Hmmmmm, here's the deal, or rather lack of one.
As most of you know, when Sergei. myself, Laurent and Richmond sat down for a meal in Orlando in October of last year, we (the Euros) came away with an offer from Richmond which gave us an equal standing as the American teams in a World X-Ball league that had all the teams criss-crossing the Atlantic in both directions.
The important point here, which I made on soooo many occasions, was that we would have been 'locked in' to any TV / outside sponsorship deals they were negotiating or would have negotiated in.
Basically, what the Yanks got, we got, remember the arrangements we had made (and that were accepted by the NXL franchise owners) gave us equal standing and say.
Now, we all know, and for whatever reasons, we declined that unbelievable offer in favour of putting on our very own Nation's Cup................
What this did, was to allow the Yanks, by default, to set up on their own and when the TV deal did come along, we were out of the loop.
The proposals now ?
Well, the promoters over here, each will be handed a franchise on a platter with 3 more being offered out as wild cards.
The thinking behind this is as follows, since it is the promoters who will face the initial cost of setting things up, then they should benefit from each owning a team franchise as a sort of pay off.
As a rough guide, cost of setting up X-Ball due to infrastructure and loss of revenue from teams who are now not participating in the 7 -man - $23, 000 (or Euros)
Split this between 8 teams and we get roughly $3,000 and if we multiply this by the five events we get an entry figure for the three wild cards of about $15,000.
Problems ???
Well, the big problem is this, whilst the Americans wallow in their newly signed contract that has all their players playing as true professionals, yeah that's right, they get paid enough to play full time and their team owners, franchise owners and promoters also make a fair few quid, our mob have seen the light, or at least think they have, and it's green all the way, not just for go but for money.
Now Sergei and I had a long talk in Toulouse and put a set of proposals forward that would have to be implemented if RL and Nexus were to take part in X-Ball Europe and what lay at the heart of this was the necessity for a World X-Ball league to be set up, thereby locking us into an TV deals and or outside sponsorship deals that the league might attract.
Basically, we wanted to set ourselves up in a position that would have us feeding off any major income streams developed by the World League.
Sergei quite rightly made the point that when basketball fractured along similar lines and Europe separated out and went its own way, if we look at the success and consequent income streams of the NBA as compared to European basketball......basically, there is no comparison.
Any income streams that Europe would now need could not piggy back onto any American deal...
That means, we have to do our own, and this is the problem, the game in America has shaken its shackles of Ramboism, of wannabee soldiers running around the woods, it is viewed as an Xtreme sport with Fox Sports now televising paintball as an exciting, fun, Xtreme sport...right across America..in every State.
We just have not developed that far in terms of changing people's opinion and therefore we will NOT be able to negotiate the same level of deals the Americans have with their media partners. it just ain't gonna happen.
What does this mean ?
It means, that whilst the Americans wallow in greenbacks with paid players etc....we will struggle to keep the league afloat because how long do you think the promoters are gonna hold out with EXL team price tags flapping around and with no prospect of real monies knocking on the door?
The financial dynamics over here in Europe are a mere blip on the American screen, the political sensitivity is also vastly different as is the consensus public opinion regarding paintball...all this means that the only real chance we have, or in this case had, was to have jumped in at the beginning of the year on the X-Ball bandwagon.
As one very influential, and I mean very influential person in the NXL told me last night, 'You guys had it all and you blew it'.
Money lies at the heart of this; I don't believe we can attract the same levels, if any, from TV and or outside sponsors in the timeline required.
The EXL can go ahead, the teams can all go thru the motions of selling their franchise souls to the promoters........the promoters maybe, can all rub their hands together in expected monetary delight.....we'll see what happens
