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

Timboy

www.shorelineoutdoor.com
I'll be honest - I don't think it is possible.

The only way it would be possible would be if it were forced upon us.....and that means some kind of regulation.

I'm no fan of regulation, government interference and the red tape and additional costs that comes as part of that, but, there is an argument that says that it would be the only way that the game could start with a clean slate.

Its ridiculous that at the moment that anyone with £500 in their pocket, access to a scrap of land and a transit van can operate a 'paintball site' and take money off customers and the public. Loads of sites operate like this, they pay no taxes, often have appalling safety systems and leave Joe Public feeling underwhelmed by their paintball experience, never to return to the game again.

We recently had a situation on the UK Scenario forum whereby a 13 year old launched a paintball event. It was only because something smelled wrong (spelling mostly) that we did a bit of digging and got to the bottom of it. In what other industry can a 13 year old get to the point where they launch an event and are in a position to take money off people? Crazy.

At the moment, someone can buy a gun today for fifty quid and play a walk-on. Tomorrow set up a team and the next day be a professional event organiser taking money off players. Again - mental.

It's like me watching Rocky IV and deciding I like boxing, tomorrow going out and hiring my local village hall and charging guys £50 to turn up and fight each other with no checks, balances or safeguards to find out if I know what I'm doing.

In an ideal world, the UKPSF would be placed smack in the middle of the entire game and be properly funded. Local sites would have to be UKPSF members, meet the minimum operating standards and those standards be enforced by the local authority like they are for most other businesses. If a site is operating without UKPSF membership, they could be shut down, in the same way that a restaurant can be if it fails it's Health and Hygiene inspections.

To play a tournament, scenario game or Big Game, a player would have to belong to a local paintball club and to join that club they'd pay £25, £15 of which goes towards them becoming a UKPSF player member and £10 goes towards properly funding the UKPSF. This would mean that all players (excluding rental players) in the UK would be a UKPSF member.

All events (tournament, scenario or Big Game) would also need to be UKPSF accredited and pay a membership fee for that. Again, events would be subject to the local authorities enforcing the minimum event standards set by the UKPSF.

In one fell swoop, all sites, all events and all players would be UKPSF members and would be subject to minimum standards (for sites and events) enforcible by law by the local authorities and all players would also be members providing additional insurance cover. As part of the player membership, a proper educational program (could be a booklet) would be received by each player detailing HPA safety, advice on transporting markers and various other important educational points relating to the game which new players can currently only get by searching around on forums etc.

With the UKPSF as the central hub for sites, tournaments, scenario and also players - the game would then have a rallying point and a beefed up single voice.

A properly funded UKPSF could then take on additional roles, like properly promoting paintball as a game on a national basis to improve the image and bring in new players. A central UKPSF calendar would help to avoid event clashes and could even help promoters pool resources by negotiating as a single body for infrastructure like the provision of HPA, toilets, catering etc.

I could go on and on.......but it comes back to one thing........most of our problems exist because we all float around in isolation, the industry is completely fragmented. Sites do what sites do, tournament does what tournement does, scenario does what scenario does, teams do what teams do.....Every now and again there'll be an initiative set up (in scenario it was the UKSPC, there is the Federation in tournament) by guys who can see that something needs to be done - but all too often they grind to a bit of a halt because it can be hard to achieve anything in isolation. Added to that is the natural tendency of many within paintball (I include players, event organisers and site owners in this) to denigrate what others are doing and undermine anything that they themselves are not controlling. However, these same people never get off their backsides to do anything themselves. They are a natural hand break for the game and don't deserve to be breathing the same air as some of the guys who selflessly give their own time and money to help improve things, only to have their integrity questioned by these vermin.

There can only be one rallying point and in my opinion that's the UKPSF. Beef it up, properly fund it and place it at the heart of the game. Have a 3/5 panal of advisors from the site network, another panel from the manufacturers/trade, a panal from tournament and another panel from the scenario side and a panel from the players/teams. These panels each have one person who filters all the advice down from their side of the game and gives that to the UKPSF as part of an action plan. The UKPSF has additional manpower to help Bully out (via the additional funding as part of the compulsory membership of sites, events and players enforced by local government) and to act on the recommendation of each of the panels from the different areas of the game. The people sitting on each of the panels are voted onto the panel every 2 or 3 years to give them time to properly formulate a plan for their area of the game. The UKPSF takes the action plans from each of the panels, stitches them together as an overall action plan for UK Paintball PLC (for want of a better name) and hey presto, what we have is a joined up industry with a direction and 'business plan' for the next 3 years covering all the different sides and sectors of our game in a coordinated and organised fashion.

But that would only every happen if we were forced to do it - and by the time we get to that point.......it would probably already be too late.

There's plenty of people out there who have similar or the same ideas, or other ideas that we no less valid. But pretty much nobody has any confidence that a top to bottom restructuring could ever take place without us being compelled to do it.
 

xJoe

Relative Newcomer
Oct 28, 2009
100
3
28
Very good post tim, very interesting, one thing that confuses me though.. Who can just say 'Right, now everyone needs UKPSF certification to play' like who has the authority to force that in paintball?

and i'd like to hear more about that 13 year old setting up a game haha.
 

basktm

Active Member
Dec 14, 2010
328
37
38
somerset
what a great post, really inspirational.

This all sounds just a bridge to far, but cant we just start at the bottom, one step at a time. First off introduce local clubs as said, like you said Tim £25 membership, this single place would provide all your info and event needs, maybe 1/2/3 in each county ??

But for this to work ALL event organizers would have to insist, every players shows a Club card and Ukpsl membership for insurance.

Same as before, would make it simple to start a team, local clubs would have players looking to start, each club will need some kind of discount at local sites to use for training and also as an incentive to join, also a dedicated training/come and try advisor/officer.

each club would run its own basic imitative to bring in more player, a small fund form its members to cover, all most a free come and try day, unless 'joe public' get chance to see everything withing the sport and have a go.

I mean this doesn't sound like a massive achievement.

When ever i have started/joined any sport, this is usually the first thing i find, a local club to talk to (in my instance it was this site, but mainly Team Kinectic, thanks guys )

But i think Tim and others have hit the nail on the head, why not try a take a basic step in setting up clubs, using UKPSL as affialation.

Surely it would be in the best intrest of all event/site/owners to have more players in and around the 'sport'
 

Robbo

Owner of this website
Jul 5, 2001
13,114
2,157
448
London
www.p8ntballer.com
You can only force people if the promoters jump on board, and they won't ... all the time there's money to be made taking advantage of players who couldn't really give a sh!t, there's zero chance of it succeeding.

You can come up with any number of inspirational ideas but unless you can address the core problems that inhibit progress they remain academic.

Let's try and think of ways to tackle those core problems of player indifference and promoter power ... do this and we can move forward, anything less ain't gonna crack it.
 

jitsuwarrior

Old Baller, getting older
Jun 14, 2007
673
40
53
Northern England
Pete

You are correct but if the manufacturers only sold to ukpsf members and if players had a database they could access of ukpsf members, then perhaps we would start to progress? I know this would again come down to an individuals integrity of not reselling their kit to a non member. Perhaps then organisers and promoters will start to take ukpsf accreditation more seriously.

I know the hard part is creating the database, but once it's up and running it would be simple to maintain.
 

slam

Euro, ICPL and ECPL ref.
Feb 27, 2002
468
78
48
North Yorkshire
Now if I remember rightly UKPSF membership was required to enter into the affiliated tournaments, however this led to such a backlash by a certain percentage of the players that the insurance policy was nearly canceled by Steve Bull.

If people are that set against a genuinely good idea, how the hell are we as a community going to sell the idea that clubs where people have to pay to join are the way forward!

sorry to be quite negative but after being around for a few years admittedly on the side lines, the level of indifference and apathy in paintball sometimes shocks me!

Syd (NSPL) has been championing the club idea for a while, however I'm not sure how this is coming on.
 

Robbo

Owner of this website
Jul 5, 2001
13,114
2,157
448
London
www.p8ntballer.com
Pete

You are correct but if the manufacturers only sold to ukpsf members and if players had a database they could access of ukpsf members, then perhaps we would start to progress? I know this would again come down to an individuals integrity of not reselling their kit to a non member. Perhaps then organisers and promoters will start to take ukpsf accreditation more seriously.

I know the hard part is creating the database, but once it's up and running it would be simple to maintain.

Jit, there is no way in this world, not even a glimmer of a chance, of the manufacturers having their market restricted, and trust me it would be.
It only takes one manufactured to break ranks and then it's all fuhke'd and trust me, we got a lot more than one in our industry who wouldn't even consider signing up letting alone adhering to any convention that had them selling onto to UKPSF members ... there's more chance of that happening in fact than me growing back my hair or indeed Ledz being inducted into the half of fame for ballet dancers .. it just ain't gonna happen mate.
 

jitsuwarrior

Old Baller, getting older
Jun 14, 2007
673
40
53
Northern England
Then if the traders, manufacturers and the promoters can not unite in anyway to make it happen then I can't see how players will do it. Perhaps this is as good as it gets.
 

Blue Beanie

I <3 Summer!!!!!
Dec 27, 2009
1,796
203
88
27
Devon
Syd from NSPL has already started a Devon paintball club (DPC) which for £10 (?) you get £5 off each tourney walk on which has made it well worth it. The only problem I that this year (2011) they have found it impossible to find people to be in the council, hence this has halted anything happening this year regarding the DPC.
This particular instance has caused this club to not progress, and I believe that this would be the instance in most areas.
 

Robbo

Owner of this website
Jul 5, 2001
13,114
2,157
448
London
www.p8ntballer.com
Jit, And I suppose the fact that we tend to default to maybe accepting this is as good as it gets is the very reason I keep provoking this introspection for us.
Sooner or later, I am hoping players will get soo pis$ed off with either me keep harping on about our present state of affairs or indeed they way they are being treated by promoters.
Our industry has to also realise how best to organise ourselves but to an extent, the fed has already represented this realization but it was not supported well enough by the player base and so we really are in a wait period until our player base assumes some form of collective conscience.

I think all of us are open to any ideas no how best to hurry this along ...
 
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