Paintball at Olympic Games?

[Nick Brockdorff]

I totally agree but who............i mean who is in charge of $hit like federations, i know we have the UKPSF in the UK but what other federations are there?

We are a long way from that making any real difference Warren.

The problem is that few paintballers see any significant need for federations today.

A "real" federation structure means:

- Players/teams being organised in club structures
- Clubs being part of national federations
- National federations being part of a single International federation
- All major events being sanctioned by the International federation.

None of this is in place anywhere today - and very few paintballers see any reason to do all the work needed, to make it happen - they have no incentive.

For that reason, I think this has to happen from the top down.

Piggy back paintball onto an existing federation - like the ISSF (International Shooting Sports Federation) - who when entering into a collaboration with paintball make it clear it is their goal to make paintball an olympic sport and hire a number of experienced paintballers to run that part of the federation...... and you see a really quick change of paintball players' mindsets.

All of a sudden paintballers become interested in organising themselves - for a number of reasons:

- They are eligible to support from their national federation (which may be different from country to country - but in Denmark that would mean financial support and loads of technical support, like free fields for practice, sports psycologists, etc.)

- There is a clearly defined plan to make paintball an olympic sport

- There is a clear media strategy, handled by a federation with long standing experience in dealing with media on an international level.

- An International federation handles all legal issues, sanctions one global game format, etc.

- Paintball can use the existing federations' expertise and services for anti-doping control

- The paintball industry loses it's hold on paintball events, which are suddenly to a great extent controlled by the players' federation (still promoted by corporations or individuals - but under strict guidlines from the federation).

- And so on

Incidentally - I have already made contact with the ISSF - so we'll see what they say

Nick

 

[Chicago]

God, ANYONE but the "shooting sports" federation. Are you crazy? Let's just roll the progress clock back 10 years.

You would be absolutely stupid to market a "shooting" sport where what you shoot at is other people.

 

[Nick Brockdorff]

It's the logical choice - it's not like we are a natural for FIFA or IAFA - or something.

Feel free to make a suggestion, instead of saying what you DON'T want

At any rate - an organisational marriage has absolutely nothing to do with media or marketing - paintball would still be paintball - but have the organisational muzzle to do the things we want.

Maybe you don't quite get the idea? - it would be "International Paintball Federation" (or something like that) - but instead of us having to start a federation from ground up - which is virtually impossible the way paintball is today - it would be a subfederation to the ISSF - and part of that organisation.... and the ISSF would be instrumental in guiding the difficult startup phase.

- Their benefit would be a dramatic growth in membership (nearly double) - which would lend a lot more muzzle to the ISSF than it has today - and the same would go for their national federations.

I suppose the fencing federation might be a possibility also, because they stem from the same roots (using what is traditionally a "weapon" to mark your opponent) - but I think it would be really difficult because the culture is SO much different.

Nick

 

[Chicago]

I suspect you will get a very negative reaction from the ISSF. they won't like the idea of shooting at people any more than I do. Same reason the NRA doesn't like us. It's just not a line they like to blur, and not a line we should like to blur either.

We would be better with no federation than to be alied with the shooting sports federation. If that means we forgo the olympics for 20 years, so be it - we're not ready for the olympics, and that's fine. Olympics is hte LAST step. We should be focusing on the next step - a group of quality referees, and some standards.

 

[DonLKSAB]

We tryed bothe the shooting and fensing federations in sweden.
The shooting federation were intrested sins there sport is loosing actives every year. But it fell on there first lines in there rule book. " Dont aim or shoot at anything alive".

The fencing federation dident like us at all.

And yes. Shooting federation seems wrong. But as Nick sad we have to find something close to what we are dooing.

On the other hand we have a shortcut in to "Riksidrottsförbundet" a swedish sport federation that all major sports are part of. Both shooting skiing and everything inbetween.

If we can gain membership in RF we should be supported with all the stuff that all other sports get. But nothing is 100%. In Helsingborg were i live the municipality law says that any sport in RF will get a place to train and equipment. But i know of other sports that dont get that even if they are part of RF. But everything would be easyer if we could join RF. Easyer access to football fields for tournaments and good training fields. And access to municipality training facilites like gyms and stuff.

If we can get a swedish federation up and running and other countrys can do it. Then we can do something thogether. But it will take time and time is money in paintball. Noone wants to do something for free. Thats whay the paintball companys have the control they have.
And as long as the buissnes have control we cant get a working federation.

/Martin Saldert
FD. SPBF

 

[apache]

Just to keep the thread going... Finland has a national paintball federation (Finnish Paintball Federation or Suomen Paintball-liitto) and all teams participating in the national championship league must be registered clubs. The federation has operated since 1998 and the national league since 1994.

 

[Ralph]

Ye gods; Trout tickling is going to get in to the olympics before paintball, along with Conkers, marbles and jelly wrestling.
It's just not going to happen, ever

 

[Matski]

Originally posted by Chicago
I suspect you will get a very negative reaction from the ISSF. they won't like the idea of shooting at people any more than I do. Same reason the NRA doesn't like us. It's just not a line they like to blur, and not a line we should like to blur either.

We would be better with no federation than to be alied with the shooting sports federation. If that means we forgo the olympics for 20 years, so be it - we're not ready for the olympics, and that's fine. Olympics is hte LAST step. We should be focusing on the next step - a group of quality referees, and some standards.

Totally agree.... paintballers seem to live in this fantasy world where everything should be given instead of earnt- paintball does not belong in the Olympics yet. To gain the respect of the Olympic bodies...there's a lot more road to travel in the basics of the game alone, and then some.

 

[SteveD]

not only do they expect everything to be given to them, they think that they're the ones who ought to be running everything.

We're stuck in a circular jam: players need the corporations to be able to afford the game, promoters need the corporations to afford hosting an event. NEED. Anyone in business who is 'needed' would be foolish not to press their advantage.

If we can figure out a way to run teams and events without the 'need' component, it would go a long ways towards rebalancing the equation.

(Why wouldn't you take advantage of a situation that lets you show your product at the top of the heap? Why wouldn't you take advantage of the situation to keep your product there? Its not rocket science; you can call it greed if you want to, but its really more of a survival imperative.)

More sponsorship from outside the industry (team or event) would begin to help. Less reliance on industry dollars.

Yada Yada. We've been dealing with this issues since at least 1989. It sure would be nice if those who are needed had a cultural disposition towards cooperation, compromise and self-sacrifice. Other than the cooperation part, you're definately not talking about a paintballer.