TV interest... no real chance.

[J / Evolution]

Originally posted to another thread, but so far off-topic that I moved it...

All of you focused on getting our dear sport arranged more media - especially TV - friendly, because it's been done in the U.S, you are not thinking realistically.

To attract external sponsors media attention is crucial, as the sponsorships are business propositions supposed to offer both parties some sort of benefit. Yes, that's been stated many times here before, but few of you have considered the differences of the U.S.A and the EC / EEA (the EU is a political, not financial or trade term) regions as a marketplace. The US is a NATION, with a national identity, and the EC is a COMMUNITY, as its name states.

This leads to a significant difference of perspective concerning business transactions, focus and markets. Whereas the US has several national medias such as TV channels broadcasting from coast to coast, the European region has only few. The US also has ESPN, a national sports channel that actually has viewers unlike Eurosport which is constantly struggling with low ratings and financial difficulties. Would paintball be interesting to a target viewer group that also watches football, boxing, curling, snooker, and darts? Doubt it, seriously. Will Eurosport be attractive to sponsors that want to promote in extreme sports events? Doubt it. Can Eurosport pay serious money to the MS for broadcasting rights, when it has trouble staying afloat as is? Doubt it. Will external sponsors of a team competing across europe be satisfied with an occasional appearance on country X channel X? Probably not.

Then there are language barriers etc. that cause further challenges in treating the EC as a whole as an integrated target market, that the US. is at present.

Currently, Europe lacks the promotional infrastructure needed to offer significant benefit to the companies, and real monetary sponsorship outside the industry seems distant and will remain on a charity basis.

My 2 euro cents,

Jarmo Nieminen,
Team Evolution,
Finland

 

[Booya39]

Paintball is sort of viewed with the stigma of being an extreme sport, like skateboarding. Skateboarding is often viewed as a sport/activity taken up by the rebellious youth. Maybe paintball will be introduced on the same stage as other extreme sports and recieve media attention in the same manner.... which doesn't normally include ESPN. But since Disney (who also happens to own ESPN) has taken on paintball with such open arms as of late, it may lead to a more mainstream approach when advertising our sport to the masses.

I'm not aware of the situation with extreme sports in europe so I cannot comment on that. You also mentioned that your sports channel is not prospering as much as ESPN which will hinder the process of taking the sport mainstream.

Is it an option for European teams to jump onto the US system and travel over the pond to recieve the attention (in the form of money and an audience) that many of the US teams will hopefully recieve if paintball goes mainstream? Or would that be considering turning their back on their fellow European teams?

are euro cents as valuable as US currency? lol

 

[Hotpoint]

Originally posted by Booya39
Is it an option for European teams to jump onto the US system and travel over the pond to recieve the attention (in the form of money and an audience) that many of the US teams will hopefully recieve if paintball goes mainstream? Or would that be considering turning their back on their fellow European teams?

An option certainly but not exactly a cheap one if they plan to attend events regularly. Those airfares would soon mount up and there would have to be a lot of money on the table to make up for it

Originally posted by Booya39

are euro cents as valuable as US currency? lol

According to last weeks Economist magazine the Dollar has fallen 31% against the Euro since July 2001. The exchange rate reaching €1.00=$1.20

Euro-Cents are therefore considerably more valuable

 

[Booya39]

I've been hearing about more european teams who plan to play more US events than in past years... even the PSP events. Playing in a league with big money on the line would require the same travel so the plane tickets can't really be that big of a deterrent can it?

and to go along with the exchange rate discussion, your euro currency would buy you much more over here in the states than ever before!

 

[Hotpoint]

Originally posted by Booya39
I've been hearing about more european teams who plan to play more US events than in past years... even the PSP events. Playing in a league with big money on the line would require the same travel so the plane tickets can't really be that big of a deterrent can it?

Whilst there are certainly a lot more European Teams planning to travel than ever before I don't know how many of them are going to compete in a majority of PSP or NPPL events rather than one or two. It's not just the expense incurred it's also the issue of taking the time off work

Maybe if Paintball Pro's were real professionals it would be easy but lets face it most of then have real lives too.

Originally posted by Booya39

and to go along with the exchange rate discussion, your euro currency would buy you much more over here in the states than ever before!

Yeah but the prize money's not worth very much when you bring it back home

 

[Challenger]

I think the main problem is that PB is boring to televise...either your seeing a small part of the action and missing the whole game or your seeing the whole game and theres no action.
Up until now there hasnt been a mixture of both,until there is,PB will remain boring as a TV sport.
Its not like sitting on the sidelines and watching a game,at the moment all we are seeing is Highlights.
What we need is a soccer type of camera discipline.Overview with closeup reruns of the action during "Boring" play,know what I mean?
Eurosport shows skateboarding,so why not show paintball as well?
The reason no-one watches Eurosport is that they show things like "Curling",hey,go outside and watch the grass grow,its more interesting than that.
Like I said,film it right or dont film it at all.


BTW,what is the big thing with X-Ball?
A game for the elite few,definitley not a format for the playing masses.
When most players are looking for more "bang for their bucks" how can you sell less active time on the field for more money?
Everyone I know wants to play 7-man,not 2 minutes of X-Ball with 15 other team players.

IMHO,X-Ball is not the format that TVs looking for,instead of changing the Game,why dont we try to change the coverage?

 

[DMZ Hasse]

Originally posted by Challenger

When most players are looking for more "bang for their bucks" how can you sell less active time on the field for more money?
Everyone I know wants to play 7-man,not 2 minutes of X-Ball with 15 other team players.

I can honestly say that most people I know that have played Xball prefer it to 7-man. Have you played it?

 

[Challenger]

No I havent played X-Ball,uptill now there has only been one X-Ball style Tournament in Germany,(XP-Ball).
My Team,as did many others that we know,decided against entering for the stated reason.
There will be 2 more XP-Ball events early next year,I cant get my guys interested enough to sign up.

 

[pballplayer35]

Whilst there are certainly a lot more European Teams planning to travel than ever before I don't know how many of them are going to compete in a majority of PSP or NPPL events rather than one or two.

If I was on one of the major, competitive European or British teams right now I would seriously consider moving to the states because quite simply, this is where IT'S at. We have the NPPL and the NXL which are the most organized paintball leagues in existence and we have the TV coverage and mainstreamablity (I don't think that's really a word) to support the interests of a major paintball team. My view may be scewed because of the way our big teams like Dynasty are treated with large amounts of money and tons of fanfare, but from my point of view I would definetley consider permantely hopping the pond.

That's my 3 US cents.