wrong sport?

[simm33]

I'm coming back from a little break from paintball. One thing I have noticed is that paintball has not progressed very well. I'm talking about locally to tournament circut/senerio.

I most commonly hear people compair paintball to the x-games and think we should follow in that sports path to become bigger/better. I have also heard the Olympics mentioned consistantly as the 'next big thing', but I dont consider that to be a realistic option till we have some agreement on a version of paintball to use. There are slight rule changes but for the most part the major olympic sports are the same, think basketball, bigger lanes, but still 5v5 set time most points wins. Think about the diff between NPPL and XBall.

I imagine one of the hard things about paintball is there is no governing body so to speak that can inact changes. What might be better sports to compair us to and attempt to model things after is the MLS(major league soccer) (minus the 150millon dollar brit) and AFL (arena football). Both I think have to be considered a sucsess and took similar approaches to accomplish this.

Instead of concentrating on TV deals they made a point to make a very watchable product that has a local following. The MLS puts a lot of work into picking cities to give teams to and wants every team to have a stadium. They want it filled with fans and keep ultimate control over about everything. The AFL allows the owners much more control but still clearly wants packed local stadiums. A more if you get enough spectators together the tv crews will follow approach.

What if tournaments should be gatherings of regonal winners, i.e. invite only, and put more on the local fields. You could have a roming crew to set up fields, supply refs etc. and bring in two pro teams per event to play. So you have a regonal tournament with the Ironmen vs. Strange headlining it. 2-4 times a year gather up all the regonal champs and have the type of tournament you have now. I think this would bring in more fans. People would become more vested in their local teams. You would get a lot more teams involved, since a big part of the expense is travle/hotel etc. Find 3-5 decent fields in each state and you could involve a lot of teams/people. Say that each field gets to send one am/ and 3 rookie teams on to the major tournament, something like that. Also we should look in how to design fields to make them specator friendly. Maybe square fields arnt the best. I like the NPPL green/red paint on the ground idea but maybe make the fields more diamond shaped get creative to give the fans watching a better show.

Just my late night thoughts, havent really worked it out so do flame me too bad.

[Nos]

I completely agree, for a while now, ever since I started delving into the world of paintball more seriously I've always wondered at what was stopping it from evolving further. The dream where paintball would finally share its place along side mainstream sports still continues...

I think the crux of the matter lies in the ability for paintball to entertain, its only fun for the players . You mentioned "watchability". Watching the NPPL, it is difficult for someone new to follow. two teams start, slide and dive, and then suddenly players get called out, and than its over. Comparing to sports such as soccer where the ball in play is easily viewed by the audience creating suspense, and many rounds are played.

X-Ball seems to have made an improvement over the NPPL in my opinion. Having a scoring system similar to hokey and soccer, allowing more action over a field and gives the audience a chance to spectate their favourite teams for longer.

The nature of paintball is a limiting factor, 300fps, wall of paintballs flying through the air... puts a dampner on things. Bunkering however is exciting compared to watching two players trade fire.

In both cases... camera filming is left to be desired. Birds eye view simply does not cut it. As an idea: helmet/gun cams? or perhaps more camera filming over the shoulders/ behind the player without obstructing.

What I'm trying to say is that paintball should be presented to the audience in such a way that it evokes the same rush we feel as players on the field. If we can capture the excitement, adrenaline pump, heart beating uncertainties and channel it into a TV/Live audience, I'm sure paintball will sell.

[wolf13]

I've always thought a big problem with paintball being acceptable as a marketable sport outside of itself was that the industry is its own worst enemy. the "leagues" are all run by the industry, the teams are owned by the industry and these same people basicly control every aspect of the sport at the upper level. the handful of "outsiders" are still old veterns from within the industry. they have everything to gain and loose so have no interest in being successful enough its taken out of their hands. Ie, there is a status quo that they CANNOT afford to break. Paintball keeps having its shots, but it keeps blowing it because it can't or won't give the media market what it needs.

Look at any mainstream pro series. they have a body of teams and owners that are strictly governed by an independent governing body with strictly enforced rules. major cheating is a scandal and its enforced with plenty of controversy and trumpet blowing. minor stuff gets handled by the refs and its taken care of for good or bad. they have schedules, strictly governed games and recognizable stars. people sit down, have a beer with friends and cheer for their team against another team.

over and over, its seemed like various tournament series and formats have been on the edge of doing something right, but inevitably, they have fallen back to the status quo. Xball came close, but they blew it. unfortunately, the biggest hurdle is always going to be money.

Throwing ideas around, I've felt for a while now that in order to move paintball into an acceptable main stream sport, a few things need to happen.


First off, an actual league needs to be formed, with a body of governors and a commissioner with the sole authority to set rules, enforce them, set schedules and hold the league contract with a reffing staff provided by them. yeah, its probably still going to be industry guys, but in all honesty, i think the real driving force needs to be people form the outside that know how to run a media driven league.


secound, a group of teams, call em east and west, american and national, whatever. Owners could be anyone, but treat em the same as a baseball or football team owner. they have a voice in running the league, but not in the day to day operations of the league itself. players, gear, everything strictly governed.

third, a schedule. I honestly think the current tournament format absolutely sucks for making a viable mainstream league sport. all the games are played over a course of a weekend, the decision is made and its done til next event. BORING. its all played out, theres no suspense. you know the standings long before its aired if you really care. whats worse is, you can't BET on it, run pools, you can't do fantasy series, you really can't get the fan involvement. Instead, teams should be playing once per week against one opposing team. Xball had the concept right here. a long, drawn out game with plenty of time to make it an event. Home and away events, run em on Saturday nights or something. should last 2-3 hours total. run these for say 13 weeks in your conference. in the end, the best four teams from each conference duke it out in a post season and have your superbowl at the end.

and finally, the pagentry. you might not think about it, but its there. the announcers, the hype, the arena's, the sponserships and scoreboards and the players antics. admittedly, this is something paintball does do fairly well in its own way, but it could be a lot better. if you have a home field you may be playing six or seven game son over the course of a season, why stick with boring old airball. why not have each arena do its own themes. the movie running man comes to mind. Imagine it, Detroit's home game on its urban warfare junkyard field against a california team one week, and later in the season the two teams meet in the California jungle. Both would of course be carefully sculpted, precisely laid out and both teams would have have played it, had scouting reports and there would be no more suprises then a normal field but it really would give the home teams a true identity.

the actual game format itself isn't a big deal, heck, xball was the right step in that sense. really, if you think about it, major league sports are all about periods of intense action followed by a pause. the more intense the brief period of action the more successful. paintball can provide that. its not about watching a ball, its about mass mayhem for a short time period. the ball in other sports makes a focus for action, but if you have other elements in play you don't need that focus if the action is fast enough for people not to get bored.

just my thoughts

[Nos]

the actual game format itself isn't a big deal, heck, xball was the right step in that sense. really, if you think about it, major league sports are all about periods of intense action followed by a pause. the more intense the brief period of action the more successful. paintball can provide that. its not about watching a ball, its about mass mayhem for a short time period. the ball in other sports makes a focus for action, but if you have other elements in play you don't need that focus if the action is fast enough for people not to get bored.

Agreed, my example with watching a ball was just a comparison. But yes, you're completely correct about elements of play that provide action and excitement. Its really a balance between finding a pace at which both newcomers and fans can follow without making the whole event a drag.

In regards to your other points.. yeah paintball does seem to be pretty rotten from the core.

[Aggravated Assault]

If you do a search, there has been several topics on governing bodies, formats, or "what does paintball have to do to get to the next level" type things. Several over the last year, or so I think.

If one was to do some digging, there's some pretty good nuggets of info in between the usual banter.