Skyball 7, just a "Heads up", and rant

[MarkM]

Originally posted by Webmaster
My god... number 7? Seems like only yesterday I was playing with you at the first one... wow - time flys!

PS - where the HELL is Kennedy How?

[Tyger]

No, those are the US prices.

I CALLED "XO" directly, and talked ot the event coordinator, Michelle. SHE TOLD ME those were prices in "US Dollars". The even went out of her way to tell me it was US DOllars. Heck, I'm happy enoug to play at the Dome, Jumbotron or not...

As to the why part, Shartley, When I talked to her I was a little shocked over it, so I didn't ask. I'm waiting to see a prize listing, to see if it's justified. I mean if they're giving a Hummer for first place, it's justified. If it's a few cases of paint, no.

Mark : 1.905.796.3573 That's their contact # at X.O. That's where I Called to get a human to ask questions to.

And Kennedy? I don't know, I haven't seen him in a while. Heh, make new stickers. "I knew Kennedy How"

-Tyger

[titan aresta]

I just got the skyball7 package in the mail today (came for Team PPIG) and yes those are the correct prices.

Rookie $850 US - $1165 CND
Novice $900 US - $1235 CND
Amature $1000 US - $1370 CND

Team Registration Pricing
Our pricing strategy has changed due to the new added features and different creations that XO has developed.

Pricies [sic] above are based on the currency exchange rate as of september 16/03. These figures are subject to change due to fluctuating exchange rates. If you require any further questions please contact XO at 905-796-3573 or email at [email protected]

The rest of the package is the usual "skyball7 will be the best yet" stuff, hotel info and pricing, flight and car rental info, contact info, and team registration form.

no news on prizes, and what they actualy hope to improve over the last skyball.

[LaW]

definately now out of my price range and will no longer be planning on attending this event. oh well

[Kaiser Bob]

eh 170 a person for rookie, a little steep, depending on paint prices i would still play. As long as its not 80 a case or something, that would be annoying.

[CDN_Drew]

Although this is info from a couple years ago I was told at the time by people connected to Zap that to rent the dome it was something around $ 25.000 cdn a day + extras like the jumbotron . Thats why there is a rush to get everything down right after the final game. If they don't have all the stuff out by midnight they charged an extra $ 25.000

[nerobro]

the paint IS $80 a case.

[chunk_daddy]

well i was planning on going, and still will, but im not sure about my team mates

[SeeK]

Originally posted by Webmaster
My god... number 7? Seems like only yesterday I was playing with you at the first one... wow - time flys!

PS - where the HELL is Kennedy How?

Maybe he's in the same area as Fred Schultz, but you can locate him through TACOM.

Should we put him on a carton of milk?

Tyger, I think the first couple were $500 USD.
If we run the numbers there were 200 teams at $650 that's $130K right there. One could estimate the other revenue figures from tickets, booths, video and paint sales.

Kendrick

[JLove]

Well, I have attended all six Skyball events. I even used to host the Skyball.com web site until they did not pay their bills. Now I own skyball.com and you can see for yourself what I posted there.

$1000 is just too much for this event. The prizes suck, they always have.

Everyone has selective amnesia each year about the fact that this event is also single-elimination. You have one bad game in the semis and you go home. That is one of the things that is so appealing about the super seven series. You get a round robin semi and final. Yes you shoot more paint, but nothing is more fair than that.

I for one am glad that Zap is going down the tubes. They should have taken some of that paint money and paid for better prizes. They had six years to fix it and they didn't. What they did to the WPF will never be forgiven by me. They put them out of business.

Even though the dome costs $30,000 a day, it is not impossible to run a great event there AND make money. The event promoters have ALWAYS done a crappy job helping the vendors with customs. If they could have figured that one out, then the trade show would not have suffered like it has. Its the same vendors every year, and most of them are a waste of time. Except AGD, of course.

Six years of that cold, boring city is enough for me. Next year I will probably go to Mardi Gras. Not because of the Skyball entry fee, but because without a prize package at this stage of the game, it is obvious that they are going to hold the vendors hostage for prizes again, which means that the prize package will suck. I hope I am wrong, but who wants to wait till the last minute to find out?

[SlartyBartFast]

Originally posted by JLove
Six years of that cold, boring city is enough for me. Next year I will probably go to Mardi Gras.

Once again I'll ask. How about a new event in Montreal at the Olympic Stadium?

While it is cold during the winter months, Montreal is far from boring.

Rub a super seven type event under the roof. But, I think that there's still an issue with using the playing surface during the winter (roof problems, long story ). But the amount of space and size of rooms/areas around the playing surface is incredable.
You'd have no trouble hosting an enormous event with great locations for the vendors and staging areas.

[JLove]

Montreal is definitely a better city than Toronto. It is not that Toronto is bad, its just that when the event is lame, it is good to get away from the dome and have fun. There are a couple of decent night clubs and restaurants in Toronto, as well as an iMax theater, but most paintball players are not interested in that. I would be happy with a decent shopping mall.

If the prizes where great, the price came down, and they fixed the vendor situation, it would be a better event. I agree with the other poster that said that paintball in the dome is "an extreme hobby". This is a very true and sad fact, which is proven year after year by the fact that there are ZERO (and I do mean none) spectators that come to watch the Skyball event. At least with the Super 7, they are onto something by combining music and other attractions to make it more of a festival. Hell, the Amateur Open has even resorted to "festivalizing" the event with motorcycles, bmx, RC cars, etc. That is what Skyball needs to do in a hurry.

As I said before, they also need to lose the single-elimination format. Once you make the semis, they should be round-robin like the Super 7. That is a lot more fair than running it like a "march madness" basketball tournament. One bad game and you go home. That would not be bad if this was a little local event. But its not. It costs $800 plus per per player to attend. And I have regularly spent well over $1000 each year to play it.


I sent Aldo Perrone (the new promoter of Skyball7) an e-mail and asked him:

- When is Skyball7 going to commit to the prize list?
- What are the prizes going to be?
- Are they going to be prizes that you purchase, or are you going to try to negotiate them from the vendors?
- What are trade show booths going to cost?
- Why did the entry fee go up so much?
- With the entry going up, is the paint price coming down?
- Who is going to do the reffing?
- Who is going to do the scoring?
- Are the fields going to be ultimate air?

We will see if he responds. IF he does, I will post it. You guys should e-mail him as well and add some pressure. His e-mail address is [email protected].

[Fred]

just a thought, why not try for a new event, at the Pontiac Silver Dome (where the Detroit Lions used to play...)...

its frickin huge, and i think they're using the parking lot as a drive in movie theater right now...

After missing out due to my own lack of planning last year, i was really gonna try hard for it this year.. but that entry fee is just rediculous...

---Fred

[cheetah256]

my thoughts exactly fred! the silverdome is completely empty, but from what i've heard, they're going to bulldoze it.

[JLove]

Looks like a good staduim, but one nice thing about the Skydome is the built-in hotel. Watching games from your room is really neat.