Time for UK ballers to Act?

[Syd (NSPL)]

If you haven't heard, the UK has just won the bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games in London. First of all, what great news! This can only help sport in the country grow from strength to strength. Its been a long time coming, but we've got there and London has promised to put on the best Olympic show ever seen.

The first thing I thought when I heard this news was surely it is now time for all paintballers across the UK to get together in one united push to get out sport recognised. Let's set our goals high and aim to have paintball at least demonstrated at the 2012 Olympics. That gives us six years to formulate our plans, lobby, argue our case, improve the infrastructure of our sport and even march on downing street if we have to.

This is an opportunity for us all to get together and finally achieve sport status for competition paintball.

I will be talking to all the other UK event organisers in the near future and when we are all sat around the table at one of our infamous meetings it will be high on the agenda. On a personal level, building paintball's infrastructure and gaining recognition and respect for our sport has been a 24 hour life-absorbing ambition of mine for the past seven years.

So what do you guys think? Is the success of the Olympic bid for London 2012 the ideal catalyst for our sporting community to finally sort ourselves out and gain sport status? Or is this a flash-in-the-pan idea that will die out over the coming months due to player and/or organiser apathy?

 

[johnmassive]

Obviously it’s a good opportunity….

But apart from holding a paintball exhibition near or around a location based around an Olympic staging area, what ideas do you have?

Plus wont the attention generated by the Olympics be directed towards the recognised sports already featured? I don’t think it’s the most ideal catalyst, but it is definitely an opportunity that shouldnt be missed.

 

[Mr. Suicide]

I'm with you Syd, I say we paint Tony Blair's house a different colour! nah, this is a REALLY good opportunity, and if we play our cards right within the next few years, we hopefully should all be still in the sport AND have paintball as a recognised sport by then Syd, I know you can contribute a lot to helping this along, let's just hope everyone else can do this too

Luke.

 

[Syd (NSPL)]

Originally posted by johnmassive
apart from holding a paintball exhibition near or around a location based around an Olympic staging area, what ideas do you have?

Solid ideas would come from the organiser meetings and player suggestions. But to flesh my thoughts out a little further, here is some info on how the Olympics can be used to demonstrate non Olympic sports...

"Every four years, athletes gather from around the world to compete in the Olympic Games, a celebration of the spirit of peaceful competition that embodies all sports. Even for competitors who don't participate of Olympic sports -- like football or golf, for example -- the Games embody international unity and teamwork. When someone is up on that platform with a gold medal around his or her neck, they represent every person who has ever run a race, or thrown a ball, or swam a lap.

For those athletes whose sports aren't included in the actual Olympics, there are "exhibition games" -- non-medal events which allow everyone the dream that their sport, no matter how obscure, might someday be part of the Games."

So, we could aim for having paintball as an Exhibition Sport at the 2012 games. A tall order, but even if it didn't suceed, the efforts to bring the organisation and player-base in line with the Olympic Ideals could only benefit competition paintball. In addition, with the right promotion of our campaign to the public, the sports profile would be greatly increased.

If you think out of the box on this one, then its not the actual Olympics themselves that are the answer, but the 2012 London event COULD be the catalyst that drives us all to become the answer ourselves; a reason to get off our asses and be pro-active about pushing paintball forward.

And who knows - we might just make that dream a reality.

 

[Darkwerks]

Never going to happen....

the Olympic commitee are trying to cut down on the number of sports shown rather than increasing them.

 

[mikeanywhere]

I vaguely remember reading on here sometime back that at the last Olympics paintball was showcased. Who did that, what was the feedback and how can we use that success to leverage the one taking place in 2012 (or earlier if we can)??

 

[2scoops]

U.S.A. = GOLD
RUSSIA = silver
SWEDEN = bronze
GREAT BRITAIN = just in front of France AGAIN HA HA

 

[Pureball]

see, this is such a debate. im all for getting us recognised as a sport, but there is one thing that makes me thing otherwise, and i noticed it while watching the new Huntington Beach DVD:

tourney ball gets boring to WATCH. sure we'd have a HUGE up roar in the sport as everyone will think how cool it is, obviously, but then surely that will dwindle away as people dont have the money or time to get into the sport itself?

demonstrated is a definite start and i too would march upto Blair if that meant getting us recognised as a sport, but its the public that will ultimately decided whether we be recognised or not...

 

[Pureball]

Originally posted by Darkwerks
Never going to happen....

the Olympic commitee are trying to cut down on the number of sports shown rather than increasing them.

hmm i think syncronised swimming and diving can go...

 

[MrPink]

F'kin' hell guys.
I think the Olympics are as corrupt and worthless as a sport can get, but at least Syd's trying to do something positive and increase PB's presence in the media (maybe one day we can forget about Byker Grove? )

Syd, I'm all for this idea and if I can help in anyway then I will - Ignore the treehuggers and haters