Where is our sport heading ?

[Raffles]

Raff, who exactly would wanna do that and more importantly why would anybody wanna do that?

My point exactly Pete .

There is no money in paintball - and unless people pro-actively go out there and get some - there never will be.

Even the PA is now sponsored by a paintball company (it's a shame about Motorola - as that would have been a good start).

OK - Lucozade sport and NatWest got involved to some extent - but I don't see any mention of paintball on their web sites - or in their major press releases.

Companies will never put anything in to anything unless there was some sort of return for them. Even the likes of Red Bull - who sponsor all sorts of crazy stuff - aren't involved/interested.

My old (now getting very old) saying "don't sell paintball to paintballers, sell it to the public" still rings true. Look how much 'coroprate hospitality' goes on at other events. Put on an exhibition type event - then you may - yes - may - attract some corporate money - but until then, we'll all just plod on playing our expensive hobby.

 

[Oli HPG]

I think you need to read again what I said Oli and pay special attention to the words 'not enough' .....

Sorry dude!

*Reminder to myself...book some English classes!*

 

[Robbo]

My point exactly Pete .

There is no money in paintball - and unless people pro-actively go out there and get some - there never will be.

Even the PA is now sponsored by a paintball company (it's a shame about Motorola - as that would have been a good start).

OK - Lucozade sport and NatWest got involved to some extent - but I don't see any mention of paintball on their web sites - or in their major press releases.

Companies will never put anything in to anything unless there was some sort of return for them. Even the likes of Red Bull - who sponsor all sorts of crazy stuff - aren't involved/interested.

My old (now getting very old) saying "don't sell paintball to paintballers, sell it to the public" still rings true. Look how much 'coroprate hospitality' goes on at other events. Put on an exhibition type event - then you may - yes - may - attract some corporate money - but until then, we'll all just plod on playing our expensive hobby.

Just take a look at what we have to offer as a vehicle for any outside industry promotion campaign.
Bejeeezus, it's laughable.

Now..... if we were able to showcase something along the lines of the recent Marseilles tournament as our vehicle then we would have significantly more opportunity to court the big boys but all the time we got people fronting meaningless leagues at meaningless venues then we don't even deserve a chance.

Just think about the response generated were some corporate bod to be dragged around one of our domestic league events.....think about what he would actually see and exactly what sort of impression of us he would take away with him …...and now think about what his response might be were he stuffed in front of Huntington Beach or even Marseilles..... it doesn't really take much working out.

As I have said before, it has to be a top down approach to our national development that has the Millennium Series as its pinnacle because we can feed off that both in terms of potential sponsorship and of course league development.
Small time ventures are just too parochial, too under-financed, too amateurish and too doomed to failure.
But of course all this is reliant upon the Millennium getting their act together in terms of promoting Paintball but I much prefer the idea of our fate (eventually) being in the hands of someone like Laurent than some of the people we have had over here if only because I think we have more of a chance with him because when it does happen, it will be substantial.

 

[duffistuta]

Ben, I gotta say the 'German' phenomenon I wrote about awhile back tends to contradict that notion ... after all, how the hell do you explain how a nation can boast the largest number of teams (within Europe) and the fastest growing in terms of team numbers......and there is no rental scene.

Sounds impossible I know but Germany is testament to the fact, that Paintball, when it's mounted in its tournament package and presented to the masses is a viable product and one that attracts huge numbers of the young.
The German phenomenon is like one of those times in science where something 'weird' happens and it seems weird because traditional thinking seemingly provides no explanation.
The truth is, we are being tilted away from traditionalism to a newer more profound understanding of our sport and we ignore its significance at our peril.
The industry should be learning from what's happened in Germany and use this knowledge to adjust their marketing philosophies.
Just a thought !

Sorry to revive this thread but I've just seen the draw for Bitburg and, well, I'm a little confused.

I keep hearing how Germany is doing amazing things and tourney ball is big there and there's loads of teams etcetc... Why are their only 40-odd domestic 7-Man teams playing in Germany's only Millennium event, and only 11 5-man teams?

I mean, come on - that is **** all. If that's how tournament Paintball is exploding in Germany then God help us all.

 

[Missy Q]

better lock your doors Steve, using the words 'Germany' and 'exploding' so close together in a sentence will flag up your mail for Interpol, the CIA, and whoever else is listening in. Maybe even the Oceanians....
The walls have ears my friend.

 

[Robbo]

Sorry to revive this thread but I've just seen the draw for Bitburg and, well, I'm a little confused.

I keep hearing how Germany is doing amazing things and tourney ball is big there and there's loads of teams etcetc... Why are their only 40-odd domestic 7-Man teams playing in Germany's only Millennium event, and only 11 5-man teams?

I mean, come on - that is **** all. If that's how tournament Paintball is exploding in Germany then God help us all.

I hadn't realsied that a Millennium turn-out defined anything apart from indicating how many teams are prepared to play Millennium tournaments ... if you need to find out many teams there are in Germany then I think you should maybe expand your data horizon a little.

 

[duffistuta]

I hadn't realsied that a Millennium turn-out defined anything apart from indicating how many teams are prepared to play Millennium tournaments ... if you need to find out many teams there are in Germany then I think you should maybe expand your data horizon a little.

I think it defines how many serious teams a country has. Simple as that.

The answers I have been given about how many tournament teams Germany has has ranged from 70 - 200. I have seen little evidence for the 200 end of the spectrum, but if someone could give me some that would be great.

 

[Robbo]

I think it defines how many serious teams a country has. Simple as that.

I hadn't realised that all teams had to be serious to be classified as teams, after all, we got a country full of teams over here who ain't serious at all.

 

[Missy Q]

perhaps they will all show up to spectate...........

 

[duffistuta]

I hadn't realised that all teams had to be serious to be classified as teams, after all, we got a country full of teams over here who ain't serious at all.

No, but we'll probably see 70 of em at Campaign and I would extrapolate from there personally, the same as I look at the number of serious US teams teams and go from there...if you can point me in a better direction then please do, cos no-one else has yet and I've tried.