Originally posted by Hotpoint
Yep because only London and Manchester have Football Teams... and only one each 
Yep, but the potential sponsorship base is several orders of magnitude larger for Football than Paintball. Two many teams from a geographic area and everybody gets a smaller piece of the pie. Of course you can have 20 teams representing London, but lest we forget that only the Big teams are going to be sponsorship draws everybody else gets butt kiss. What you think that Leyton Orient gets the same sponsorship as Arsenal?
If you strongly believe that you need to be named geographically do so, I can see why the likes of Tigers are now the London Tigers, they are the top team in that area. They are fully deserving of outside sponsorship and play the game in a way that is deserving of this, likewise some of the so-manc teams possibly K2. If teams do this so they can compete in a "restricted tournament series", max props to em, or feels that geographic cohesiveness makes them stronger as unit fine do so. Lincoln Storm a great bunch of chaps, certainly seem to benefit from this. There's a lot of psychology in a name I don't understand, this is for you as individuals to decide. Each team should make a decision about this for themselves, it's the tenuous argument that some people are using to proclaim what seems to be the "second coming of the messiah", or that this is what will make UK balling popular.
My issue is with the wild assumption that you can assume the identity of a place name, and some how be entitled to the Nirvana of Free Balling hence with and the glories of the media. It's a fantasy. The economics don't add up. I might not have been balling for long, but I can tell you that Money makes the world go round, or that it puts the "bullets in yer gat". And Money wants a return on it's investment and that means results (and results were it matters). It's scientific or psychological fact that the worlds most successful people are those with the ability to think laterally, or out of the box. Stop thinking as ballers, or what you as ballers think you need yourselves. Think about what the wider public wants or will want to invest in.
Some people post as if they're going to be the next big extreme sportspeople, people are going to be TV stars, Vodafone's going to be emblazoned across our shirts etc etc. Well take a pill (or rather stop taking em), and a reality check cos you've completely missed the real issue at the heart of the matter. No matter how you dress up the teams, 7 man Sup Air Paintball is BORING to watch for the uninitiated. If you think the way we ball in the UK is worthy of TV coverage, I amazed how you'd view the likes of X-Ball. You can bet your b*llox to a barn dance if the likes of Dick Clark ain't putting X-ball on TV in it's current format and players ain't getting big money contracts, something's missing. It could be the format, the players, I don' know I ain't a media mogul, but he is. I mean I don't condone cheating but what Lassoya has done and how he plays certainly makes better TV than "hang them there wipers high". Look at what Fox is going to do, show the Highlights of the NPPL on 6 shows. If a whole series of the NPPL (or the highest evolution of 7 man ball, with the worlds best teams), only gets 6 shows, and not shown in the UK, that to me suggests there isn't a market for it here in it's current format.
Take this down a level and the only good games to watch at Campaign were the Pro games with the Likes of Dynasty, Launche, Strange, Ton Ton's, Legion, Nexus etc. Take a good look at these guys, what they do on field and how they compare to you as an average baller. You might find that Baca for all his xenophobia (
), makes the most salient point on this thread (I think, cos his irony is frankly on a different planet).
And on outside assistance. Lets be honest when we say "outside sponsorship", it's usually from players who have their own firms which may be loosely related.
I mean Hey Monkey Love a non-geographically linked team (or if you prefer Monkey Love from Chafford Hundred, Harlow, Islington, Portsmouth, Enfield, Sutton, Ealing and Caterham etc etc), actually has an outside Sponsor, not a "discount deal". All our Batteries, Tools and miscellaneous sh*t ballers lose or need, comes to us gratis (you go and buy 36 9v and 48 AA's Duracell's for each Millennium and see how much that costs). You know why, Cos my old fart runs an Engineering firm.
I'm not ripping the teams who choose to name or compete for a given area it's the attitude of people who want to take the "Moral high ground" (sic), if you bothered to read what I've written on this issue you would actually see that I've only questioned some of the claims of WHY they did this. If some teams want to go the regional route do that, but don't feel the need to elevate yourselves above those who want to concentrate on CPL or Milleniums, or just simply being the best AM B, A or Pro. These are my views and mine only, probably not shared by the whole of the team, so they don't represent the Love.
But I will say this the Love went to the Severe cup on Sunday, and handed out some whoop ass against well established teams (ahich ain't bad for what is in reality a 6 month old squad). We want to represent our existing supporters with results by whacking teams up the pecking order. By lifting cups and playing game is how we feel best repays the long and tireless support from the likes of Severe, Extreme Rage, Smartparts, Tourney Park (Yorkie) and XR Fasteners, not because we are "owed". It's all about the game, get that.........
Sorry Pinki, I'll get me coat.
