UK Disgrace

[Mark Toye-Nexus]

Couldnt agree more

And there is nothing wrong with getting them interested in rec too don't forget, we need to generate a critical mass of marker owning, regular players.

Why dont PGI send sites a few copies gratis every month for this purpose?

Perhaps with a sticker on it explaining where the mag can be purchased regularly?

 

[mikeanywhere]

I am talking to a guy here who is starting a site in Ireland and one of the things I got him to agree to is showing the likes of Push, Sunday Drivers amongst others in the backround to show off tourney ball.

EDIT:

The other thing I forgot to add earlier is that the siuation here in Ireland is totally different to the UK. There is no tourney ball here at all other than with my homeys, Escarmouche in Belfast. It also doesnt help that legally you need a firearms licence to have a marker here. The cops at every station have a different view as to what standards are required ie do you need a gun case or not.

There are a number of punter sites looming so its a start!!

 

[Robbo]

Okay, well I as a site owner spend my day in the safe area talking about the team, my marshals wear custom REF tops promoting the Clan Paintball Team as most of them are players, they wear tournament pants, masks and gloves. I walk around with my mobile phone showing customers footage of Tournament Paintball....what do I get 100% of the time as a response from customers??

"Wow....thats looks amazing, I thought paintball was only played in the woods"

So, I have banners round my site that I get from suppliers, RPS, NPS etc, but they are either logos or rambo BT markers. Other banners I have are done in house, using photos of my players, my canteen has about 15 laminated photos of Clan players in action, I promote it, talk about it, encourage people to try it, but it's the same old same old, take a horse to water $hit.

So, we want to make a start, okay Robbo, Speak to PGI,come up with a Slogan, you know, Paintball is not all about the woods or something, put together a good size banner with tournament photos on it, you know the type. Good Quality Banner that site owners can use to advertise the other side of paintball. Have a footnote, for more information about Tournament Paintball, local teams etc contact site manager....if we have 100 people a week through a site and only 10% of them ask about the banner and more interest in tournament, and from that only 30% actually start playing tournaments that means we can have 3 players per week from each site coming into tournament paintball, and thats better than nothing. The banner will get PGI advertising on the site, it can be used to promote paintball on Rec-Sites and it means PGI are spearheading the improvement and quality of tournament players being converted from Rec-Ball to Tournament.....acheivable, I think so...but, we need someone to take charge, yes Robbo you have done alot for the Sport and your right, why should you do more, but do you honestly think anyone else will??

I for one would have no objections at all to having a colouful banner or 10 around my site and I would pay for it, it promotes paintball, the sport and PGI, so, for the price of a banner run you could have sites up and down the Country promoting this, tie it in with Eclipse, UK's biggest Tournament Paintball Equipment Supplier, have web addresses, photos, everything, bang it on site and see how it goes. No point having banners on the site with RPS, NPS, V Force, Eclipse.....joe bloggs punter has no idea what they are, you bang upa banner with photos and they will take interest.

My 2p worth, we can't change anything through words mate, but we can with actions....

100% Support from me....and for the price of a beer at Campaign

Sid

YA know what amazes me, when you mention the response your average punter displays when confronted with tourney ball, I have witnessed this sooooo many times and I am sure many site owners have done before and yet the penny still ceases to drop for them.
A great way of promoting this side of Paintball is to have a couple of copies of PGi or whatever hanging around so rentals can pick it up and see what's out there, the more enterprising characters among site owners might even have DVDs running to attract attention.
Historically, sites didn't carry PGi because they felt it would compromise their business by pulling customers away from rental to tourney or rec and so sites tended to suppress this type promotion.

And Sid, to correct the problem this thread attempts to address is gonna take an extended, nationwide campaign ......... this will make a difference.

And I believe, for all the negative sides of Delta Force, they get up off their asses and put Rambo ball out there to the masses.
We got a much better product than that cr@p in the form of tourney ball and when was the last time any of us saw a promotion of tourney / Sup Air in our local mall?
Point made I think ....

 

[Sid_Clan]

YA know what amazes me, when you mention the response your average punter displays when confronted with tourney ball, I have witnessed this sooooo many times and I am sure many site owners have done before and yet the penny still ceases to drop for them.
A great way of promoting this side of Paintball is to have a couple of copies of PGi or whatever hanging around so rentals can pick it up and see what's out there, the more enterprising characters among site owners might even have DVDs running to attract attention.
Historically, sites didn't carry PGi because they felt it would compromise their business by pulling customers away from rental to tourney or rec and so sites tended to suppress this type promotion.

And Sid, to correct the problem this thread attempts to address is gonna take an extended, nationwide campaign ......... this will make a difference.

And I believe, for all the negative sides of Delta Force, they get up off their asses and put Rambo ball out there to the masses.
We got a much better product than that cr@p in the form of tourney ball and when was the last time any of us saw a promotion of tourney / Sup Air in our local mall?
Point made I think ....

I agree with you mate, my guys wear all tournament kit when they do promo stuff for my site in malls, no camo in sight, my flyers have bits about the Team etc, but again that's me. Thing is Robbo your not going to change Delta Force end of story, but you can use the smaller, non-networked sites to help surely, even Skirmish, you have Skirmish on your side, they are a nationwide network, well, use it, if the others are not interested then at least we have something in the form of other sites rather than nothing at all....instead of looking at the glass as half empty why not look on it as half full.

Sid

 

[MENACE]

Okay, well I as a site owner spend my day in the safe area talking about the team, my marshals wear custom REF tops promoting the Clan Paintball Team as most of them are players, they wear tournament pants, masks and gloves. I walk around with my mobile phone showing customers footage of Tournament Paintball....what do I get 100% of the time as a response from customers??

"Wow....thats looks amazing, I thought paintball was only played in the woods"

So, I have banners round my site that I get from suppliers, RPS, NPS etc, but they are either logos or rambo BT markers. Other banners I have are done in house, using photos of my players, my canteen has about 15 laminated photos of Clan players in action, I promote it, talk about it, encourage people to try it, but it's the same old same old, take a horse to water $hit.

So, we want to make a start, okay Robbo, Speak to PGI,come up with a Slogan, you know, Paintball is not all about the woods or something, put together a good size banner with tournament photos on it, you know the type. Good Quality Banner that site owners can use to advertise the other side of paintball. Have a footnote, for more information about Tournament Paintball, local teams etc contact site manager....if we have 100 people a week through a site and only 10% of them ask about the banner and more interest in tournament, and from that only 30% actually start playing tournaments that means we can have 3 players per week from each site coming into tournament paintball, and thats better than nothing. The banner will get PGI advertising on the site, it can be used to promote paintball on Rec-Sites and it means PGI are spearheading the improvement and quality of tournament players being converted from Rec-Ball to Tournament.....acheivable, I think so...but, we need someone to take charge, yes Robbo you have done alot for the Sport and your right, why should you do more, but do you honestly think anyone else will??

I for one would have no objections at all to having a colouful banner or 10 around my site and I would pay for it, it promotes paintball, the sport and PGI, so, for the price of a banner run you could have sites up and down the Country promoting this, tie it in with Eclipse, UK's biggest Tournament Paintball Equipment Supplier, have web addresses, photos, everything, bang it on site and see how it goes. No point having banners on the site with RPS, NPS, V Force, Eclipse.....joe bloggs punter has no idea what they are, you bang upa banner with photos and they will take interest.

My 2p worth, we can't change anything through words mate, but we can with actions....

100% Support from me....and for the price of a beer at Campaign

Sid

You would be better with PBUK because the punters can relate to the Tourneys as they are in England (We are talking about UK only here). PGI turned its back on UK Paintball many years ago & as such would be alien to your average punter. This is not a dig at PGI because I know they wouldn't be were they are now as a business if they were a UK/Euro Mag.

They don’t do a Wright up for the Euro 5 Man, which is one of the top 10 events in Europe, in fact they only cover 5 European tourneys (Millennium) per year & the rest is US. So what I am saying is if a punter wants to get into paintball in the UK he/she should read PBUK as they can find shops, events & teams local to there area.

Pete why don’t you concentrate your efforts on helping the good guys you have mentioned earlier that are trying to make a difference instead of wasting time slatting the **** ones. I know Warren, Dave & co needs more support from the industry to be able to move forward but also you would have to agree they need support from the mags/forums as well. Pete I know you want UK ball to be back on top but is that from a personal level or are you speaking for PGI as well?

Pls. don’t flame me to bad but it seems you work for a company with different views. You are all for UK ball to grow & improve Fact, PGI have nothing to do with UK Ball because there are not enough players to buy the mag & make any money In my opinion if all the Paintball Companies in the UK (There are a lot WDP, Planet, Smart parts, DYE, Draxxus, PMI, NPS, PGI etc) oncentrated there efforts ver 2 years or so the industry would grow 100 times, but all the time you have the bitching & arguing (politics) going on we get no where.

 

[mikey601]

YA know what amazes me, when you mention the response your average punter displays when confronted with tourney ball, I have witnessed this sooooo many times and I am sure many site owners have done before and yet the penny still ceases to drop for them.
A great way of promoting this side of Paintball is to have a couple of copies of PGi or whatever hanging around so rentals can pick it up and see what's out there, the more enterprising characters among site owners might even have DVDs running to attract attention.
Historically, sites didn't carry PGi because they felt it would compromise their business by pulling customers away from rental to tourney or rec and so sites tended to suppress this type promotion.

And Sid, to correct the problem this thread attempts to address is gonna take an extended, nationwide campaign ......... this will make a difference.

And I believe, for all the negative sides of Delta Force, they get up off their asses and put Rambo ball out there to the masses.
We got a much better product than that cr@p in the form of tourney ball and when was the last time any of us saw a promotion of tourney / Sup Air in our local mall?
Point made I think ....

Finally, Thank you

 

[duffistuta]

You're 100% right Menace - that is why we allow rec and tournament organisers to promote their events for free on our website.

Obviously that's not enough for you, and as you are enamoured with PBUK I suggest you go and use their forums while I go and spring clean our tournament forum of organisers' posts so we can really 'turn our back on UK Paintball' .

 

[KitsuneAndy]

If by taking a step back I lose sight of the real nature of the problem, which will inevitably happen, then I see no purpose in pursuing any other perspective other than the one I am taking now.
It just makes no sense to distance myself because whilst your words 'seem' to sound reasonable, the fact of the matter is, they make no real sense mate (not disrespecting you whatsoever).

No sense on the mass scale you are talking about no. 500 extra people playing paintball regularly on a global scale would be virtually nothing. 500 extra people on the local tournament scene (PA or UKM say) would be a massive increase in numbers.

The position I am in is a lucky one and affords me the advantage of meeting and talking to many of the people in the know, and these people cover the entire spectrum of our Paintball community.
Now if you feel your relatively uninformed position gives you an advantage in analyzing this situation then I am interested to listen to any rationale that you think supports that.

I dont think that it gives me an advantage in analyzing the situation at all. But I do think that the changes are relevant to your viewpoint. Changes that you may see as "pissing in the sea" at your level can be seen as much larger changes if you look at the local UK scene in isolation. I know that we can't look at ourselves in isolation in the long run, but we have to start somewhere. You are in an ideal position to view the overall results and to help guide and plan what changes are needed on a global/international level in order for the UK to build on what it already has. You have your contacts, people in the business know and respect you. But the players do have the ability to help change things right down at the bottom level and change is needed at every level of our sport if things are to get better for us.

I guess my point is that every idea for promoting our sport should be looked at on it's own merits, look at the cost of doing it and the potential numbers of new players. Is it worth it? Don't forget the big picture in the long run, but don't dismiss every single idea just because it's not a change on the kind of global scale you are used to dealing with Pete.

But I do concede there is a negative tone to all this and we do need some positivism if only to redress the balance and maybes we do need to take that first step somewhere but let's make sure that first step is in the right direction.

Then help us to do something. This thread has proved that there are people willing to donate their time to promoting this sport and don't expect anything in return. But you've shot down pretty much every idea as not being on a big enough scale to matter. But if it's a change and it's a positive change, then it's a good thing no matter on what scale it is. So please don't be so hasty to dismiss some of the idea's here.

 

[MENACE]

You're 100% right Menace - that is why we allow rec and tournament organisers to promote their events for free on our website.

Obviously that's not enough for you, and as you are enamoured with PBUK I suggest you go and use their forums while I go and spring clean our tournament forum of organisers' posts so we can really 'turn our back on UK Paintball' .

Yes, but isn't that free for everyone in any country regardless, if it was free only for UK then you got a point? I did say that it's not a dig at PGI becouse i understand your bussiness & were the mags are sold. I did not for a second say the Forums had turned there back on UK ball but you certainly dont do anything for UK ball that i can see. Maybe you can enlighten me or are you saying that your input back into UK ball is to not charge Uk rec and tournament organisers the privalage of posting?

I think if you could charge you would (thats good bussiness head) & IF you did it would be across the board (Worldwide) regardless so how does that do anything for UK ball

P.S I am in no way in with PBUK, i read both Mags but think that all sites should have PBUK laying around becouse as i said before they can directly relate to the shops, event, teams in there area.

 

[duffistuta]

'IF' we could charge???

Of course we could if we wanted to. We don't.

And how does it being free to anyone else effect my point? I'll give you a clue - it doesn't.

"You certainly dont do anything for UK ball that i can see."

Then you won't mind me removing your free threads promoting an event.