Thoughts Please ...

[Robbo]

If teams will commit to a new league, and organisers can work together to make it happen, then I would suggest a 7 man unlimited semi format, no ramping.

By team commitment I mean money and attendance.

Any new league HAS to be 5 man, no argument !!
The worldwide momentum generated has made it inevitable 5 man (XBall orientated) will be the dominant and preferred format.

 

[kirk-lazarus]

The Hype of 1999

Robbo - I was assuming that Bug had got his dates mixed up, as I don't remember anything big happening in '99 - Supairball came out before then.

Maybe Bug can elaborate?

 

[kirk-lazarus]

OK - I have no problem with 5 man Xball.

I'll wait to see what Ledz and Nicky have to say.

It will be worth waiting for!

 

[Buddha 3]

One question that needs answering is what do you guys want? Go read some of the threads in MLT and you'll find a new question: Do you guys want a league that has top class competition, good reffing and all that, or do you want a league in fantastic locations with bells and whistles like massages, music and stuff like that? You can't have both, nobody will be able to pay for that...

So, do you want fun, or do you want to be a sport?

If you want to be a sport, a new question pops into my mind...
I know for a fact that many teamsports have been suffering at the amateur level lately. Sure, the premiership will always exist, but the amateur club teams have suffered in recent years. Membership numbers have gone down, and many players don't attend as many training sessions as they should and sometimes used to. One of the reasons for this is the slow shift towards a 24/7 economy, where it is normal to be working outside regular office hours and on the weekends.
To be honest, I don't think the cost of playing paintball is the true problem, the troubles most paintball teams go through are far from unique even when compared to sports that cost little more than a pair of shoes and a membership.
Why don't the captains that run such teams get in touch with some of the local sportsclubs and ask them how they keep people interested and attendences up?
You guys want to be a sport, so look at how other sports are doing it.

Active recruitment is one of the most important things you can do. And believe me, active recruitment at an amateur level does not equal poaching from other teams, it means getting new people to start to play. And yes, I understand that needs the help from site owners to some extend, but since all of you have a place to train, that can'tbe the problem.

Paintball needs new blood, and a lot of it.

 

[BUG01]

The hype of 99 was when i remember sup'air really taking off in this country. For the next couple of years (and i suppose we still think this way) sup'air and all it it could bring was hailed as the future, automatically bringing with it TV, outside sponsors and cash. No one really thought they would have to work for it., and more and more new organisers appeared to jump on the band wagon dilluting the UK scene. We saw more kids coming into the game and more events start to take place. But then it all became too serious, players got too good for the old farts teams that kept the numbers up at tournies and people got sick of getting shot by kids with 'cheating guns' on their one day off a month

I may have been a little thick with the brush in my first post, but i still maintain that the vast majority of people that play regular tournies in this country will reject the league format. They cant commit to a series in full due to work constraints, dont want to practice (in the way robbo and a very few people really appreciate) and just want to go somewhere and shoot paint. This is all about singular experiences with other likeminded players. The very few players who want this league structure tend to be far less team orientated, jumping ship where they can as long as it gets them on the next best sponsored team. This is because they have very little available cash, and therefore wont support our industry in the way it needs. It also means very few low end and middle order teams remain stable causing another major issue for a league structure that requires the same teams to keep playing.

Robbo argued on these boards before (hope i'm not misquoting) that the majority of ballers in the UK fall into a walk on category rather than a true tourny baller that wants to improve their skills and progress. I think this is at the core of why leagues have never worked and never will in this country.

 

[ShelleyHicky]

We need a professional League where teams and their players are locked into divs have to play all the season to earn promotion at the end of the year.

This would promote training and people moving up the paintball ladder growing into the top player spots

That sounds like footballs FIFA and if that would exist in paintball we need alot of MONEY and outside SPONSORS, a CORPORATION to run the whole thing and the tournament organisers to join forces. This equals a lot of hard work.
A lovely idea but is the game strong enough as a sport to evolve into that?

Missy captures the state of UK ball perfectly...

Paintball was played by men, and if someone was 18 (a-la Dave Spittle) they were considered 'the kid'. Unfortunately, and no offence to the youf of today, the sport is dominated by kids who are too young to drive... They have no money, and spend thier time looking for used gear on the cheap rather than supporting thier local stores.

Where are the store teams? Every store used to have at least 2 teams. The fields also had teams, where are they? Its useless to expect kids to organise themselves into cohesive units. It needs someone with drive and determination. Where are those guys, the Captains?

Before you have a league, you need the strong/stable teams. Before you have them you need the strong leaders - people who are in the game, own a field or store, and are genuinely enthused about the game.

Paintball develops heavily around money, I'm sure, unless you are very well off, there is a large percentage of paintballers in this country that are in debt in some way due to playing paintball. I even remember a PGI Olly Lang article, where he stated that out of his 'paintball lifestyle' he is an average jo trying to pay bills etc.
So my answer to this is paintball needs to become more affordable and like Missy mentioned Sites or Stores need to build up teams, so there are leaders with financial backing.

I believe that we keep the smaller tournament leagues at the moment, which are healthy in introducing tournament paintball to new players. And move to getting more established SINGLE tournaments throughout the year.

For example: Just visualising here...
(We already have the MS Campaign CUP)
UK MASTERS TROPHY?
NSPL Shield?
FREEKZ GBR CUP?
PA CHAMPIONSHIP?

Thats 5 already. If we get all the established and professional teams playing these tournaments (NOT THE LEAGUES - unless wanting to) for example, its a step forward to buliding this game into a sport and challenging teams/individuals to be the best and compete with the best.

Just my thoughts Pete

 

[Sid Sidgwick]

I agree with many of the above posts and concur that the failing is not one of just the organisers, they have set up some good tournies and good venues but have been let down by many of us who, for various reasons have not attended. We (im talking for many ballers here) go where our wallets let us, and this means thats the local venue wins out even if the quality of "game" available is poor.

There are 2 types of baller as previously stated, those who want to play on the 'big scene' and those who are happy to play with their mates at the local site. One of them will always attend the cheaper events no matter what the standard is, you can put on the all singing all dancing bells and whistles tourney but id stick my neck out here and say 70% of 'ballers will still attend their local "cheaper" event (many whilst wishing they were at the lager, better event.)

A national league would be good but is there enough teams to turn up? yes i know the team list Dark Warrior complied is filled with names, but many teams come and go every season, playing when they can afford to and/or be bothered too. I, if running said league would want to see some kind of longevity of support that again id say most teams could not provide.

The answer.....1 league set up-local smaller events that cumilate in a big blow out? or 1 league where the rich survive? I dont know, or even as Shelly says a cup style format? I know which ones id play but wait with baited breath to see what will happen

 

[scott_peters]

I like the sound of dodge idea i agree that a northern and southern leage would be great and a play off every couple of months however if there could be 1 league and 1 league only i think that all the ballers would be drawn into this and it would be massive !

However people simply cant afford to travel and play every month which is understandable but surely this would only be a few teams out of hundreds ? it would also need a strong leader to make it all happen and make it happen every month.

 

[Mario]

The question i have is, why do the pro teams have a general disdain for playing in the leagues in this country? Is it purely money issues? Or do they feel they can't gain anything from it. Even if there was a unified league would the pro players play it?If there wasn't a pro div, would there be any point in playing it?

I'd like to see a pro event first. Just to see if its actually possible to get them to play together in this country.


Im also going to go out on a limb and say that there are possibly too many teams over all. Perhaps im simplifying things too much, but if teams amalgamated, then is it possible that the support packages would be improved because companies won't be spreading their support over so many teams? Thus making it cheaper to play?!?

 

[Nicky T]

Ledzy and Nicky T will be posting later today and I really look forward to what those two guys have to say.
I am not in any disrespecting any other posters here by inferring their input isn't as valid but I know Ledz and Nicky well and they have invaluable experience and a great take on the UK marketplace.

No pressure then hey