Ofcourse industry has that power
All they need to do, is show each field owner that it can be an additional revenue stream in his business.
I do not believe fields will lose customers by offering them our style of paintball - quite the contrary - and I further believe those that think that way, have a poor grasp of human nature.
Industry can absolutely shape our future, they have done so for 25 years. Our market has never been driven by what the customers "demanded" - and it still isn't. We just happened to land, ass backwards, into a goldmine, some 25 years ago, and since then, everyone has been too afraid to tamper with it, for fear of it running dry.
OFCOURSE there is a large population out there, that would think tournament paintball was a lot of fun, if they were ever exposed to it at their local field, and a good majority of those people, have (clearly) not been turned on by playing "wargames".
This whole notion that we that play tournament paintball are some marginal rare breed, is completely illogical to me, because we have no cultural, religious or moral common ground, so it makes no sense that we are that "special.
My experience is, that when you expose people to the tournament game, a lot of people like it a great deal, and there are sites in every country in Europe already proving that on a daily basis - there just isn't enough of them, by far.
Industry need to educate - first themselves (on business strategy) - and secondly their customers, on how running tournament style fields, can be a very profitable business. This includes industry actually formulating a strategy on where they want to drive their business, over a 5 year period, rather than just doing the same old thing they have been doing for 25 years, with moderate technological advances along the way.
Industry is (mostly, there are exceptances) focussed on "cheaper", "less maintenance", "more durable" and other such terms, when it comes to dealing with field owners, and all those words are connected to maintaining the status quo. Nobody is really trying to help field owners develop their business. It seems all our industry's creativity, is put into high end tournament products, and not into actually developing paintball from grassroots level and up.
It's not just about making products, it is also about actually working with your field owners on conceptualising the whole thing, help them "see the light" as it were.
Nobody does that today, they are too busy selling 50 Tippmanns, 100 goggles, 200 overalls and cheap paint.... while crossing their fingers and hoping the field owners are good enough themselves, to increase their local market, so the manufacturer makes more money next year.
It's an amateurish, shortsighted and insane way of doing business. In any other industry, manufacturers and distributors, are heavily involved with growing business at a local level, because they know they need some form of control over their own future, rather than resting it in the hands of a bunch of random local businessmen.
You ask McKinsey or Accenture to look at the paintball industry, and they would first laugh their asses off, and then ask (pointedly) why industry has not, a long time ago, started developing their business, by helping local field owners understand that:
1. Running tournament fields does not lose you customers. The customers that show up 1-2 times a year for a woodland/scenario outing are primarily sticking with that, and even IF some transition into the sport, you make more money off those individuals, than you would by them attending twice a year. What you do generate, is a whole new customer base, that has not so far been terribly interested in paintball, because they thought it was all woodland wargames.
2. Fields offer up a whole new product in their local market, that by now is pretty much tapped out in terms of new customers. Most older fields these days, are living off repeat business and paintball (as it is presented by that field owner) is no longer something new, that many have not tried. A new product, allows them to generate visits from a lot of former customers, who would not otherwise show up and instead choose other modes of entertainment.
3. Generating tournament players is good business, because it gives you way better coverage on your field, outside the main season and on days and times when "normal rental customers" are rarely there. Tournament players will go play a Tuesday evening i March, or a Saturday morning in January - rentals will not.
4. Running games that create a transition into "sports paintball", allows you to run an on-site shop, which sells equipment to those your field "converts". Just like golf courses make very good business via their pro shops. A smart manufacturer will even give field owners equipment on consignment, so they only pay for it when it is sold.
5. Tournament players give you volume, both on paintballs and on gear, which helps you secure better pricing from your suppliers.
6. When enough fields adopt this business model, industry as a whole grows, which in turn leds to lower prices across the board.
I am tired of hearing people say "the general public only wants woodland games" - because they don't know, it's a convenient assumption, that field owners use to keep from changing anything..... It's like horse carriage makes at the start of the last century, saying "this business has worked for us for 200 years, so why change it?"
