Paintball in 10 years!!!

[Bunker Imp]

i was just wondering where you guys think paintball will be in ten years.

i mean look how far we have come in the last few years.

when do you reckon that we will have enough ballers in the uk for the general public to respect us. and reckognise the sport.

I believe that advertising is necessary as there are too many people who have never heard of our sport.

or do you guys think we will stay at this level for a long time.

J

 

[IanC]

I think that the rate of growth we have achieved recently will not be steady. Guessing that we'll see spurts of growth in europe as more people discover that there is life after punter ball.

Loads of people I have met have played or at least have close family members who have played, and although they are aware of paintball do not realise how far the sport does go.

Until we see more TV coverage, possibly internet TV with the massive growth of broadband, the sport will not reach its true potential. Bear in mind how long it has taken for other sports to mature into what they are today. Rugby and football have been around in pretty much their current forms for what 50, 100 years!!??!!

Granted modern media coverage can rapidly introduce new things to the public but its getting that media break that will be the key. Just think of the winter olympics a few years back, and the sudden fame the UK womens curling team achieved. Zero to hero in about a fourtnight. Of course they have the big advantage that the olympic comitee recognises their game as a "sport" so can be included in global competitions with massive TV coverage.

Anybody happen to have an Olympic Comittee member in their family???

 

[Ms Bossy]

If you go back ten yrs then you will see just how far paintball has come, so be it a bit slow, but i expect the same rate growth in the next ten yrs, the problem is that most people want paintball mainstream NOW, it aint gonna happen, but it might slowly get there in another ten yrs.
We have just gotta work on it and persevere.

 

[Bunker Imp]

i agree with both of your views.

so many people play punter ball and love it but dont realise that it goes further.

so maybe we should adveritse tourney ball at all rec-ball sites so people can see just how far the sport does go!!!.

 

[Duncster]

Slow????!!!

I started playing just over 5 years ago, when Sup'air was still a new idea, and no-one really knew how to play it.

Look through yr back issues of PGi, I do it occasionally. It's funny!! In just these short five years it's gone from what you have to admit looked like nothing more than a hobby for executives and spoilt kids, to a true sport with the fastest growth of any extreme sport in the world!!

If you asked me 5 years ago if we'd be where we are now, I would have laughed long and hard at you. But here it is! The framework is pretty much complete. People know how to play arena's at a million miles per hour now, the technical ability at all levels in all countries has increased dramatically since the woods days, and believe me as I'm now pretty much just a spectator, the sport has become one of the most dynamic and exciting spectacles I'd care to watch on a Sunday afternoon.

To all tourney promoters/organisers, keep working on the X-ball and X-ball variants, as they're what's gonna take us to the next level - true athletisism (sp?)

Ten years from now - unless all the kiddies have gone out and bought markers, shot eachothers eyes out in the streets, and subsequently outlawed paintball - we'll be the new daddies. Everyone will want a piece.

I think it will work mainstream in the states, as you guys seem to embrace change more readily, but I think paintball will have the same sort of level of footage as Snowboarding gets in the UK now.

If it doesn't get banned... marker registration/licensing/control is perhaps a subject for another thread, but very important unless we want the sport banned from all non-gun toting nations...

That's me done. Next!!!

Dunc.

 

[garycarrot]

You hit the nail on the head.

Everyone in the U.K. Thinks paintball is what we refer to as "punter" ball.

We need to ditch the war games at a rec.ball level, and get the "punters" to play tourny ball.

Only way to bring it forward is to change how the "general" public see us.

Not as guys running around in the woods, but as sportsmen(and women).

As for gun control. Got to be VERY carefull here, dont want to attract the knee jerk reaction.

I have been playing for over 5 years, and agree. We all used to run around in camo, hiding in the bushes. Using auto mags and cockers.(Before Eblades and Angels).

The changes we have gone through, have been huge, and hope they continue.

Lets see what the comming year brings us!

 

[evilmoo]

if paintball is to become more mainstream it needs to be become cheaper for the beginner, compare it to the other sports you were talking about.. rugby/football, to play these games you need what £20 to buy the ball, get some friends and a place to play your sorted
Paintball costs crap loads for the beginner to buy markers, paintballs, site rentals etc even if u buy 2nd hand and get discounts on paintballs its still very expensive. my 2p anyway

 

[L J]

the only problem with alot of peoples view here is simple......

everyone says punter ball is crap because it gives us a bad image. so 2 things

1. how do you plan to get new people into the sport without spending millions advertising on tv.
2. how do you plan to make the 90% of paintball makers profits??? as truly, tournament players make maybe 10% of their profits

 

[garycarrot]

I dont think punter ball is crap.

Was the best thing I did, and got me into tourny ball.

But, unless people see tourny ball, they dont know it exsists!

How did you hear about paintball.???? I had a few mates who had tried it, they organised another day, and I went along, and had a fantastic time.
I then talked to the marshalls, and came along to a team training day. Fell in love with the sport, and then spent more money over the years than my wife wants me to.

Point is you got to get people to see the sport. And if everyone who ran a site could run "punter" tournys, we would expand the player base.

 

[Duncster]

For God's sake!! Don't touch punter ball, leave it exactly where it is!!! People are intelligent enough to realise there is a BIG difference once they SEE the difference for themselves. There is absolutely no reason why the two paths can't co-exist peacefully.

The key is media and image. Shove tourney ball in their faces in the biggest, flashiest way possible, so there can be no denying the huge differences between the two versions of the sport.

Anyone who plays and works in an office, find a really good picture of Dynasty, or Nexus, or someone with crowds in the background with nice green lush grass, and use it as your Windows desktop wallpaper, or yr screensaver.

Leave magazines in the loo's and docs surgeries when yr done with reading them.

Leave mags in the bathroom at home, and lying strategically around yr house so visitors will pick it up.

You can't TELL people the difference. They don't understand. You need to SHOW them.

If you've got a bunch of people coming to yr house for a drink, or a dinner party or something, leave a DVD playing in the background as though you were watching it just before they arrived. Some will ask what it is.

People get interested. I only got really interested in paintball once I was SHOWN the Hyperball championships on an old recording from Sky sports. That got me hooked. If I never saw that, I probably wouldn't have started playing.

But don't force punters to play tourney ball. They want to be rambo for a day? let them. If they like the look of tourney ball, they'll find a way in themselves!! Besides, paintballs would be bloody expensive if we didn't have punters shooting them at trees in their billions every weekend.

Dunc.