what is professional paintball?

[ThunderCat]

you know when you repeat a word ofen enough it starts to sound stupid and you forget what it means? I'm getting that from reading "pro" over and over in this thread.

Anyway, regardless of the sport in question Pro or professional should mean that the player or team in question is paid money to play.
It doesn't necessarily mean that overall they make a profit from the game as they may end up actually spending more on training etc. than they are paid.

A sponsored amateur would be given some things for free or at a reduced price by their sponsors.

Then there are the un-sponsored amateurs who pay all their own costs and get nothing in return except hopefully some fun.

What we use the word pro to mean is our own business but shouldn't be taken as the "definition" for this sport.

PS Fi$h you are sounding a lot like Robbo in the way you word stuff, either Robbo is using your logon or the Nexus Eclipse training days are mostly in grammer and semantics

 

[ChiZZerS]

ithink it is too bad that all these top teams
neXus Dynasty ect.
they train their sox off and play hard at tornies. but still they
get nothing for it!

to be honest i think it is fk'in wered!
i dont understand why people dont get paid already?

in every other sport the playes get paid! and i realy
dont undrstand why paintball is an exeption!

why the hell is paintball an exeption!?

it makes me angry and i am starting to wonder if this is a down fall to this sport not a hobby!... or a day out!
its a damn fk'in sport and we shoul be given the same rights as everyone else!!

 

[Mak D - Nexus Eclipse]

Originally posted by Sephiroth
ithink it is too bad that all these top teams
neXus Dynasty ect.
they train their sox off and play hard at tornies. but still they
get nothing for it!

to be honest i think it is fk'in wered!
i dont understand why people dont get paid already?

in every other sport the playes get paid! and i realy
dont undrstand why paintball is an exeption!

why the hell is paintball an exeption!?

it makes me angry and i am starting to wonder if this is a down fall to this sport not a hobby!... or a day out!
its a damn fk'in sport and we shoul be given the same rights as everyone else!!

It'll happen mate, don't worry

Mak D

 

[ChiZZerS]

Originally posted by Mak D - Nexus Eclipse
It'll happen mate, don't worry

Mak D

awwwww.
dont we all feel much better

 

[Liz]

Originally posted by Sephiroth
ithink it is too bad that all these top teams
neXus Dynasty ect.
they train their sox off and play hard at tornies. but still they
get nothing for it!

to be honest i think it is fk'in wered!
i dont understand why people dont get paid already?

in every other sport the playes get paid! and i realy
dont undrstand why paintball is an exeption!

why the hell is paintball an exeption!?

it makes me angry and i am starting to wonder if this is a down fall to this sport not a hobby!... or a day out!
its a damn fk'in sport and we shoul be given the same rights as everyone else!!

Quite simple really - there just isn't enough money in the sport to pay them! The income to pay Professional sportspersons in other sports comes from things like spectator entry fees, branded products and external (to the sport) sponsors either for teams or individuals.

Lets take David Beckham in his Man U days as an example. He was paid a salary by his team, which was in turn generated by them from income from gates, selling replica jerseys and outside sponsorship from various non-football companies.
He also received personal monies from companies like his boot supplier and from advertising/endorsement of stuff like coca cola.

Now we can compare that to the income that paintball generates. No income from gates, as there's few enough spectators even with free entry & I've never yet been to a tournament that charges for spectating. No (or very little) replica jersey sales, as there are probably fewer tournament players in the whole of the UK as there are Beckham fans in any major city. No non-industry sponsorship at present, or as little as makes no difference.
Yes, there's a little bit of "income" in the way of free kit/paint etc for the top players in paintball, though I don't know anyone in the UK who actually gets paid to use or endorse a particular paintball product - how many markers does a manufacturer have to sell purely because a particular player uses one to make it worth while to pay them to use it? And as for external endorsement - as probably nobody outside the sport has even heard of the UK greats, having an advert on TV saying a baller uses their product isn't really going to generate millions in sales is it! (Not even Pot Noodle being advertised by Ledz ).

So I ask the question - where is the money to PAY "professional" paintballers supposed to come from?

 

[JoseDominguez]

Originally posted by ThunderCat
you know when you repeat a word ofen enough it starts to sound stupid and you forget what it means? I'm getting that from reading "pro" over and over in this thread.

Anyway, regardless of the sport in question Pro or professional should mean that the player or team in question is paid money to play.
It doesn't necessarily mean that overall they make a profit from the game as they may end up actually spending more on training etc. than they are paid.

A sponsored amateur would be given some things for free or at a reduced price by their sponsors.

Then there are the un-sponsored amateurs who pay all their own costs and get nothing in return except hopefully some fun.

What we use the word pro to mean is our own business but shouldn't be taken as the "definition" for this sport.

PS Fi$h you are sounding a lot like Robbo in the way you word stuff, either Robbo is using your logon or the Nexus Eclipse training days are mostly in grammer and semantics

that's you getting bogged down in semantics, not Fish. Fish is supporting the use of pro in the context we use it............ players from the pro division.......... a paintball pro is a player who plays in the pro divisions........simple as that. As for a proffesional paintballer.. different entirely and very rare.
And as many top paintballers are considered pro, but don't get paid to play, surely this is the definition of a pro-baller?

 

[ThunderCat]

On the semantics thing, I wasn't saying fish is wrong, just that he is sounding a lot like Robbo in the way he writes stuff....

And yeah the way we use the term professional is essentially wrong, because we call people who are not professional "pro-ballers".
We mean that they play at a level which warrants being professional if only the money was there in the industry.
I have no problem with calling em whatever we want, but I dunno exactly what seph was getting at with his original question??

For those of us "in the know" calling people pro's is fine, but it will give new people in the sport and outsiders the wrong impression, I don't have a degree in social psychology or whatever though so I can't say if the misconception would help or harm the sport..

 

[JoseDominguez]

Seph just wanted to know if anyone was paid to play paintball. Answer is yes, as very, very select few. The rest just get subsidised and sponsored......their paintball is cheaper, but they don't get to live off it and buy Hummers

 

[raehl]

Actually...

They are Pro, in the sense that they play tournaments for prizes.

See Golf.

- Chris

 

[ThunderCat]

Actually...

Originally posted by raehl
They are Pro, in the sense that they play tournaments for prizes.

See Golf.

- Chris

Does it have to be cash prizes to qualify as pro?