How long untill the big money enters our sport?

[Tiny]

Rumor is that some big sponsors are looking at paintball as the next big thing. When will they show up?

Soft drink, sports drink, beer, smokes etc.. These big companies have entered every other sport that they thought could reach their target market. How long for paintball?

When they do show up, how will our sport change? Companies will start to hold their own events. Much more money will be thrown around. Sounds cool to me!

Personally I think we need to change our tournament refereeing (among other things) before anyone serious shows up ,but we'll see.

[Bonx0007]

I wouldn't mind being sponsered by coke, tide, mountain dew, heck who ever as long as i get to play more. More money mos def. We will all be millionares, Right?

[FooTemps]

I wouldn't mind if fox sports net supported the sport. That would show my parents paintball isn't bad... It would be even better if disney supported paintball...

[graycie]

there are too many leagues, sets of rules to be variables for a major company to enter in for endorsements. the sport has to have some kind of universal set of rules and format. look at inline, skateboarding, etc., tricks have names and only one name. paintball lacks that right now.

also getting back on espn would help.......a major company isn't going to support anything if the promotion of product through advertisement on a banner, jersey, sticker isn't going to be seen.

[cphilip]

gracie is right on. Another thing to add to where she was going with that train of thought is that whatever new format that everyone plays needs to be Spectator and TV compatable. So folks can understand how its going. Can see the progress and strategy of the game as it develops. A clear winner and loser. Who's ahead? As it is now if you never played it looks like pure mayhem. Well sometimes it actually is! But you get my drift?

[Tiny]

I agree with both Gracie and cphilip. I know that some people are trying to change these important aspects of the game. How is it coming?

I feel that good TV coverage is important to the future of paintball and would like to help with the changes if I can. Does anyone know how to contact the groups attempting to make these changes?

I would love to see people make a living by playing pro (or high level am) paintball. I'm too old for that now but it would have been something to strive for years ago when I started playing. I would be very interested in becoming a referee for some of the tournaments. Since I personally know very few high level players and have 14 years playing experience I think I would be as good a candidate as anyone else.

I hope the future of paintball keeps on the right track! There is room for all types of paintball. I hope that certain types of paintball don't get forgotten because people only play the game to chase the money.

[cphilip]

The NPPL (I think thats the one)is proposing a TV spectator friendly Format but it seems to be going slowly. They have a site I think. I'll try and find it.

[Tiny]

Is this it?http://www.npplinfo.com

I've read that they may have more than just the future of paintball on their agenda. I don't know for sure! If they are making changes too slow we need someone else to step up to the starting zone.

A good place to start anyway.

[cphilip]

Tiny I am just not sure. the one I was thinking of had its tourney format up on the web site. I think it was the parent company of NCPL LLC. I thought it was NPPL or might have been NPL? And it was corporate entity out of Canada running it. It was a strange two flags and advance them towards the opponents end of the field scoring points for degree's of advancement idea. So spectators could follow the two flags progress and see the flags as they teams tried to get them into the other territory. Something like that.

Novel idea but who practices that kind of game? So hense the problem...

[Webmaster]

"there are too many leagues, sets of rules to be variables for a major company to enter in for endorsements. the sport has to have some kind of universal set of rules and format. look at inline, skateboarding, etc., tricks have names and only one name. paintball lacks that right now. "

I disagree with that. Nearly every sport has different levels of competition and different rules that go with. While the rules are similar, the game is the same. You can see this from stock car racing to football. Highschool/college/pro football all have different rules.

Stock car racing starts from the dirt and builds up to the big race tracks - and all of the drivers rely on sponsorship money.

We obviously have a core organiztion to launch paintball into the public light (NPPL). It has different levels of competition and consistant rules. The other leagues would be like comparing dirt track racing to NASCAR - similar rules, same game, minor differences.

I suppose we should all take a vote and name every bunker a "teacup" or "dorito" but that really isnt a huge deal at this point.

After talking with JJ brookshire I think we may see some non-industry money coming into the sport soon.

With SPPLAT the players and the corporations are going to be able to better track where players spend their money. If companies perk up and go - holy cow - these guys blow a huge wad of money on us each year, then they are more likely to start investing into the sport to draw more players to use thier products/services.

I think that is the first step - to get pizza hut etc to set up and take notice.

As for sponsorship - the jerseys offer ample room for sponsors to attach thier logo. If you ever watch dirt bike racing, every bale of hay has a logo of a sponsor on it. There is no reason why ever inflatable bunker couldnt have a sponsorship logo on it - as well as banners around the field in the back ground.

[skipdogg]

cphilip -

That may have been the USPL that was trying to do a TV friendly format with flags or something.
Needless to say i heard they went belly up and lost lots of dough.

[Hasty8]

I highly agree with Tom on this.

Like all the professional sports we have now they started as hodgepodge various circuits until some one finally came to the plate and united everyone.

Paintball definitely needs one of those.

What I am afraid of is bad coverage. Remember "Kind of Queens" and the stupid "reality" show involving people being hunted with paintball guns?

My biggest fear is this. All sports have to have a face to go along with the name. The faces are hidden by helmets so we take the helmets off. Of course, racing and boating and a lot of other "extreme" sports have people wearing face masks so this is pretty much a lost argument but my concern still exists.

I really would hate to lose my right to play pball because some nitwit thought it would be fun to shoot up a house or some stranger without a mask on.

[845]

Speaking of Disney I am an expert on the following 2 channels NICK and DISNEY. My sister loves Disney and I love Nick. Disney does support paintball somewhat I know I have seen it twice on 2 different movies one was the paper brigade (not that great coverage) and one other I cant remember. I also wrote to rocket power on Nick and they said paintball will probably be in th shows future.

[nutz]

i think it is not too far from some smaller nonpaintball companies get involved with sponsorship... it will most definitly be small but untill pb can reach the tv, almost no big companies will get involved with this because there is only an audience of like 5000 ppl at tournaments and it wouldnt be worth that to spend money on that many ppl. if it were on tv, the audience would be huge and then they would hop right in and put their log everywhere

[Miscue]

I want to be sponsored by Clorox and wear their white jersey.