Return of the King

[DarWood]

Originally posted by Andy Piper
1) NO. Not unless there was a site owner on the team that was buying paint from us. Monday-Friday what good does it do me? None. With a site owner on the team makes all the difference. Start with the sites then work from there.

Sweet, alls i gotta do now is open up me own site and we get free paint

I see wot u mean though mate!

Then were just going back to square 1, as it would be difficult to support a team to train 5 days a week with paint if the company is not getting anything from it in return. Which means teams are having to pay out of their own pocket to train. But if their training 5 times a week they cant be working.

The cycle continues......

 

[Piper]

Or the team could go to there local site help them out then get in contact with a paint supplier and buy paint for the field, then maybe they would get something from putting something in!

Wow does that make sense?

 

[DarWood]

Seems more like a master plan too me mate

 

[Buddha 3]

Let's get some definitions straight.
What a lot of teams call sponsorship really isn't. Many teams say they are sponsored by so and so, while all they have is a deal saying if you buy all your stuff at shop x, they get a certain discount. This is no more than a customer retention scheme. Even though the shopkeeper makes a few bucks less then when he would sell his stuff at full retail price, but in the long run he will make more, as the members of this team have an incentive to stay with him, rather than shop elsewhere. This is not sponsorship. And this is not unique to paintball. I get discounts for most of the stuff that I but on a regular basis, ranging from paintball gear, through clothing, to electronics, simply because I buy my stuff at a select few stores, and as such have established a rapport with the managers of these places.
These guys have realised that I am a customer that spends a good deal of money, and they want me to stay loyal, and so offer me a discount. Funny thing is I never asked for one...

Duff, you must have gotten a discount for some of your bike stuff, just because you buy so much of it.

Anyway, back to the regular programme...

 

[stongle]

The same goes for out of industry sponsorship.

Should be called begging, at best charity.

I can see it now.

Dear Mr Greengrocer.

I'm writing to you to ask for money to help with my weekend hobby, novice Paintball. Please give me 500 pound a year, and I will say nice things about your banana's *if* we get a podium finish (we did come 3rd once in Division 4 in 2001), to the 44 other teams (all bar 2 in excess of 300 miles away) in the league. We also frequently appear in the UK Paintball publication that has some circulation. I'm 29 yrs old and a respectable stock broker in the city who earns 80 grand a year, my other hobby's include weekend powerboat racing, pulling Sloane rangers in my Porsche. I'm also tight as a gnats ass.

Please send used 20 pound notes, however a cheque will do just fine.

Yours in complete expectation

Dave

XXX


I think the appropriate response is to tip someone's b*llocks.

 

[Twizz ECI]

Players

Just Regarding players, i have said all along, us in the u.k, have not got enough good players to go around. For years i have seen the same players, there are very few new good players, and the ones the are here, are now going, or are looking to go, to the States and play. I hope i'm wrong but i can see Tigers, Shock and Nexus having a hard time, they all have good players in the team and the rest are just ok!!, if you could take the best and commited players from each of those Teams you might have a better chance of doing good. And i really hope that one of those Teams, at the end of the year come up to me and shove those words up my A**

 

[MrPink]

Dude, you just told everyone my technique for getting deals when I was on ML

 

[Intheno]

On the sponsorship thing, there is a way of making players appreciate sponsorship.

I was laughing at Opie Logrun not so long ago. he has started a clothing line (Abtract), and is a cool kid. His stuff is good stuff and he is doing OK with it. But now everyone is just asking him for free gear all the time. Its killing him. Dynasty hate paying for anything, but now he is on the other side of the fence he hates it. While I was talking to him 4 different people came over and asked him for the 'hook-up'. I doubt that kid will ever ask for anything free again. Its been a revelation.

So do this. Have an Expo where each team has to buy a booth and sell a product (can be anything) that they have made/bought/spent considerable time on (they will have to get up at 6am to set it all up obviously). Let all the industry people arrive when they feel like it, walk around the booths complaining about the pricing and using every trick in the book to pay less than the asking price. Then send the sponsors of the teams round, demanding thier share for free, and saying things like "if you give it me I will use it/tell people its good/make it cool. Then, at the end of the day, when the teams think they might have actually raised a small amount of cash to help fund thier paintball, send the organisers of the event round to demand thier booth fee (they will probably want some free product too, as prizes or something).
After, at the bar, the industry guys could demand that the teams buy them drinks all night because they don't have any money on them, and when the teams are settled down and trying to have a quiet drink, the industry guys can hassle them for more free stuff, in a loud drunken way, until the teams give up and go to bed, only to be kept up all night by the industry guys having a party in the next room, completely drunk on the free beer the teams paid for.

how does that sound?
Sound like fun?

 

[Matski]

Lol, I see what you've done there, and I like it..

 

[HERMITT]

This thread has produced some of the all time most short sighted answers i have come across in the world of paintball, it has also shown why we may never get as far as other sports.

In the last few years major fashion labels have employed people to walk round the streets and look for kids that stand out/hang out in a particualr area/indulge in a particular past time etc. These kids are then kitted out head to toe in that label for free. They act as walking bill boards for that compnay and have proven to be highly successful and effective methods of marketing.

Sponsorship is all about raising the brand recognition of a certain company. In paintball we are limited by such a small number of suppliers and manufacturers, they dont need to compete since they know that at some point the average baller will have to go to them. Why waist money on a selection of teams in attempt to say 'HEY HERE I AM' when people already know they are there.

The teams that are sponsored are the ones that are huge and have people aspiring to be like them. These are predominantly Yank. Dnasty get kit and markers coz the companies know that when joe schmoe goes out looking for kit for the first time he will wanna look the best and be the best. Therefore he will go for what the best are shooting and wearing.

This discussion will be very different in just a few years (i hope) when the people in charge of the major companies find themselves competing against a growing number of other rising companies. I also hope that by then the players that are still around and those that are just starting realise that when you have put in the time and the effort and achieved the results people will then come and find you. Sponsorship doesnt grow on trees and like everything else will have to be earned.

To open up the world of paintball we will need more companies and a greater degree of healthy competition. It is from the resulting consumer grabbing that the deserving teams will benefit.