UK vs. US

[pbsmoker]

Im writing this post to try and get some imput on this subject from other ballers in the UK. Keep in mind that i am not trying to complain, just want to know what other people think.

Tournaments in the states, especially series like the pan am, or nppl etc, offer great tournaments with great fields, but even more importantly...... PRIZES

I have noticed here in the UK that no matter what venues you play in whether it be the PGI 7's or KOTH or others, there is nothing to give any of the teams a real reason to keep entering into the tourneys, other than the competition. There are no prizes except maybe a trophy, and in our case last week at the pgi 7's a case of paint. Teams are shelling out 200-300 quid on entrance fees for what? I just think that the promoters of these tournaments should give the ballers a reason to come to these events. I will leave this subject open to any comments.


Another subject i want to hit on is the size of the fields. If you look at any of the recent videos put out, i.e. 300 FPS or Huntington beach etc, you will notice that 7 man tourneys and even 5 man tourneys have a lot larger fields with more bunkers then we do over here. The last tourney i was at i saw teams putting up to 4 players behind one bunker because the field was so open with a complete lack of bunkers.


This is just me thinking out loud. Please post any comments and let me know what you think.

ALSO-- This thread is just my opinion and does not reflect any positions of any teams that i may play for.


SMOKER

 

[beasty1711]

one thing u have to remeber is that in the us... they get alot more sponsorship....so can afford it.....
they also have bigger pool of players to choose teams from.. which again means that the sponsors get more "Advertising" for their product(s).. so they can afford to do things on a bigger scale.

 

[Al Woods]

Now that my friend (Smoker) is a very, very, very good point.

Maybe we just don't deserve good prizes.

I still haven't heard about what the overall prize was for becoming the European Indoor Champions for the second year running...2 months ago.

I think that's one of the reasons why we can't beat up the yanks as much as we'd like, we don't gain anything by winning so we don't really try to...make sense?

this is strictly my opinion and...actually, probably the same as everyone elses.

 

[Liz]

As someone who has done the maths I can give you one good reason why most domestic tournaments don't give big prizes - they can't afford to!

By the time the organisers have paid for the ground rental, infrastructure (e.g. scaffolding, netting etc), somewhere to stage (crucial in the UK due to the weather), tables, refs, air, admin staff, insurance etc there's precious little left over to pay these organisers for their time and efforts. To award big prizes the entry fees would have to go up considerably, and as many players can't afford to play very often as it is then they would only enter events they think they could win. This would lead to less teams entering each tournament, so the entry fees would have to go up even more to cover the costs, so even less teams would enter, and so on.

Regarding the number of bunkers on the field, most tournaments have to borrow or rent the fields as it would cost too much to buy 3-4 fields of their own. The field designers therefore have a limited number of bunkers to lay out, usually however many the field manufacturers have decided is the right number for 5 or 7 man play. Simply put, they only have as many bunkers as are supplied by the owners of the fields so they don't HAVE more to put up.

 

[Steve Hancock]

I was looking on the NPPL website and saw these prices entry

Professional $2000 (£1090)
Division I $1750 (£954)
Division II $1650 (£899)
Division III $1300 (£708)

Fcuk Me!! Thats why you ain't getting prise money over here - reasonable entry fees.

Having said that i reckon they are probabley worth it, you get what you pay for. I'm guessing there must be a load of small local leagues in the US right?

 

[Just Curious]

I tend to agree with 'smoker' on this. The prizes offered at local UK events compared to the US is pretty shabby and using the fact that there is a bigger 'player pool' in the US really is no argument. For example the Brum Indoor....I've said it before and I'll say it again....a cowshed with a mixture of airball barricades, mud up to your knees and toilet facilities that would be more at home in a third world nation....and for the privilage to play....450.00 quid! 52 Teams were entered and by my calculations thats 23,400.00 quid. Did the rental of the cowshed,airball fields and H-Pac and Insurance cost that much? I don't think so. It was sponsored by Zap so any paint prizes would have been covered by them....

The small local events obviously cannot be expected to provide large prizes but a Trophy and a case of paint for 450.00 is an insult.

Personally I think its down to bad organization, get the sponsors to cough up some good prizes a couple of markers, some playing kit or maybe a years sponsorship.

I played the PGI 7's last week and there is no way that the fields were for 7-man teams. If you are gonna run a 7 man event ensure that you have the correct equipment. Saying its not the organizors fault is wrong. They advertise an event it is up to them to ensure that what they advertise is what the paying customer gets!

 

[Jon S]

Not sure if that's a great comparison though, as essentially you're talking about a one day event compared to a four day one.

edit: my post is in response to Steve's

 

[Matski]

I think organisers need an incentive to keep putting on events. Just think of all the hassle involved in preparing and setting up, organising staff, the whiney, never happy unless their winning players b!tching about crap, finding, retaining good judges, good grounds with facilities....

To put up with all that crap and stress I would only setup an event if I was gonna make a decent profit. Ok providing better prizes will attract more teams but if your operating at max capacity anyway who gives a sh!t....

For prizes to get better either costs go down for revenue goes up......oh but teams don't wanna pay more incase they suck. I think a start would be if paintball was recognised as a sport, this would help with buying actual paintball related products but more significantly with outside sponsors.

The best thing to do to make pball cheaper and full of prizes is to get as many as your friends interested in the 'sport' as possible, then who knows, one day when your dragging yur zimmerframe up the field to bunker some young whipersnapper it'll win you a car.

 

[Matski]

I have to agree with the Indoor thing, Im sure they even own that taliban cowshed....they made a serious profit on that, it's a 2 field indoor event as you say, the prizes should definately be bigger!!!

 

[Fi$h]

You ppl expect too much. You can't go toKOTH or a PGI 7s tournament (or whatever) and expect big prizes...thats crazy talk. NPPL give big prizes because it is a major league affair sponsored by the top ballin companies, and attended by the best teams all over the world. You wanna win prizes then become worthy of them. The difference between a domestic or local tournament and the major-leagues are ridiculous.....and to demand 'Big Prizes' just because you get them playing Millenium/NPPL is lunacy. There are many more domestic and small-scale leagues/tournements is the US that, likewise, award you sweet F.A. for winning.

YOU WANNA WIN BIG, PLAY BIG!

Anyways, im amazed im still awake and typing. Not quite sure what the other posts have said - I could only be assed reading the first post.........if im duplicating, ignore me accordingly. Peace.

Fi$h