 10 isn't going to be the same way they play it when they're 16 in HS or 20 in College or 25 or 30 in Pros or the local park league - and it shouldn't be. Hell, even baseball in Japan is different from Baseball in the states, NBA basketball different than European Basketball than Olympic basketball - and that's all fine. The base concepts are the same, and that's all that's needed. You run 3 miles in cross country in High School and 5 in college because the athletes are more mature (or more selected, fewer competing seriously on a per-capita basis.) There is a LOT of value to having sports be flexible to age and geography.
If you want an international body, or even a national one, you need the following things:
1) A set of goals. What is this organization going to do? Certify equipment? Sanction events? Monitor athletes? Set rules standards? Field or reffing standards? Promote the sport? Subsidize competition? Influence legislation? Do you want one organization to do it all or a few or several organizations to do each task?
2) A concerned, loyal membership. You need members who are going to take their necessary role in running the organization seriously. If people arn't forcing their opinions on those in charge of the organization and giving them a mandate, then the organization has no power and is worthless.
3) A "democratic" process. In order to gain a loyal, concerned membership, the members have to know that they don't need to go start over from scratch if they don't like what's going on. They need to be able to simply replace the people in charge. They need to feel like the organization is THEIRS. On a scale of one (easy) to 10 (difficult), replacing the leadership needs to be about a 3. If the members don't feel like they have any REAL CONTROL over what the organization does, they won't feel like the organization is theirs, and they won't follow it's lead.
4) People willing to be leaders for what the organization is willing to pay them. There are very very few qualified people who can put in 10-40 hours a week as a volunteer running an organization. Why? Because those same people are qualified to have real jobs that pay them to feed and clothe themselves and their families, and when you're done working 40 hours a week at the job that pays the bills, it's much harder to find another 40 hours a week to spend on something else. That's a big thing holding APPA (American Paintball Players Association, players lobbying body) back right now - qualified people with the time to make it happen.
To use the NCPA (National Collegiate Paintball Association, in the states) as an example:
We have a monopoly on college paintball. If the event is NCPA sanctioned, it's a college tournament, if it isn't NCPA sanctioned, it isn't. You can't really have a college tournament without NCPA sanctioning. It's not because I'm any brighter than the next guy or I have any industry influence (hah!), it's because the college clubs and teams have virtually all agreed that NCPA events are the only ones that matter to them, so if your event doesn't do what it takes to get NCPA sanctioning, the college teams are not going to bother going. That sanctioning tells the teams that their association says the event is in their best interest. They elect a Board of Directors to set the standards for NCPA events, and it's my job as President to execute that policy. If I don't execute the policy right, the Board replaces me, and if the clubs/teams arn't satisfied with the policies, they replace the Board. They don't have to go start from scratch because that replacement mechanism is there. And their continued involvement, coupled with the general knowlege that the teams go where the national organization goes, THAT gives the organization strength.
All our tournaments are sub-$100/team (the National Championships were even free entry/air for everyone) and in the $45-75/case range. With reffing by people who are NOT players. That's also because of some other effects (teams stepping up to organize events, running on a non-profit basis, minimizing publicity and administration overhead, using existing paintball locations), but having a single authoratative national organization definitely helps.
Outside of college paintball though, that doesn't really exist. NPPL splitting from PSP might have meant something - if everyone assumed that the teams would leave with NPPL. That wasn't the case - everyone was asking "Where are the teams going to play?" The common answer was "We'll play where our sponsor wants us to." Which left you with a big NPPL vs. PSP shouting match, because neither of them had a clear mandate from the teams. They eventually figurred out that since the customers wern't backing one side or the other, neither of them had the mandate to change anything, instead of one or the other winning, they were just both goign to lose. But back to the "play where the sponsor says" - that should be a pretty clear indication why the industry has all the power and the players have none.
This is actually what NPPL was founded on - teams getting together and saying they were going to force accountability - but then the teams got complacent, stopped being involved, and things fell apart. You don't get something for nothing.
Politics will ALWAYS be a part of it though - taking multiple opinions and forming them into a single course of action is an art form. Politics is balancing the needs and requests of multiple interests in a manner that keeps as many of people involved as possible, and that's going to exist wherever you have more than one person.
Until teams are willing to possibly sacrifice some of their own individual good for an organization representing their collective power and maintain ACTIVE involvement in the operations of that organization, teams will continue to be treated like the inconsequential, unorganized customers they are. Feel like you're being treated like your team doesn't matter?
That's because it doesn't.
- Chris
Why do you want international standards? No other sport has them that I can think of. Trying to make everyone play the same way is both a waste of energy and counterproductive. The way kids play a sport when they're 10 isn't going to be the same way they play it when they're 16 in HS or 20 in College or 25 or 30 in Pros or the local park league - and it shouldn't be. Hell, even baseball in Japan is different from Baseball in the states, NBA basketball different than European Basketball than Olympic basketball - and that's all fine. The base concepts are the same, and that's all that's needed. You run 3 miles in cross country in High School and 5 in college because the athletes are more mature (or more selected, fewer competing seriously on a per-capita basis.) There is a LOT of value to having sports be flexible to age and geography.
If you want an international body, or even a national one, you need the following things:
1) A set of goals. What is this organization going to do? Certify equipment? Sanction events? Monitor athletes? Set rules standards? Field or reffing standards? Promote the sport? Subsidize competition? Influence legislation? Do you want one organization to do it all or a few or several organizations to do each task?
2) A concerned, loyal membership. You need members who are going to take their necessary role in running the organization seriously. If people arn't forcing their opinions on those in charge of the organization and giving them a mandate, then the organization has no power and is worthless.
3) A "democratic" process. In order to gain a loyal, concerned membership, the members have to know that they don't need to go start over from scratch if they don't like what's going on. They need to be able to simply replace the people in charge. They need to feel like the organization is THEIRS. On a scale of one (easy) to 10 (difficult), replacing the leadership needs to be about a 3. If the members don't feel like they have any REAL CONTROL over what the organization does, they won't feel like the organization is theirs, and they won't follow it's lead.
4) People willing to be leaders for what the organization is willing to pay them. There are very very few qualified people who can put in 10-40 hours a week as a volunteer running an organization. Why? Because those same people are qualified to have real jobs that pay them to feed and clothe themselves and their families, and when you're done working 40 hours a week at the job that pays the bills, it's much harder to find another 40 hours a week to spend on something else. That's a big thing holding APPA (American Paintball Players Association, players lobbying body) back right now - qualified people with the time to make it happen.
To use the NCPA (National Collegiate Paintball Association, in the states) as an example:
We have a monopoly on college paintball. If the event is NCPA sanctioned, it's a college tournament, if it isn't NCPA sanctioned, it isn't. You can't really have a college tournament without NCPA sanctioning. It's not because I'm any brighter than the next guy or I have any industry influence (hah!), it's because the college clubs and teams have virtually all agreed that NCPA events are the only ones that matter to them, so if your event doesn't do what it takes to get NCPA sanctioning, the college teams are not going to bother going. That sanctioning tells the teams that their association says the event is in their best interest. They elect a Board of Directors to set the standards for NCPA events, and it's my job as President to execute that policy. If I don't execute the policy right, the Board replaces me, and if the clubs/teams arn't satisfied with the policies, they replace the Board. They don't have to go start from scratch because that replacement mechanism is there. And their continued involvement, coupled with the general knowlege that the teams go where the national organization goes, THAT gives the organization strength.
All our tournaments are sub-$100/team (the National Championships were even free entry/air for everyone) and in the $45-75/case range. With reffing by people who are NOT players. That's also because of some other effects (teams stepping up to organize events, running on a non-profit basis, minimizing publicity and administration overhead, using existing paintball locations), but having a single authoratative national organization definitely helps.
Outside of college paintball though, that doesn't really exist. NPPL splitting from PSP might have meant something - if everyone assumed that the teams would leave with NPPL. That wasn't the case - everyone was asking "Where are the teams going to play?" The common answer was "We'll play where our sponsor wants us to." Which left you with a big NPPL vs. PSP shouting match, because neither of them had a clear mandate from the teams. They eventually figurred out that since the customers wern't backing one side or the other, neither of them had the mandate to change anything, instead of one or the other winning, they were just both goign to lose. But back to the "play where the sponsor says" - that should be a pretty clear indication why the industry has all the power and the players have none.
This is actually what NPPL was founded on - teams getting together and saying they were going to force accountability - but then the teams got complacent, stopped being involved, and things fell apart. You don't get something for nothing.
Politics will ALWAYS be a part of it though - taking multiple opinions and forming them into a single course of action is an art form. Politics is balancing the needs and requests of multiple interests in a manner that keeps as many of people involved as possible, and that's going to exist wherever you have more than one person.
Until teams are willing to possibly sacrifice some of their own individual good for an organization representing their collective power and maintain ACTIVE involvement in the operations of that organization, teams will continue to be treated like the inconsequential, unorganized customers they are. Feel like you're being treated like your team doesn't matter?
That's because it doesn't.
- Chris
