Superbowl of paintball??

[Jester1]

This may have been brought up a long time ago, maybe not. But I know there are some pretty brainy people here (well some of you ) and I was wondering what the thoughts would be on this concept (borrowing from the NFL of course). With all the rumors flying about next season, I thought I'd bring this up:

The PSP goes 7 man next year (and keeping Xball as well). The NPPL continues on with the 7 man format. Teams are NOT allowed to play both league's 7 man events. Millenium points count of course.

At the end of the season, the winners are crowned for each league. Then there is a final tournament, sponsored by BOTH leauges, where the top X teams (say top 10) from each league play one event to determine the world champions.

Would it work? I can envision the media coverage that could be had, the video sales of the event would be worth $$$$$, and the sport would truly be able to have "World Champions", and I'm sure that they could draw crowds to the event with the right advertising. Perhaps a true stadium for the event? I'm sure if you hosted in a big city you could get 1000's of people to watch, perhaps even PAY to see it. I know I would if I lived close enough.

Thanks for you time and your thoughts.

 

[Mario]

which format would be played?!? how are profits split?! Who covers the event? fox or Dick Clarke?! Questions, questions, questions...

too many variables for anyone to agree....

 

[duffistuta]

Originally posted by Jester1


The PSP goes 7 man next year (and keeping Xball as well). The NPPL continues on with the 7 man format. Teams are NOT allowed to play both league's 7 man events. Millenium points count of course.

Therein lies the problem - exclusivity is already causing the PSP no end of problems with the NXL - why would they choose to extend it and say 'Us or them' to everyone...cos at the moment, NPPL would win that fight hands down.

 

[Jester1]

Format would be 7 man. Rules would be standardized for all the leagues. As for profits, coverage, etc., that's something so far down the road I wouldn't even venture a guess. The first step is to even see if the concept is sound.

But I can see where this could develop into players forming a league (as the NFL does) where it's possible that making to the "Superbowl (or whatever it would be called) would result in some significant contingency money for the teams.

What would it REALLY take to do a pay-per-view on DirecTV? I can imagine that 500,000 players would be willing to pay $10 to watch the live coverage. That's $5,000,000 revenue alone. Certainly more than enough to cover the cost of hosting the event, paying contingencies, etc. Plus paint sales, concessions, licensing, etc.

I'm rambling, but you can see there would be a great opportunity here (at least I think so!)

 

[duffistuta]

500,000 players?

How may serious - i.e. tournament players and gun-owners who play more than a dozen times a year - players do you think there are?

 

[Jester1]

Duff:

The problem was with the NXL, not the PSP or NPPL. If players KNEW that there was a "reward" at the end of the season I'm sure teams would commit to one league or the other for the payout.

As it is, very few teams can afford to play both leagues. Asking teams to play one or another for a season exclusively with the guarunteed promise of cash for winning their league plus cash for winning the "superbowl" would be more than enough incentive to stick to one league for the season.

NXL is failing because the players want to play more, and they want to get paid. Winning an event doesn't pay them anything. They'd make more money playing DI and winning all events than what they would make winning the season of NXL. Plus they could play NPPL and make even more.

If you have talent, and play a sport, you expect to get paid. Every other sport is the same way. We just need to get organized to make it happen.

*** In answer to your question, I'm saying that there are more the 500,000 people that would pay $10 to watch the Superbowl of paintball. Believe me, Fox, OLN, and Dick Clark wouldn't be interested in us if there were only 5,000 players that would be willing to tune in to a televised event. Look at football.....how many play versus the 30 MILLION or more that watch the Superbowl each year?

*** According to all the reports around the internet, there are more than 10 million people that play paintball. If fact I think that was just published in a recent paintball mag

 

[duffistuta]

The problem was with the NXL, not the PSP or NPPL. If players KNEW that there was a "reward" at the end of the season I'm sure teams would commit to one league or the other for the payout.


>>>The powers that be at PSP and the power behind the NXL are one and the same thing to all intents and purposes. Plus, the main problem here is that the reward would only attract the teams who thought they could actually win...how many is that? 8? And half of those are playing NXL...now as they are playing NXL then the only 7-Man they could play would be NPPL (as PSP would occur at the same time), so in effect you would get ALL the best 7-Man teams at NPPL, so it would get all the coverage and the 7-Man teams the PSP were left with would be hugely inferior - and would get worse over the season due to lack of competition

 

[Mario]

Originally posted by Jester1
Format would be 7 man. Rules would be standardized for all the leagues.

Then that makes X-ball redundant which wouldn't make the PSP very happy....

 

[Jester1]

If the leagues made the commitment, I think many teams would play PSP 7 man. I know I would, simply because they offer tremedously better prizes than the NPPL. Do I care that we get to play in the parking lot of an NFL team stadium versus Badlandz? Absolutely not. Having attended the Tampa event, I can honestly say that the location did not bring in much outside spectators, so who cares at this point in time? As long as the playing surface is grass, the weather pleasant, and the fields and reffing good, I'm happy (yeah, i could make a longer list but why)

Plus, the main problem here is that the reward would only attract the teams who thought they could actually win...how many is that? 8?

How many teams play the NPPL? Tampa had what, 165? Did they all really THINK they could win? Nope. They went for the love of the game, the desire to compete, and the hopes of winning. That's what every team thinks....If teams that truly thought they would WIN an event before they decided to go, you'd only have a handful of teams even showing up!

 

[Gyroscope]

Jester, I hate being a naysayer, but I think you are sorta dreamin', man.

1. For the PSP to start running a 7 man division, a group of fairly proud people would have to say, "this approach we committed ourselves to, supported with a lot of money, and have talked about in superlatives for the last two years? Well, we changed our minds. We are going to do eveything the way those other guys who we said we didn't need are doing." I could see the PSP adding a 7 man, in the same spirit that they maintain the sidelined 10 man competition, but I can't see them making it their focus.

2. You say that with proper advertising, you could draw crowds. I grant you that Tampa was weak for outsider turn out, but Huntington was a different story, and I am guessing that the Denver NPPL will be a bit different as well. I think that it is sorta cool that the Badlandz is going to be used for this weekend's tournament for reasons of tradition, but I don't think that it will ever see the kind of crowds I saw at HB.

3. There are more than half a million competition paintball players in the world, yes, but most will not buy any particular video. They will pass around one team mate's copy, or they will do without. To make real money with TV, you need people who don't play who want to watch.

4. Are the really good Badmitton players getting paid? Is the pay for professional hockey players sustainable at current levels? The notion that you should be paid for a sport is missing step 2 (Step 1: be a great athlete Step 2.... Step 3: profit). How does playing a game, however legitimate, generate wealth? Clearly, some sports do generate wealth, while others don't. If only players put wealth into paintball, there isn't enough for players to take that much out.

5. This is what the World Cup used to be. Only it was 10 man. Wait another year or two and you will see some kind of "Paintball Super Bowl", though the form it takes I cannot imagine.