NPPL Do You Care??????

[AGD]

AO,

I am here at the tournament and there is a lot of talk in the industry about the future of the NPPL. Of course everyone has opinions but I am interested in YOUR views on the subject.

For those of you that didn't hear, the group of promoters that handles the runing of the events has decided to separate from the NPPL. The NPPL is in theory a player run organization and functions as a league. It was formed originally to combat a perception that the tournaments were not a reflection of what the players wanted. In recent years the NPPL has suffered from lack of input and leadership but remained the "name" that sanctioned the toruneys.

The promoters were originally independent entities each with their own tournament. Last year they all banded together in one company and negotiated with the NPPL as one voice. This year there were several things that happened at the LA NPPL that are too much to get into but caused the promoters to quit the relationship with the NPPL.

Now there are several schools of though on the road forward.
1. Let the promoters do their job they have been doing more than the NPPL has to make it work.
2. Don't let the promoters take over the whole thing, the NPPL is a player run organization and it should stay that way.
3. Forget the promoters, put the tourneys out for bid someone will pick them up.

4. Take some of the existing tourneys and make them NPPL events and move forward.

5. Start a new league without the promoters or their pro teams and start with a clean slate.

6. The whole NPPL thing is way overated, spend the money on lower level tourneys where the real market is.

I am interested in your comments on these ideas. If you would like you can email your comments to [email protected] and I will forward them to others in the industry.

As usual I highly value your comments. I have tried to portray an even handed view of the situation. Myself and the rest of the industry are looking forward to reading what you have to say.

AGD

[FooTemps]

I pick 5. I think that the NPPL still isn't defined or set enough to be a good league. If we set down new rules, etc. with a new league it would be a lot more organized and a lot cleaner...

[Snooky]

I'm also in favor of choice 5. lets get a league that is as organized as the NBA or the MLB. I think it would really help our sport by having a good leauge

[rudy]

5

5 its about time

[toymyster]

Choice 5 is good only if something is done about the ref. situation!!! I think the sport does need a "professional" leauge, and what it will take is that league has to be run in a professional manner!!!

[CoFFeY[NiTrO]]

#5 B/c that sounds like the easiest one for my to play in when I'm sponsored by AGD

[edweird]

3 and 5

A League ran by industry leads (no offence) will not lead to overall advancement and development of the sport. I see it only as a way to lead a Player league is to designate a nonaffiliated nonbiased balanced committee to make rulings and then have a deticated industry supported promotion team to find and develop ways to make the sport more public and take the violent sterotype away from it. Also once a "Pro" team league is formed the players must be undercontract with the teams and the teams must be held accountable for their team. Much like other pro sports. We cant have pro players acting like buffons and not feeling the pains of it.

basicly for a true league to work on a large scale everyone from the orginization to the player must work as a unit to get this rolling.

[thei3ug]

let's face it, NPPL leaders were not exactly the most adept businessmen, otherwise they wouldn't have been edged out of their own events. I happen to believe that the only progress comes from private industry, and a "social" league isn't going to make controversial decisions, isn't going to protect its interests as much as a company with a lot of money to lose is.

[WickeDKlowN]

I pick #5

[virus]

a "pro" leauge for paintball should be as it is with any other sport. that being players and refs are 2 different groups.... also player attitudes need to improve and those that dont should be penalized, ie yelling at refs, rule infractions, etc much like other sports.

now as far as sponsers and promoters... sure let them sponser events and even teams but the teams should be contracted and held accountable for their players on their team... even say the use of a draft system after everything is under way......

but first the sport would have to prove itself to be a money maker for the sponsers who would be backing this, and would have to be very spectator friendly... with clear rules, goals of the game and scoring. when i first read of the format they were going to try at the IAO in PA, i looked at it and came to the conclusion of sounds ok but favors teams with more money/people. looking at that format now, if a new pro league were to happen, with the teams sponsers footing the whole bill (lets face it who could afford that much paint at each and every game all the time), then i can see this whole thing working....

on the financial side of this, the players should be under contract and paid by the team they are on, there should be a draft system, the pool for such a draft could come from the social leagues and tournies we have in place now, these "pro" teams would have to do some scouting for their players....

also there would have to be a salery cap... in the beginging, i doubt that sponsers (esp smaller ones) would be willing to go into this, without first seeing their return on such a venture....

we would also have to have regional divisions, probly keeping with the point system... this could be done 1st with a regional champ and then sned al the reg. champs to a final tourney in which they all compete, to get a national champ for that year....

this will all probly take 3-7 years to get big and keeping the sponsers that long may be hard, but once it does then even more possibilites open up. we may even see farm teams sprout up to form a minor league for paintball and things trickle down from there to the lowly rec player.... mostly making it cheaper too play in the long run....

basicly we just need to look at other sports for the template we need for ours to grow and become what many of us would like to see.



on a side note i'm sure i'll be editing this later... as i always think of better things to add and/or change when i rant like this a few hours later.... =)

[Jonno06]

The NPPL is a player run organization(or was supposed to be),but the greedy,money monger promoters just were in it for the bucks.I think it should stay NPPL and be RUN by PLAYERS FOR PLAYERS!

[Manuel_FZR]

I would also favour a league, witch is organized like the NBA or NFL ... this would really help the sport!

[clanger]

Just a question about #5. If there was a league like the NBA or NFL, would everyone from any division be able to enter into tournaments. Cause lets face facts if its like the NBA or NFL(which it never will be) then is there going to be drafts and player restrictions?

[SlipknotX556]

#5 I say just start everything all over again.

[pip_999]

wipe the slate clean

#5