When I started all that crap a few weeks ago re the state of UK paintball, it came after I had realised the real reasons we are in such a mess in that our tournament scene was made up with the majority of players being displaced rec-ballers.
Generally speaking, tournament teams are made up of competitive participants but since our site owners have got their head up their arses and provide virtually no walk-on facilities, we ended up accommodating rec-ballers in our tournament scene purely because they had nowhere else to play.
As soon I realized what had actually happened, everything else seemed to plop into a place and therefore so did the answers.
Answers, which for the most part will go un-actioned because of our present site owner’s attitude and lack of real business acumen.
I just got back from the Dartford site where there was something like 150 players down there, all training, playing and seemingly trying to get their act together.
Things seem to be gathering momentum.
I went down there to maybe spot a player and just do some chin-wagging which is exactly why I am writing this post.
While I was there I got talking to Phil Webb from Smart Parts, I’ve known Phil since the early days of paintball and he generally knows what’s what in paintball.
We got to discussing the state of UK paintball and we were talking about the number and quality of the teams we have over here and reflecting just how bad, in a relative sense we seem to be.
He agreed with me that the main problem was caused by players who want to go that extra step away from rental-Rambos (punters) and are just not catered for over here by our sites but then we began talking about Germany and the way it has grown in terms of number of teams.
Germany has undergone a huge growth in the number of teams in the last few years, so much so that it is truly remarkable.
They have hundreds and hundreds of teams breeding, evolving and clamoring for tournaments.
Both of us were set to wondering why they had undergone such growth as we are both aware there is no real promo campaign going on over there and I like to think we live in a universe where ‘cause and effect’ tend to underlie most earthbound processes.
Phil remarked that it is even more remarkable considering they have no real rental scene as sites tend to be banned over there.
And then the penny dropped…..plop !
Paintball is promoted over here in the UK as a cammo-based woodland game so people’s entry point into the sport is exactly that, they play woodland ball and then if ******* lucky, they get to hear about the true sport of paintball (tourney-ball) and then unshackle themselves from the clammy grasp of their site owners and seek out their paintball fortune in the land of tournaments.
The trickle through over is abysmal for obvious reason because site owners actively discourage such evolutionary processes.
Now, when we come to consider the German’s entry point, it is, and has to be, tourney ball which as I HAVE BEEN SAYING is so much more attractive to the young male demographic than Rambo-ball and if anybody else needs convincing, how else one might analyze the German growth?
Germans have no real rental market so the only way they are gonna come into contact with paintball is seeing tournament players.
Nah, it’s as plain as the Adonis in my mirror, the German’s first contact point with Paintball is generally going to be tournament paintball and if this is the case, then it’s no wonder the Krauts are going through an unprecedented growth spurt because tourney ball will attract significantly many more than woodland Rambo-ball.
Traditional thinking has always led us to believe that to increase the number of tourney players we have to promote base paintball, that is generate more rentals; after all this is the traditional route but we have now been shown a different way almost by accident and not only is it a God send but it also shows us that the traditional route is vastly less efficient at giving birth to tournament players than just promoting tournament ball to the masses.
Let’s take stock for a moment; we know Germany has no rental scene, we also know Germany has phenomenal growth in the number of tournament teams (not easily reconcilable at first glance), we must now acknowledge the reason they enjoy so much growth is because German people’s first point of awareness of paintball is tournament-ball.
What does this mean?
It means we now have a better understanding in an empirical sense what I have long been advocating in a theoretical one in that marketing paintball as a sport (tourney-ball) to the masses is the way to go.
Some people might argue the average German guy is different from us Brits but I ain’t buying that for a second as any reason why a similar strategy over here won’t work.
Some people just like to be negative and find fault so we should gonna ignore them.
Paintball marketed as a competitive sport as against being promoted on our street corners as woodland indulgencies is the way to go as the German phenomenon have now shown us.
We have now got at our finger tips a workable strategy for development; we can’t rely on our site owners to embark upon a traditional philosophy of growth but thank heaven for that because we can now default to what we should have been doing all along.
Pushing DVD’s of Dynasty, XSV etc out there to our young demographic, and trust me, the conversion factor, in my opinion, is going to be a true eye opener.
I honestly think the German phenomenon should alert companies like Dye, PMI and NPS to what’s possible out there in Europe because from my point of view as an English baller, at least we now have a real idea of which direction we should go in.
Fcuk our site owners, we don’t need them, they been holding us back for way too long now, we should generate masses of tourney ballers via intelligent and focused marketing and I tell ya what, if we ever got to that stage, you can bet ure ass the site owners will be swapping woods for fields and Sup’Air all over the UK……..
Generally speaking, tournament teams are made up of competitive participants but since our site owners have got their head up their arses and provide virtually no walk-on facilities, we ended up accommodating rec-ballers in our tournament scene purely because they had nowhere else to play.
As soon I realized what had actually happened, everything else seemed to plop into a place and therefore so did the answers.
Answers, which for the most part will go un-actioned because of our present site owner’s attitude and lack of real business acumen.
I just got back from the Dartford site where there was something like 150 players down there, all training, playing and seemingly trying to get their act together.
Things seem to be gathering momentum.
I went down there to maybe spot a player and just do some chin-wagging which is exactly why I am writing this post.
While I was there I got talking to Phil Webb from Smart Parts, I’ve known Phil since the early days of paintball and he generally knows what’s what in paintball.
We got to discussing the state of UK paintball and we were talking about the number and quality of the teams we have over here and reflecting just how bad, in a relative sense we seem to be.
He agreed with me that the main problem was caused by players who want to go that extra step away from rental-Rambos (punters) and are just not catered for over here by our sites but then we began talking about Germany and the way it has grown in terms of number of teams.
Germany has undergone a huge growth in the number of teams in the last few years, so much so that it is truly remarkable.
They have hundreds and hundreds of teams breeding, evolving and clamoring for tournaments.
Both of us were set to wondering why they had undergone such growth as we are both aware there is no real promo campaign going on over there and I like to think we live in a universe where ‘cause and effect’ tend to underlie most earthbound processes.
Phil remarked that it is even more remarkable considering they have no real rental scene as sites tend to be banned over there.
And then the penny dropped…..plop !
Paintball is promoted over here in the UK as a cammo-based woodland game so people’s entry point into the sport is exactly that, they play woodland ball and then if ******* lucky, they get to hear about the true sport of paintball (tourney-ball) and then unshackle themselves from the clammy grasp of their site owners and seek out their paintball fortune in the land of tournaments.
The trickle through over is abysmal for obvious reason because site owners actively discourage such evolutionary processes.
Now, when we come to consider the German’s entry point, it is, and has to be, tourney ball which as I HAVE BEEN SAYING is so much more attractive to the young male demographic than Rambo-ball and if anybody else needs convincing, how else one might analyze the German growth?
Germans have no real rental market so the only way they are gonna come into contact with paintball is seeing tournament players.
Nah, it’s as plain as the Adonis in my mirror, the German’s first contact point with Paintball is generally going to be tournament paintball and if this is the case, then it’s no wonder the Krauts are going through an unprecedented growth spurt because tourney ball will attract significantly many more than woodland Rambo-ball.
Traditional thinking has always led us to believe that to increase the number of tourney players we have to promote base paintball, that is generate more rentals; after all this is the traditional route but we have now been shown a different way almost by accident and not only is it a God send but it also shows us that the traditional route is vastly less efficient at giving birth to tournament players than just promoting tournament ball to the masses.
Let’s take stock for a moment; we know Germany has no rental scene, we also know Germany has phenomenal growth in the number of tournament teams (not easily reconcilable at first glance), we must now acknowledge the reason they enjoy so much growth is because German people’s first point of awareness of paintball is tournament-ball.
What does this mean?
It means we now have a better understanding in an empirical sense what I have long been advocating in a theoretical one in that marketing paintball as a sport (tourney-ball) to the masses is the way to go.
Some people might argue the average German guy is different from us Brits but I ain’t buying that for a second as any reason why a similar strategy over here won’t work.
Some people just like to be negative and find fault so we should gonna ignore them.
Paintball marketed as a competitive sport as against being promoted on our street corners as woodland indulgencies is the way to go as the German phenomenon have now shown us.
We have now got at our finger tips a workable strategy for development; we can’t rely on our site owners to embark upon a traditional philosophy of growth but thank heaven for that because we can now default to what we should have been doing all along.
Pushing DVD’s of Dynasty, XSV etc out there to our young demographic, and trust me, the conversion factor, in my opinion, is going to be a true eye opener.
I honestly think the German phenomenon should alert companies like Dye, PMI and NPS to what’s possible out there in Europe because from my point of view as an English baller, at least we now have a real idea of which direction we should go in.
Fcuk our site owners, we don’t need them, they been holding us back for way too long now, we should generate masses of tourney ballers via intelligent and focused marketing and I tell ya what, if we ever got to that stage, you can bet ure ass the site owners will be swapping woods for fields and Sup’Air all over the UK……..
