In any sport there are two sides; the industry and its participants.
Our industry has been shooting itself in the foot for years in believing sharper pricing means sharper accounts, and whilst they may attract an increase in market share and turnover, the mid to long term consequences are now embarrassingly obvious to everyone.
The industry has contracted to about a quarter of what it once was in the space of about 3 years...now that's one helluva dive!
Of course in the background of this self-inflicted recession we have had a far wider downturn in national economies but this has merely added to our problems rather than been the prime cause.
As the industry tended to cut each other's throats by price reductions (And still does) - the playing side of our sport on the other hand was trying to strike a balance between cost and growth.
The basic cost of our sport being a prime determinant in our consequent rate of growth ... there are other factors I know but this is the most important.
We, as a sport, have conspired to not only shoot ourselves in the foot but to turn that same gun and shove it up our own ass and unload its hopper.
Our part of the sport, tournaments, is a very small slice of the overall business, I doubt it's greater than a couple of percent with site business dwarfing us.
Even the less glamarous side of our sport, rec/scenario is kicking our ass in terms of numbers.... but why??
The demise of our tournament scene has been well documented by myself and it was this situation that gave birth to the federation and in essence, if you don't give customers what they want, then they'll vote with their feet soon enough .... and that's exactly what they did.
And so, while the industry slashed prices and throats to gain market share and increased turnovers, the event side of paintball struggled to strike the balance between cost and attraction.
Problem was, we helped our demise with sub-standard tournament promotions and when our national economy began to contract, we had a double whammy of negatives feeding into the tournament loop.
Now, even though we (the federation) have hopefully helped halt that slide in events over here (even though, some people give us zero credit for that) the rec/scenario side of things has been growing under the partial stewardship of people like Jim Frensham and Tim Taylor with their big games.
At this point, it may well be worth taking stock here, we have the severest industry contraction we have ever known in our sport primarily caused by ourselves; we have also had, the worst contraction in tournaments we have ever seen, primarily caused by ourselves and........ we have a healthy growth associated with rec/scenario and site business ......
Penny dropping yet????
If we assume the cost of playing is basically the same across the whole face of paintball (rec/scenario/sites/events) then something needs explaining ... why are two in recession, and the other two, not?
We can actually factor out the background overall recession and tag it as a potential catalyst, we can also factor out our industry incest (we keep fcuking ourselves) because generally speaking these cost cutting manoeuvres are not passed onto the customer especially when it comes to site owners.
And so what remains???
I tell ya what, it's basic enjoyment and the belief you ain't getting shafted.
The rec/scenario scene is doing well because it's well promoted, well ran and gives value for money with the vast majority of those guys coming away with a smile on their face.
The same can be said for the punters at our national sites, the guys who play Sunday paintball with a stag party etc
Basically, they have a good time and even though we have a recession and money is tight, they still manage to play because the product is good.
Paintball is an escape, and always has been.
When times are [financially] rough, paintball performs a much needed service in terms of escape and is somewhat innouclated against the overal recession.
I know this is not an absolute but the idea of having a good time is, and people electing to play rec/scenario and punter days are getting what they want, value for money.
I doubt tournament players in the past few years have felt similarly about their chosen paintball product.
The answer seems to be glaringly simple, and that is exactly what the federation are addressing now!!!
