my thoughts on pro piantball's acceptance

[Gabriel]

hello again from germany, land of beer and bratwurst. I have some time on my hands, so I thought I would let you all in on a little revalation that came to me over night. (it's sad, I dream about paintball... really )

So, everybody says the reason pro pb isnt taken seriously is because of cheaters, foul mouths, flaring tempers, and unsportmanship. Not so. Anyone of you ever seen european soccer? Or how about American Hockey? Let's just say they arent the best examples of sportmanship in the world. So, no, it is not that. Now let's think of other sports. For example, sumo wrestling, or kung-fu. Great sportsmanship. But not considered by many americans as a fun sport. Now the question is 'why?' I'll tell you why. Marketing.

All the other major sports have marketing out the wazoo. Come on guys- skating, inline, wakeboarding, snowboarding (not to mention the 'real' sports like football, baseball, and basketball) are kicking our asses in marketing. I mentioned the 'extreme' sports because that is the group we are labeled in by most of the public. If we had ONE or TWO professional leagues, it would be easier to market. If these two leagues actually made an effort to get the word outside of the industry, then others would be drawn to it. This different league for different month stuff doesnt cut it. It's too hectic. It just doesnt work. Until our sport is more organized, we wont be able to 'compete' (pun intended).

Gabe

EDIT: not only that, but standard rules on ages would be required too. 'youngest professional paintball player in the world' ring a few bells for you socal guys?

[yeahthatsme]

i think paintball still has A LOT of settling to do before it can get REALLY big....the NXL needs to get alot more coverage for what it is, the future of paintball, instead of just another part of the PSP...


there needs to be a bigger outreach to other sports for paintball, but moves are being made. such as having exhibition games at other extremem sport competitions(i believe that there will be a paintball exhibition at the gravity games, or something like that)

getting into the olympics wouldnt hurt either

[Gabriel]

haha... olympics...

[Lohman446]

Well, in my opinion, the step between paintball and big is simple. A single sponsor. And I am not talking sponsors like Dye or anyone else associated with paintball. Think Budweiser, think Pepsi, think Nextel (aka the Nextel Cup). Once you had a big promotor you would have serious resources for media coverage, etc. But, who is that promotor going to be, I would like to see the Budweiser Shoot-out be something other than racing personally.

[hotrod]

Players statistics is something that I have always felt was missing from paintball. Team statistics are tracked, but not the individuals. It seems like fans of all sports want somebody to call their favorite and they can follow their game. I think if statistics could be kept, strong performers would become more well known and followed. Currently it seems like the most famous players are the ones that are in trouble.

I don't really know what kind of statistics could be tracked. Maybe ratio of eliminations to times being eliminated. Obviously, tracking eliminations during a game is a big challenge.

This is just something that I have always thought would make the game more interesting for me.

[AGD]

Gabriel,

Nice intelligent post, glad to have you here.

AGD

[trains are bad]

What hotrod said.

Also, shame on you for using the word 'extreme'. Double shame on you for using it to describe paintball.

Paintball is a team sport.

[bunkermaster10]

Good post. Gabe where do you play at.... I was playin at Darmstadt today w/ one of my teammates. Do you live near Kaiserslaturn maybe? Our team will be playing in the Max's Master European tourny and Dynasty and Ton Ton's will be there you should come down to watch.

I wish paintball would get huge like real american pro sports....

[Major Jam]

I think it's important to note that alot of sports have a 50 year head start on paintball. Some forms of sport have a thousand year head start on paintball.

Baseball, football, basketball and car racing all in their current form got started right before/during the time television was invented. They needed something to put on the television, so the big sports have had help all along.

Paintball is what? 20-25 years old? Big, big things happen about every 5-10 years in paintball. Pump, semi, electro and the CO2 to HPA and in paintball manufacturing.

I guess I didn't have really anything else to add other than paintball is just out of infancy and has some growing to do. I'm excited about what is coming for the sport of paintball. (If we can keep the government from banning it.)

[Gabriel]

Originally posted by AGD
Gabriel,

Nice intelligent post, glad to have you here.

AGD

YAY!!!

Originally posted by bunkermaster10
Good post. Gabe where do you play at.... I was playin at Darmstadt today w/ one of my teammates. Do you live near Kaiserslaturn maybe? Our team will be playing in the Max's Master European tourny and Dynasty and Ton Ton's will be there you should come down to watch.

I wish paintball would get huge like real american pro sports....

Sweet! I am sidelined for the year due to finances, but when I hop the pond again, I'll start ripping. I live in zwickau, sachsen. Where is the Master European tourney? I would kill to see Ton Tons and Dynasty!

[bunkermaster10]

Max's

Its in Bitburg man. At a really nice soccer stadium, its gonna be a blast.

[Gabriel]

I am there! I sent you a PM.

[rabidchihauhau]

stats & marketing

Hey, I didn't read all the posts in this thread - I scanned most - and I didn't see a single mention of the SGMA

The Sporting Goods Manufaturing Association is the country's leading marketer for sports. Paintball's big boost starting 5 years ago can be directly attributable to the inclusion of the game in the SGMA's annual participation survey. That's when we found out how popular paintball really is.

More importantly, marketing types who spend dollars trust and utilize the SGMA's reporting to make their own decisions about what to do with their dollars. Most of them were unaware of our demographics and size until SGMA laid it out for them.

SGMA placed paintball in their extreme sports category. I argued strenuously for a separate categor (extreme TEAM sports) - but they only make new categories when there are multiple sports that would qualify.

The category a sport is placed in is based on demographics, so, for better or worse, paintball was and is listed as an extreme sport.

Folks who suggested that we need a marketing org for the INDUSTRY are correct, we do. However, it will never happen effectively until the companies with money to afford such a thing back off and let it happen at arms length, instead of using it to benefit themselves primarily and to hurt their competitors.

PS - same goes for industry organizations of any kind, no matter what you call them. When it comes to organizing for the benefit of the industry, everyone seems to first ask - what's it going to do for me? That political attitude stymies the effort every time.

If the industry wants to see it really happen, they need to do one thing - FUND an outside firm that is absolutely independant. But I've been saying the same thing for almost 15 years now.....