Why paintball will never be football. (Popularity)

This is my opinion; if you disagree please leave your constructive point below and I will be happy to respond.

Interesting points are in red, and generic points are in brown.

1) The community - To enjoy football you don't have to play it. The fans support there team and have fun without touching a ball. This however cannot be said for paintball. Anyone who likes paintball or enjoys it has to play it to do so. You don't have avid Nexus fans who have never touch a marker or people who can't stop thinking about the sport but don't play it/have never.

2) Price - This is a very basic point which people already know about, therefore I am not going to expand upon it.

3) Public connotations - If you start a conversation about paintball at work/school - who is inexperienced - the phrase "frozen paintballs" will appear. This is what is known as fear mongering, although on a small scale. Yes, it is all about education, but this is not possible if people are scared of the sport. They will have zero interest in something that they feel is dangerous, and will not research to find otherwise. This prevents new members enjoying the precious activity we have.

4) Technology - As we all know paintballing technology is huge. So big in fact that there is now a huge gap between rental kits and electronic markers.People new to the sport are going to want a electronic marker, as the normal mechanic rentals are simply not good enough (ROF and accuracy). This does two things: scares people off by making people think if they don't have a Geo 3 and a rotor they are at a disadvantage and shows them this is not going to be a cheap sport.

5) Availability - This is split into two sections, shopping and playing. We know that you can't play paintball anywhere apart from a paintball field. You can't play paintball as you could kick a football around. Although, I'm sure you know this. Also, shopping. This is once again a problem of exposure, you will not see, in the UK, a single paintball related item in almost all shops. However, other sports are labelled everywhere. Yes, this is because of popularity, but people don't know what we are.

6) What people think paintball is - Quoted from pandamonium "what i find is that whenever i mention that i play paintball to people i find that i usually have to explain that i dont run around in the woods playing scenario games (I do love them but i dont do it very often) and how supair is played. This has been a major part when works staff paintball day has popped up."

Overall:
I believe that we should not be looking to make our sport like football, rugby or tennis. I think that paintball should be treated like skateboarding in that it will remain relevant, maybe increase in popularity, but still have a close knitted and small community. This is because paintball's mechanics don't allow it to extremely popular.

Thanks for reading, if you agree or disagree leave it below.

Jamie

Completely agree

Thanks

Sorry, have I missed something?

Who precisely is trying make paintball like football, rugby or tennis?

I agree with most points, however having an electronic marker does not make you a better player. I've played against own gunners plenty of times before I got really into the sport with tippmann 98's and out played many of them on the field. Mechanical markers aren't inaccurate my any means. In fact many mechanical markers are more accurate than some of the electronic markers available on the market today. Many all mechanical autocockers can be far more accurate than whats on the market at the moment.

agree, and it will never be like football.

in my opinion on of the biggest things is:

children and teenagers grow up with football as part of their school P.E and break time hobby - playing on a daily basis. All that participation in a sport at a young age...no wonder why so many people like football throughout there life span.

I agree that many electric markers far surpass mechanical markers, the point I was trying to make is that you can still have fun and keep up with players with electric markers if you as a rental player are using a mechanical marker.
After all that's how all of us got into this sport didn't we? We played punter/ rental games, had a great laugh and then moved on to purchase our own gear, etc.

And fill the ball full of paint.

Voila, paintball.

Yes you have. I'm saying that people should look at paintball differently, not saying "It should be on TV again".

Also, I'm talking about popularity not "trying to make paintball like football, rugby or tennis,". It's just an open discussion, an opinionated point.

Completely agree with you. Great point

I agree with most of what you said. However, the price of electic markers after you decide to get into the game is often extremely high and playing a walk-on, when relatively inexperienced, with a mechanical marker your not going to enjoy the game as much as if you had an Ego at 12.5bps.

We should just advertise paintball for a fun adventure sport, and competitive sport that it can be; many of my colleagues and friends are intruiged by it, and have started playing more/getting their own kit due to increased exposure... of course it will never be like football or rugby, but it is certainly growing!

Yes 99% have played football in their life... But do not play it as a sport, often and play it seriously. Unlike paintball.

People who literally are just getting into the sport will be deterred by price. Doing anything to play, if you do that than that is pretty reckless. I know people who quit playing it regularly due to the price, yet they love the sport. E.g college fees, other schooling and just paying bills are more important than paintball should ever be to you. It's just a hobby/sport after all.

People often want the best, its human nature, people don't want a rusty ex rental tippman when they start out nowadays. The game is too competitive, you won't normally have as much fun with a semi, mechanical marker, whilst being blasted by a ramping EGO.

Please reply to this, I'm not arguing, I just like debating with people who don't just shout at you if you don't agree with them

I think paintball is a massively misunderstood sport. The amount of people ive spoken to, who due to their punter experiences, think that paintball is played in the woods by fat men who wish they were in the army is unbelievable, As we all know this simply isnt the case but trying to explain how its played competitively is often rewarded with a blank look and confusion. Id put this down mainly to lack of publicity and media coverage. I truly would love to see paintball return to the TV but realistically its fan base is far too small and therefore the TV companies are not going to challenge the viewing numbers of other sports channels that show football or rugby.
Personally, i like that paintball only has a very specific fan bas. Quite often when arriving at a tournament you will know many people there and be able to share the sport with people who are equally as passionate as you. Unlike football or rugby where many fans are not so much fans as they are spectators. The closeness of the paintball community is something I feel is unrivaled, nowhere else can you rock up to a competition, have an issue with kit and have a complete stranger offer to lend you his £800 gun. I doubt a chelsea player would assist a tottenham player if his boots fell apart. No-one starts up paintball for something to do when theyre bored, they get into it because it captivates them entirely and they become hooked. True, many are forced out by the price of paintball but I highly doubt any of them leave with a good riddance attitude.Ive found that paintball truly is the marmite sport..you either love it and immerse yourself in it entirely or you dislike it and cant understand why people do

what i find is that whenever i mention that i play paintball to people i find that i usually have to explain that i dont run around in the woods playing scenario games (I do love them but i dont do it very often) and how supair is played. This has been a major part when works staff paintball day has popped up.

Wow, that was an amazingly good post Thanks, I agree with pretty much everything you said