Want Nike In Paintball?

[lunchbox]

ogre snowboarding bmx there not to the point yet where this topic is asking paintball to go those 2 sports are still called extreeme games. yes there decent but there not pro sports yet and have yet to crossover so you cant really judge pro sport to extreme sport there is no comparisin.noone in bmx or snowboarding is payed a million dollars a year as you commonly see in pro sports aka baseball ,football, basketball. so right now for them its still people who love the game not people who can do the game the best because there payed to play.

[Bartleby]

Alright lunchbox, but if you don't consider bmx or snowboarding to be "pro sports", consider how long the sport itself has been around. And then think about how long it has taken to become what it is today. Snowboarding has been around for over 20 years, but it's still considered an extreme sport. Surfing has been around for over 50 years, but it's still considered an extreme sport, and no one is paid like MJ. I think that you're taking the idea of corporate takeover on paintball way too far. Even if it did happen, it wouldn't happen to the degree that you're implying, and it definitely wouldn't happen within the next 10 years.

[ogre55]

Sports

Ok, as far as BMX goes, it is regularly featured on the ESPN network of channels. As for Snowboarding, it is an olympic event. The pros in these sports, as well as skateboarding, to name another one, live off their sports. PB pros still need day jobs to put food on their tables.

That is as far as I want it to go and frankly, that is as far as it will go, at least in the foreseeable future.

[hitech]

Originally posted by lunchbox
...if you give it up to sponsors and corperations guess what you will no longer be part of the sport you will just be imitating a game pros play.

Don't take this the wrong way, but, so what. We (the non-pros) can still play the game the same way we do now. So what if we aren't the "best". I'm not now! We wouldn't be just "imitating", just playing at a different level. Just like "rec" players are today. I prefer "woods ball". That doesn't mean the game has passed me by, even though that is not what the "pros" play.

I don't see anything in your post that points to any problems with the sport becoming "big time". However, I don't think that will happen in my life time. But that's another subject.

[SyntaxError]

well see there's where you're wrong. The game will NOT be the same, and who knows whether more fields will open or not? Prices will still go up or at least stay the same as interest rises, manufacturers know that when people want something they can jack up the price. Also, the reason you don't see snowboarders or 'BMXers' getting paid like MJ is because those are individual events, not really team sports. Those atheletes don't recieve the same kind of salary from a team/organization.

In addition, if paintball DOES break into this category, it may not last long. Currently, our tourney scene is perverted with cheating, arguing, cursing, and overall bad behavior. Our referees can't even deal with this now, don't you think the cheating will only get worse if the players are paid to win?

Another, more overlooked consequence is how 'mainstreaming' the sport will exclude people. Look at basketball, are the older players able to keep up as well? Can fatter (no offense) players play as well? No, their physical limitations do not allow for it. So what does this have to do with pball? Simple, as people get better, the sport will evolve, pushing 'older', 'fatter', 'slower', or any other type of "physically limited" player out.

I for one would not want this

[lunchbox]

so basicaly you would spend a afternoon watching the game on tv than playing no wonder you want it to become a tv sport. all i can say is i spent to much time here on this post trying to make you look way into the future when its obvious you only care about tommorow, and whats on tv.
i will not reply again to this thread unless asked a question but to close my opinion is, if you need to see someone else playing your game on tv and to have a common household name to it for it to be real to you then you have no place playing that game.

[rjvemt1]

Maybe make them out of some slick material so paint won't stick on them..

tsk, tsk, tsk! frausty, my man, dont tread where angels fear!

[Sooky]

I personally would not care for Nike becoming a part of paintball. I just wouldn't care to use/wear Nike equipment/clothes made by some poor people in the Mexican Maquiadoras for $4 a day, or wherever. But then if you wear GAP clothes or Nike shoes, maybe it doesn't matter to you...

[JJBrookshire]

TV Example?

If you have QuickTime and good band width try the following link. It is a snip-it from an upcoming made for TV tournament being filmed in Aruba in September.
If you don't have good band width DON'T click on this unless you are very patient.

http://www.team-maxim.com/video/arubainvitational.mov

Let me know what you think.

[paintslinger]

that tourney looks hella tight. since its gonna be on espn hopefully alot of people will see it. i hope it boost paintball more into mainstream though.

[rjvemt1]

sooky,would you prefer that they make no dollars a day?consider the international exchange rate and the fact that,in u.s. dollars,most third world family income is around 100$ a month(i believe).this means that 4$ a day is 180$ a month job.sorry about the politics ao,its just that americans dont need to feel guilty about the standard of living(or lack there of)in other countries.yes,we can and should do as much as we can to help other peoples,however, we have worked very hard to get where we are and there is absolutely no shame in hard earned success.but thats just my .025$

[Python14]

Personally, I wouldn't mind Nike or another doing some deals in paintball. I wouldn't buy from them though. But I see some good things coming from it...

-The skill level of competion players would jump. With the possibility of Nike dishing out million doller advertising checks, players would try harder to be noticed. And I don't mean they will just get better, we will see more aggressive play. If you mentioned "Scouts" at any serious field, you could literally watch the speed of games boost and the moves would be better. All in time ofcoarse.

Also, since professionals could truely be professionals, and not have to worry about an actual job per say, they could focus more on their game. If Nike is willing to pay Tiger Woods a few thousand bucks a day just to wear a Nike shirt. I can imagine they would spot a 7 or 10 man team a pallet of paint every few days. Since they don't have to worry about minor things like that. They would be able to play harder.

-We, being I guess the mainstream of paintball, would get more attention. Today, I can walk out on the field and most ofte kids their know me and respect me. If paintball became big time, I, and most of you, would be quite highly revered. Most of us know paintball like the back of our hands. Most of the people who would start playing once Nike go into it wouldn't be quite as endowed. I can live with that.

While I like the privacy of paintball, I think having big names in the game wouldn't nessicarily be a bad thing.

[P8ntballerAK]

lucnh box I really hope your kidding. anyone out there who has the knowledge and skill to tryout for a football or a baseball team, and beat the current members, will most likely be drafted. Look at mark shlereth from the denver broncos. I talked to him when he came to my higschool forever ago, he never thought he would have made it to the nfl, but he did because he was better than the competition. the only way your gonna be called a "poser" or "wannabe" is if you already are. If you cant hack it in the pro circuit, then you shouldnt be there. And right now the best players in the world are the people who play paintball now, no guy is just gonna show up and take thier spots without PROVING hes better. And in case you havent noticed there is pro football, minor football, semi pro football, college football, and highschool fottball, same whit baseball. I see the same thing happening with paintball in the future,

Another thing to consider:

paintball is awsome right now because of minds like tom kay always trying to figure out a way to make the sport better, make equipment more accurate, more consistent. If we get corporate in here with us, that means more minds thinking on the same problems, which in turn means better solutions. That, my friend, is what we need in paintball today.

[rjvemt1]

If we get corporate in here with us, that means more minds thinking on the same problems, which in turn means better solutions

but we will also have more minds flooding our market with pure crap.paintball is not going to get huge until the 'spectater' issue is addressed and solved. corporate sponsorship goes were the money is and the money is in the pocket of spectators.would pro atheletes get the kind of money they are getting if only pro athelets watched the games?heck no!having netting around your hyperball and speedball fields isnt good enough, get some of those metal little league bleechers out there. my local field has an amatuer tourny the first sunday of every month,if they had this setup, i would be out there to watch on the days i couldnt play.strap a hotdog and drink dray on some kid and the next thing you know,me and the two or three people that come out with me are droppin 20$ on a 'day at the ballpark' type lunch.

[ogre55]

rjvemt1 wrote:

>>having netting around your hyperball and speedball fields isnt good enough, get some of those metal little league bleechers out there. my local field has an amatuer tourny the first sunday of every month,if they had this setup, i would be out there to watch on the days i couldnt play.strap a hotdog and drink dray on some kid and the next thing you know,me and the two or three people that come out with me are droppin 20$ on a 'day at the ballpark' type lunch.<<

rj: That is about the most brilliant PB related thing I have heard in a long time. The strange thing about brilliant ideas is that they are usually the simplest. Speedball, whether Hyper or Super-Air, is a classic spectator sport. Fast, action oriented. Hell, look at some of the spectator sports of today. Baseball? It's like watching grass grow. Auto-racing? Go out to the speedway and watch cars make left turns all day.

And people go out just to WATCH these sport, without any chance of real participation for most of them, at least as far as auto racing is concerned.

Here you have a relatively fast and enjoyable game/sport, that is pretty high teck (compared to base/foot/basketball) that almost anyone with a little $$ can at least try.

And as far spectators just enjoying a a "day out at the park" without playing, I can say from personal experience that it us definetely enjoyable. I was at the AO NJ II, and because of an injury, I could not play, so I watched the tounrney all day and had a great, if sunburned time.

To reinterate...RJ, great idea.

lunchbox wrote:

>>so basicaly you would spend a afternoon watching the game on tv than playing no wonder you want it to become a tv sport. all i can say is i spent to much time here on this post trying to make you look way into the future when its obvious you only care about tommorow, and whats on tv.<<

Kids watch baseball and then they join little leagues. Maybe is PB had some good TV converage we would have more kids bug their parents to go to the local field, or perhaps even have PB little league.

SyntaxError wrote:

>>The game will NOT be the same, and who knows whether more fields will open or not? Prices will still go up or at least stay the same as interest rises, manufacturers know that when people want something they can jack up the price.<<

Don't mean to beat a dead horse but if demand goes up, supply will as well. There are few things one can trust but greed is always a winner. If more people want to play, someone with a little money to invest will see it and open a field to cater to those people. Or established fields will expand to meet the supply. As for equipment/paint priced going down, the expanded market will force the prices to go down. I have been playing for over a decade and I can tell you that prices have come down.