why paintball isnt on mainstream TV

[Fanatic]

to start out, i would like to know the views of fellow AO'ers on what their opinion is on why paintball isnt of mainstream tv (ESPN,etc.) and not just a shot or a segment on our sport. now i have seen the xball on and found it nice. just so nobody can say "yeah it is!"

well in my opinion, if you compare our sport with other x-games sports out there i found something very familiar.

one is that if you compare xmoto, boarding, surfing, inline, bmx, and others. the sport is centered on the individiuals performance, actions, and talent. as for paintball, it is the team event and rarely directs any attention to a single player on a team.

which in turn draws the question on how about team sports like baskerball, football,etc..why are they on and we are not?

if cable TV can have the wine network or the polka hour
i think there is a chance for our sport yet:D

lemme here your views

[nippinout]

Because it is BORING to watch.

Watching bowling on TV is boring, but I LOVE going out with friends to bowl.

Sure, it's cool to see paintball on tv, but why? I think it's merely for the sake of it being paintball.

[Duke Henry]

I don't think boredom has anything to do with it. I find many sports boring on TV. That is, "sports" like bowling, curling, golf, etc. are all a snoozefest to me. However, if I was a fan of golf, I would probably like watching golf on TV (probably, because I can't say for sure - not liking golf at all...).

To me, the reason you won't see paintball on the TV anytime soon is because it is largely unprofessional. Overall, the whole "professional" tournament scene is a joke. Reffing standards don't exist, unsportsmanship is rampant, and this will be the case for a long time. Don't think I am a tourney-hater. Woodsball has the same problems, with wipers, bad reffing, and questionable players also.

I am probably going to take heat for this, but if I could sum it up I would say this: this sport encourages young players. Practically by definition, young players are immature. Without proper role models (i.e. mature adults, because oh yeah there are plenty of immature adults out there) these kids actually hurt the sport they claim to love.

The sport does nothing to encourage honour at the higher levels. That is, when you consider all of the blatent cheating that goes on and how refs are known to look the other way, because they are playing an event in the future with some of the offending teams reffing then. It is a joke.

Start with getting universal rules, a completely separate reffing core with no ties to the game (look at other successful leagues like the NFL and their reffing policies) and let's go from there!

[irbodden]

I think it's because of some legal actions taken by some guy in the industry... his name is like Lob Wong or something? ;)

[logamus]

baseball has to be the most punishing sport to watch but for some reason people still subject themselves to it.


i dont think there is a large enough audience to warrant tv coverage.

[Curly]

Originally posted by irbodden
I think it's because of some legal actions taken by some guy in the industry... his name is like Lob Wong or something? ;)

From what i have heard, a lot of big name companies sued espn after they aired paintball. From what i understand espn basically made the industry pay to have paintball shown because they claimed that no advertisers would back it. So the industry had to pay for the airtime, then espn made them all buy advertising on top of paying for the air time. Espn then broke the contract and showed the paintball in the middle of the night when it was supposed to be shown in prime time. Thus a lot of companies that put money into the airing sued espn.

This may or may not be correct but it is my understanding of why espn will not show paintball.

[ZSigErik]

Another theory I have is...

In other sports, such as football, baseball, there is ONE thing to focus on, a ball. Paintball doenst have ONE focus, becuase more then one person is doing something at a time to achieve a common goal. Each move not realy more important then the next. Football, everyone watches the guy with the ball, well paintball does really have "one guy with the ball".

The way I see it, paintball just isnt exciting to people OUTSIDE of the sport. I can name a million girls who love to watch football with me even though they really dont understand whats happening. Now imagine an even harder to sport to follow, paintball. IT just doesnt appeal, I mean yea we may be the 3rd largest extreme sport in the world, but without good solid fan base, we wont go ANYWHERE.

[Ironmag]

If you wanna talk about boring sports, don't forget about NASCAR Racing. Nothing better than watching cars go in circles for 3 hours straight. Only excitement is when there is a crash. Sad but true. Sorry if I offend anyone but it's true.

[adam shannon]

IMO paintball is just as fun to watch as play. if i cant afford to play i am almost as happy watching/reffing.

paintball has a problem..there is no one single focus of a game. TV doesnt like that, they want to be able to follow a ball, or one single athlete. i film tournaments at my local field...even with one camera in a tower and 2 on the field you still miss alot of the action. and this last time was just a 3 man...given 7-10 players on each side yur gonna miss alot. watch some of the video at warpig...tell me if you can keep track of who's winning and how many players are out, and where all the players are by watching one camera angle when there are 20 people on the field.

all that said it can be done...but it would be confusing to the non-paintball player. thats why tv wont risk it. most people that watch football..me included...have never played a single down with pads on, but we still watch.

in addition to the confusion think of the "mothers of america". these are the clueless people who dont know the number of violent video games they've bought for their kids x-box...but would write the president when a commercial ran on nbc for a paintball tourney because it espoused violence and showed people shooting eachother with scary realistic guns.

and last but not least....$$$$. paintball and all the major players in the industry still operate like a good ol' boy flea market. everybody would wrangle over who gets the lions share of the loot and who's products got more airtime. and whos banners and logos were all over the field. and the first time somebody didnt get their way they would just pull their support and take their toys and go home.

were talking about the same guys that couldnt get together on one tournament circuit. in the end it boils down to $. if espn and nbc and fox were having a bidding war over paintball coverage there isnt even one central body that speaks for the sport. can you say NFL, USFL, XFL, CFL, NFL-europe.

its not that TV isnt ready for paintball...paintball isnt ready for TV.

[frost]

well to tell u all there is going to be a paintball show called the splatterfactor on tnn last like i looked it was still up and ready to go and they where making shows but i havent look at it since try lookin at splatterfactor.com i think thats the website

[Blennidae]

I agree with nippinout. To the casual viewer its boring.

I remember watching a game on TV during at a time when I had not played in awhile. My impression was "so this is what paintball had become, a guy standing there just throwing paint downfield."

If I had never played and that was my first exposure to paintball, I would have no interest in ever wanting to play.

As for the 3rd largest extreme sport, what is that based on, and what are the top 2?

[Fanatic]

we would just need those cameras in the NFL

the ones that are over the field following the game on both sides

and the universal ref idea is great..maybe the sport can hire retired refs from pro games...the old geesers would be so cool to watch

[Miscue]

PB on TV sucks. They need a revolutionary new TV format for PB if it's going to do well.

[Phil]

What is boring about watching speedball is that everyone runs to a bunker strait away and then hides. There is some movement but not enough. I think it would be interesting if there were a 60 second bunker rule. You can only hide behind a bunker for 60 seconds. That would get em moving :D

[acecl22]

i think that it would be too hard to have a time limit on the bunkers, but if they just made the game time limit realy short, everyone would move alooot more

[ZSigErik]

Is it just me or is Adam shannons post and its followers sound EXACTLY like mine? LoL...

[adam shannon]

except i made 3 points...one expanding on yours, and 2 more you must have thought you posted.

1) laymans confusion
2) the difficulty of actually filming it
3) paintball politics

[ntn4502]

I think it would be possible and would be the best possible thing for the sport, but the problem being the only real sports channel doesnt like us all too much to say the least.

[Spyder BC]

I think that the ref/cheating issue is such a big problem due to the fact that you are hidden when playing (duh). But think about all of the other sports, refs have a great field of vision of all players (in comparison to p-ball) and there's 3-6 eyes in the sky that can monitor everything from many different angles.

Also paintball is exceptionally fast. As it stands, most games have no pauses, chances to assess what's going on, ect.

I like the idea that X-ball had, but I think that it failed in several respects. The 3 min wait time is grueling, and one round could potentially last a long time.

How about speeding UP X-ball's format? Each point lasts 3 mins. 1 min turn around time or maybe less (except in the case of controversial play). The round is played, outcome reached, penalties assigned, next round. How about like 9 people per team, but only like 3 on the field at once - the rest prep equipment, observe the other team, ect. In 40 mins of gameplay you would see a minimum of 10 breaks (one of the more exciting times of the game IMHO) in a normal game. Penalties - players are removed from the game for much longer in comparison to X-Ball, but the team can still field 3 players as long as there are 3 left not in the penalty box. The penalty taxes the team's ability to prep, plan, and stamina, plus the player would be out long enough that when they came back in they would be rested, but playing cold. The idea is to have many lightning fast rounds that forces lots of action in order to score points. It forces players to have greater physical stamina. It gets the crowd in a "mumblemumble..OOOooooooooooooAHAHAHhhhh repeat" pattern (use your imagination - you know what I'm talking about... ever watch Tennis?)

Well that's my .02 worth for now. Maybe with some tweaking it could work someday... I don't know. Just an idea I've been playing with...

[Riotz]

The reason paintball isn't on TV is because of legal action with ESPN, like irbodden and Curly said.


Now to improve the game to make it more exciting... Well there is allot you can do, namely make the games shorter because then they will move faster. Instead, some of the major tournaments are heading in the opposite direction just so they can sell more paint. NPPL has a good idea where they limit the number of bunkers in the back so there are less stale-mates and faster moving games.

Of course, refing is ALWAYS a problem. They should work on getting that fixed first. Ref's can't be lazy; they need to jump in there and get involved and not worry about getting hit. Give them armor if they are scared. There should be guide lines for refs, training, common hand singles that they MUST use, etc.

[TequilaMockingbird]

The most foolproof 60-second bunker rule I could think of would be to have mechanical bunkers on timers that slide into the floor after 60 seconds, then raise at a random interval. Now that would be fun to watch. :p

Paintball isn't really that bad compared to other sports on TV as far as watchability. A couple of Saturdays ago, I was flipping through stations, and apparently someone at NBC thought the best thing for a 2pm timeslot was...... Women's Curling. Now I like to watch women frantically sweep as much as the next guy, but COME ON! And outside sponsors paid ad money for this?!? Modern cameras could do great things with paintball. Besides the over-field cams like they tried in the XFL, "helmet cams" could provide some excellent footage.

[paint_munkey]

Originally posted by nippinout
Because it is BORING to watch.

Watching bowling on TV is boring, but I LOVE going out with friends to bowl.

Sure, it's cool to see paintball on tv, but why? I think it's merely for the sake of it being paintball.

i guess it could be boring for some people...
but, that's hardly the formula that espn uses to air "sports". just try flipping around espn and its clone networks on a saturday afternoon, and there won't be anything on except billiards, sumos, and horseback-riding.

[Nick1Shot]

1Shot Productions

On behalf of 1Shot Productions (www.1shotprod.com) I appreciate the thought and brainstorming everyone puts into this. Our company wants to help paintball get on television just as bad as the next guy. Your ideas can do nothing but help!

1Shot's main priority is quality of our production. Our owner, Bob Vest just returned from the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas, where he picked up some cool new equipment to use for our videos. Not only did he get great equipment, but made some excellent contacts with people in the Broadcasting Industry. What we are working with is a need to formulate a story/plot to paintball. All sports show the story of a struggle/conflict. One team against another, a contestant trying to hit a certain trick or number of tricks, getting a tiny ball into a cup, etc. Tournament format paintball as it is has no steady plot. How could we incorporate a good story/plot without bastardizing what paintball is and is really all about?

1Shot Productions is working to accomplish a quality of paintball video/television production...thanks for your help!

Nick
1Shot

www.1shotprod.com

[devildog]

its hard to capture the action, you cant really tell who is shooting at who, and you cant see the actual paintballs always, so it makes it tough, i think it would be cool if they had head cams, or marker cams so you can see the actual action

[BobTheCow]

Originally posted by Nick1Shot
Tournament format paintball as it is has no steady plot
I somewhat disagree. Two teams, fighting for (in most cases) a single flag, and returning it safely. I think that if you had a knowledgable commentator (oohh, let's say somebody like TOM KAYE) explaining as well as describing the action, it would be much more appealing to an audience that knows little or nothing about paintball. (I'm assuming the "ignorant" audience is who we are aiming for?)

[Nick1Shot]

Originally posted by BobTheCow63

I somewhat disagree. Two teams, fighting for (in most cases) a single flag, and returning it safely.

That is exactly what the game is, but...tournament paintball usually consists of hundreds of these all in one event. Therefore, there is no steady or consistent plot in tournament paintball. It's a bunch of little ones.

My idea would be to follow one team, from their home in the morning before they leave, to the awards ceremony. It would be somewhat like a RealWorld show, all about paintball. But I think the sport itself might lose a lot in this plot. That's what I meant by "bastardized".

We had it easy covering the Memphis Indoor Challenge, there was only 1 field. All the teams played right there, and we were more in control of what we saw and could choose what we wanted to see. At World Cup and at Ultimate Madness, we had to take what we could get. With 12 or even just 6 fields, we are allready missing 11/12 or 5/6 of the games that go on. How do you show on TV what you can't shoot with the camera?

Just some thoughts.

Nick
1Shot

www.1shotprod.com

[*captain_cox*37]

Originally posted by nippinout
Because it is BORING to watch.

Watching bowling on TV is boring, but I LOVE going out with friends to bowl.

Sure, it's cool to see paintball on tv, but why? I think it's merely for the sake of it being paintball.


You said bowling is boring. But they have bowling on t.v. . Why can't they give us a show of paintball here and there.

[DyNasTy]

Paintball isnt really that boring too me too watch, I think its awsome.

Its honestly like watching a hockey game, or basketball game, or football game, but something I am more interested in. Yes there is more moving in all of those, but I mean, when a really good move is made or u watch someone get bunkered the 10-15 seconds a player didnt move made it just cool too watch either way.

[LittMag]

Originally posted by ZSigErik
Another theory I have is...

In other sports, such as football, baseball, there is ONE thing to focus on, a ball. Paintball doenst have ONE focus, becuase more then one person is doing something at a time to achieve a common goal. Each move not realy more important then the next. Football, everyone watches the guy with the ball, well paintball does really have "one guy with the ball".


I TOTALLY Agree, perhaps this could be solved by not showing games live *gasp* ... give the producers some time to select the most exciting camera, or where the turning point of the game is gonna be. Either that or every 5th paintball or so needs to be a tracer ball, like in the military, so we can see who's shooting where.

-Litt

[Nick1Shot]

Tracer balls, I thinks that is outstanding! Kinda like the same technology that they use on FOX to put a yellow stripe on the 1st down marker, or in Hockey when they put a tracer on the puck. Good thinking!

The struggle with paintball videos isn't choosing the shots/angles used, but being able to achieve the shots and angles. I used to work for a TV station doing football, baseball, basketball, etc. There are 2 cameras up high...1 stays wide to see the whole field, 1 zooms to show individual action. Then there are 2 cameras on the field, running along the sidelines each on one side if the 50. This is the approach for paintball, except sometimes the bunkers hide the players. It's pretty tricky to cover so many guys all at once.

Keep brainstorming!

Nick
1Shot

www.1shotprod.com