State of the NXL

[Chicago]

there are tens, if not hundreds of teams out there that made a go of xball, only to revert back to standard 5 player because it was just to complicated and expensive to sustain.

The exact same statement can be made about 7-man, 5-man, or any other format. Hundreds of teams go play a major national event every year never to return again because it is too complicated and expensive to sustain.

D3 PSP XBall and D3 NPPL 7-man are pretty much identical in terms of resource use. More play time and paint for XBall, higher entry fee for 7-man. If there is anyplace that XBall really suffers currently it's the 4-day vs. 3-day schedule, but that doesn't seem to be stopping PSP from filling up events.

 

[JtJ]

Uh, there were 21 D3 X-Ball teams in So Cal. That's sold out? There were 6 D1 X-Ball teams. I know that isn't sold out.

There were 66 D3 7-man teams in Boston, by comparison, and 35 D1 teams.

As for the costs per team, X-Ball involves more hotel, rental car, paint and airfare than 7-man. And any other expensive that comes down to a per-player cost (stipends or even team dinners) are going to be more expensive for X-Ball than for 7-man.

I'm surprised any reasonable person would debate this point.

 

[Chicago]

Uh, there were 21 D3 X-Ball teams in So Cal. That's sold out? There were 6 D1 X-Ball teams. I know that isn't sold out.

There were 66 D3 7-man teams in Boston, by comparison, and 35 D1 teams.

I don't recall saying that PSP sold out all their events - just that price wasn't the obstacle. SoCal didn't sell out for other reasons - last minute location confirmation, expense of flying into LA, and the lack of expense of flying into Charlotte coupled with the ability to drop one of the 6 scores all contributed.

As for the costs per team, X-Ball involves more hotel, rental car, paint and airfare than 7-man. And any other expensive that comes down to a per-player cost (stipends or even team dinners) are going to be more expensive for X-Ball than for 7-man.

I'm surprised any reasonable person would debate this point.

I specified D3. D3 and 7-man roster sizes are pretty much the same. D3 caps at 10 players, same as 7-man. If you had players that excercised, you could even get away with playing D3 with 6 bodies (not that I'd recommend it).

There is more paint shot, but the entry fee is lower.

Now, D2 XBall, on a team basis, is more expensive than 7-man. But, all formats of XBall provide a LOT more play time than 7-man, and are a LOT better at picking the appropriate winner.

It is a mistake to assume that the only criteria players use when deciding what format to play is price. It is a double mistake to assume players are picking a format based on price when that format isn't even significantly less expensive than the alternative.