Are we just a bunch of saps or do we have any power?

[basktm]

Very new to this so again just an opinion

Is the problem not that paintball is such a closed 'sport' in closed i mean 90% of people that think of paintball, think of site's charging the earth for a single day out ???

The power that be (site owners, Team owners) need to focus more on getting new players in, every other 'sport/hobby' runs come try days or local events.

Its like when i wanted to start playing, it wasn't easy, it was a real pain, but i had the bug for others that maybe just fancy a go, it would put you off. When i tell my mates about the prices of training and things, they are all amazed, the general thing i find said to me first off is " what are you rich or something" so the basic outside view is "paintball costs wedge"

But in all honesty, it is expensive but half the price of say motocross or any Motorsport.

If this wants to be a 'sport', it has to be more accessible to 'Joe public' and for that someone has to loose money on free days or try days or something to attract new players.

Once you have the numbers, you have more chance of getting something that resembles a league or united tournament.

But also have to agree, the whole lot needs tieing up with 1 group, association and the only way i can see this happening is through insurance.

 

[Robbo]

Hmmm...... Some real good posts even from guys who haven't played for very long. It's really good to read some of these responses.

 

[Raul]

in continuation to basktm, i believe that "joe public" dosnt know about supair primeraly due to a HUGE lack of media coverage! i understnd that to promote the sport means fundunding and this is the reason it dont happen. and no, i dont know how to change this.

i only got into the sport because my brothers played. and if they didnt then i doubt very much that id know anything more than the expencive site days.

but i think that inorder to make this sport even greater is to bring a vaster number of new players and teams to the game and to even bring the tornys closer to home (so to say). e.g. changing it so each round of the CPPS moves to a diffret region
or even having it where the mojor tornys are broken down into a regional torny basis and then top 5 teams of each region got to a national torny

this is just an idea from a rookie player so dont instantly shoot it down in flames

Matt

 

[Markie C]

To be honest i don't think that paintball is big enough it pains me to say it but its not.
We pay a lot of money to play ball and i don't see the need to be constantly told i have to do this that the other, i have to side with one person or one group,

yes i think we are sap's but only because we love playing, i think thats why so many people drop out of the sport cause there is to much bull **** that goes with it.

I don't really play any more but the guys on my team i look at some times and think wow. just because they are there each weekend they shell out x amount of money to be shot to death and then to be told you could of done better in some case's.

Paintball is the ficklest sport i have come across not just the players but from the people who try and make a quick buck from the players them selfs.

There will come a time and it might be sooner than any one thinks when the next best thing will come along and the MS will be scratching their heads thinking what did we do wrong?

Here let me give you some examples.

We have a European tournament series which is run by the guy who actually makes the fields we play on and then they go and make add on peaces every year and we lap it up.

We have a tournament series we has just announced 4 weeks before an event that all press must wear "their" tops which has been made by one of the sponsors of said tournament series 39 euros? that top at the most much cost about 15 sores at most to make.

we have a European tournament series which charges 40 euros per year for ID cards they don't even give discount to players who have played year in year out.

I would drive youngblood here my self if it meant a NEW series starting with out composition people sit back and love it.

 

[Timboy]

The uptake of the sport would be incredible if there was some way of getting people more interested into getting into buying their own gear, joining a team (something I've yet to do) and get involved at their local site/tournament.

It's hard to do that with the current 'team' structure that we have in place in the UK. There is no incentive for the site owner to convert a rental customer into an 'own gunner'.

The growth of Airsoft currently dwarfs the growth of paintball, there are far more new airsoft players each year for the past 3 years than there has been new paintball players coming into the game. They've acheived that without having a massive base of rental players playing each weekend across the UK like paintball does.

The reason they've achieved it is partly because they use a club based system instead of a team based system like we do. Most towns nowadays have an Airsoft Club that is affiliated to one or more sites within that town. Clubs often arrange inter-club days with other towns and within a club there are players who travel away to play at big games, some that just play locally and others who travel abroad - the club is flexible enough to be a welcoming environment for the first time player right up to someone who takes it a bit more seriously.

There are other reasons why it's growing, low cost of entry (kit is cheaper) and it's cheaper to play generally. But, the main reason is that there is a progression path and it's easily accessible to completely new players.

It's not so easy with paintball. Many sites don't run a walk-on and have no motivation to create new 'own gunners'. The teams (whether tournament or scenario) who play from a site are often up their own arses and demand that new players go through an 'application process' so that they can be assessed to see if they are good enough to join - which is probably as unwelcoming and as intimidating as you can get for someone looking to buy their first gun or play their first game.

If paintball had a local club based structure (like most other major games - football, rugby, cricket, basketball, golf, scuba - they all have a local club in each town) then you could easily have tournament teams as part of the club, scenario teams, Big Game teams and just players who like to play locally. It'd be nice and accessible for new players and commercially viable for a site to run club days.

To join your local club would involve paying an annual membership fee (say £25) and £15 of that goes towards the players UKPSF membership and to play at scenario events, tournament events etc you'd need to be a member of a local club. This would mean that all players would therefore be UKPSF members, providing additional insurance cover for the players whilst also supporting the national body that overlooks our game.

For event organisers (whether tournament or scenario) it would be a lot easier to market events to the players because you'd know where they all would be - they'd be part of the local network of clubs. So each local club tells an event organiser how many players they are sending to each event. This would strengthen the UK events (both scenario and tournament) and massively open up the channels of communication between the players and the event organisers.

A strengthened UKPSF would then also be in the position to accredit events to ensure that it's members were not being ripped off or provided substandard events. So if a scenario game or tournament was not operating at a minimum standard of safety and value for the members, then it's accreditation could be revoked - this would ensure at least a basic standard for UK events and if someone tried to organise an tournament or scenario game that was not UKPSF accredited (i.e. sure to reach the minimum standards) then the clubs would simply refuse to send their players.

There are a million and one other benefits, but I've not got time to list them all.

However, I don't for one minute think it could be achieved here. Whilst there are a lot of good people in paintball who are happy to put in work and often money to help the game, for every one of those, there are another 20 who are happy to sit back and moan and contribute nothing - but are more than happy to try and profit off the backs of those very people they bitch about.

 

[Gassy]

Timboy that is..............

One of the most interesting posts I have read on any forum in a loooooooonnnggg time.

 

[Dskize]

Airsofters are forced into that position due to gun restrictions , no club. no organisation equals no kit .plus airsofters are far more geeky about it , getting invoved in airsoft requires a little more effort in the first place making your first (not mine, I think airsoft sucks, but thats just my opinion) experience more rewarding. it helps that you dont leave feeling you've just been arse raped for £100 .

When I first approached the Edinburgh Keltics about joining there team I just got a withering look from the then captain , the exact experience as described above , fortunately I have a thick skin and kept at it , but for about 3 months I just thought they were a bunch of dicks.

then i got drunk and joined the Clan ...which is the normal application process for joining the Clan.

 

[Robbo]

Timboy, essentially, what we need to do is put the genie back in the bottle, to back peddle our asses to a point where we can rebuild the infrastructure of our sport and basically begin again.
It ain't gonna happen, leastwise not in the short to mid terms .....

What kills us is that inertia of indifference from our player base because unless we can overcome and mobilise that, we have no chance for change.
Which of course plays directly into the hands of people and promoters who care to butt-fuhk the living daylights out of us .... and we just sit back and take it ....... nice ....

If you have any ideas on how best to persuade that genie to go back into the bottle then I'm all ears mate ..

 

[Scrumpy]

I've always thought that in some way the VCRA could be a good thing for paintball for the simple fact that people would be "forced" to join clubs. I don't think there would be any decrease in people joining the paintball community if anything since the introduction of the VCRA I believe airsoft owners and players have increased in number (confirmation needed on that).

 

[xJoe]

I’m not quite sure if I’ve managed to grasp the exact details of what you guys are discussing, however recently I’ve been looking into prices to run/open sites and quite frankly it’s ridiculous the amount of finance required to get everything setup and off the ground, this is more than likely a reason for the high prices (as well as other factors of course) because site owners have to charge a lot of money just to keep up the with the land/water/etc.. Bills.
If you think about football for instance and the saturation it has why? Surely because as a kid growing up or even through adulthood there’s always a bombardment of 'Availability' of said sport, anyone can travel a few miles usually to get to a local football club and within weeks join a little 5 a side and progress and build their way up into more professional pastures, not to mention the costs of joining a club, a few quid here and there for boots and a kit and you’re in.

Now do forgive me if i completely misunderstood, I’m going by what i gathered from previous posts and the like, but to sum up what I’m saying:

I personally feel if the following we're put in place growth would increase tenfold:

-Cheaper Prices on Equipment
-Cheaper Rental Prices to accommodate (possibly even cheaper 'first time' rates to get people hooked)
-More Venues in high population areas of the country (Made possible by the cheaper prices)
-Local clubs of which are advertised in venues as joinable that day and offered to everyone and encouraged to keep coming back
-Marketing schemes by the 'fat cats' in the paintball scene (to increase awareness and drive people to said new venues/tourneys.)