Samwell and Kitty have really ironed it out above,
Yes the prospect of another go at a university league sounds great, but you really need to think on what you want to achieve.
Long term, league of sort? A format following the UK Masters, x amount of events over the year, standard entry fee's and standard format? This was accomplished during my time at Coventry University (2006) being well co-ordinated by one Steve Hancock.
If I remember correctly, we had 4 events spread across around 6 months. This took considerable organisation from Steve and his team and as you would expect considerable cost, both of which are not usually found with students.
I believe we had 11 universities taking part, some of the more notable universities that did not play, include the likes of Portsmouth. Though I believe there were some details in the background which don’t need to get mentioned.
Let me get that into real terms for you, from how many universities in England we had 11 teams. From that 11, I believe 8 ‘finished’ the league of sort as many had to drop out due to time and mainly funding issues.
Entry per team: £250 Entry for the year (I think?)
Format: 5 Man X-Ball lite – 2 games at each event lasting 10 minutes
Locations: 2 events at Dartford, 2 events at Sneterton (spelling)
Personally, I believe I spent around £500 on paintball during my term time, just to play events, excluding gear etc. Quite a large amount of money for a student, don’t you think?
So, without stepping over rough ground again, the correct way would be to pursue a one off event, open invites for a standard 5/7 man competition held in a central location. This was the original plan for inter-university, a one off event held at Birmingham.
In my opinion, it is time to step away from the idea of getting paintball a recognised BUPA sport. The money is just not there, especially these days with higher tuition fees and fewer amounts on loans.
Your best idea would be to work with Kitty as I am sure she still has a number of contacts at various universities. Get a steady yearly event going, if you’re not happy with that, push for the twice yearly but I really doubt your get the numbers.
Good luck
Mike
P.S. Spangley - No that was definetly NOT Coventry