Lack of Tourney Players!!!!
- Thread starter Twizz ECI
- Start date
Milton Keynes aint the East Midlands.... Nearest I know of is Rebel Sports in Leicester which would be J21A of the M1 about 40 minutes from Milton Keynes.Tom37 said:hold on, im coming
in the east midlands area theres a serious lack of places to play tournaments or sup'air. which is a problem for me (though im going to play my first tourney in lincoln next weekend
i think people would love paintball..... if only they knew it was there...
So far it doesn't seem to be an issue of cost - we've got a couple of players that are only 15, and they scrimp n save so that they can play tourney with us. It is expensive but what isn't?!
And it's not really an issue of sites - if you want to play that badly - there are sites within a reasonable distance (i.e. a couple of hours travel) for the majority of the UK. And some of these sites have put a hell of a lot of work into what they've done - so congrats to them!
I think the main issue (and point of this thread) is exposure. To keep the sport running we need to make the sport known and available to more people - because we're after new players! Everyone who already goes to walk-ons and plays tournies already knows about the scene - but they only represent a finite number of players - when we have millions of people who don't even know the sport exists who represent an huge amount of potential players! Look at the sheer amount of people who can say they've played paintball at a 'punter' day, and absolutely loved it - but know nothing of Tourney Ball?!?!?
If the sport wishes to expand in the UK it needs to increase its player base, which can only be done by promoting the sport into the public eye - which is something that everyone can do!!
Yes it'd be great for the larger industry manufacturers to run a booth at one of the extreme sports shows in olympia or earls court, but its an unecessary risk for them.
But all UK teams/players can (and I'd like to add here that several of them already do) help promote the sport by making themselves and their sport known publicly on a local basis - submitting articles about your team to the local paper, trying to gain local press coverage, registering your team with your local county council etc etc
There are ways... but unfortunately they all require a degree of effort - on our part!! and none of them are going to work overnight!
And it's not really an issue of sites - if you want to play that badly - there are sites within a reasonable distance (i.e. a couple of hours travel) for the majority of the UK. And some of these sites have put a hell of a lot of work into what they've done - so congrats to them!
I think the main issue (and point of this thread) is exposure. To keep the sport running we need to make the sport known and available to more people - because we're after new players! Everyone who already goes to walk-ons and plays tournies already knows about the scene - but they only represent a finite number of players - when we have millions of people who don't even know the sport exists who represent an huge amount of potential players! Look at the sheer amount of people who can say they've played paintball at a 'punter' day, and absolutely loved it - but know nothing of Tourney Ball?!?!?
If the sport wishes to expand in the UK it needs to increase its player base, which can only be done by promoting the sport into the public eye - which is something that everyone can do!!
Yes it'd be great for the larger industry manufacturers to run a booth at one of the extreme sports shows in olympia or earls court, but its an unecessary risk for them.
But all UK teams/players can (and I'd like to add here that several of them already do) help promote the sport by making themselves and their sport known publicly on a local basis - submitting articles about your team to the local paper, trying to gain local press coverage, registering your team with your local county council etc etc
There are ways... but unfortunately they all require a degree of effort - on our part!! and none of them are going to work overnight!
Leicester Wildcats are your nearest team which would be about an hours drive.no-infernomark said:
East Anglia is now represented by a single team Kitch...no, Kitzine... no, PM "Andy Dane" he started the team.
Team density in the UK is not even but more depicted by the number of sites that do sup'air training days and publicise it to normal punters.
As has been said many times in the past many sites will not mention tournament to their punters as it effectivly means that player will no longer attend their site anymore.
Spot on, I have not hung my boots up yet but having a young family means that I have only played once since September 05 (Thank christ we had the foresight to set up an academy team).cookie_834 said:
Many of our academy team players drift in and out as they are students and when money is tight or they have too much work to do they cease to play.
Luckily most of the older guys in the team are too ugly to get girlfriends so we have not had any settle down and give up yet
On most county council websites you can register a link to your website or just register your contact details as a local sports team or club.
for example in herts (dacorum borough council) we are registered as a sports team on their local info website www.hertsdirect.org
for example in herts (dacorum borough council) we are registered as a sports team on their local info website www.hertsdirect.org
I know is the case for most sites but not all. I know Dave from DV8 - site manager at Point Blank in Darlington openly promotes tournament ball. Jim Frensham (sp) from Warped also does the same. I am bring along about 10 players from my site to our training day which is at another site (I dont have sup air yet).Dazdread said:
But i agree their is a shortage of players, but there are many reasons why, publicity, most people dont know were there or what we do. Cost, partly but if you want to play you will find the money.
also I know a lot of kids who have come into the sport and dissapeard because of the pri madonna big headed dickheads who frequent our sport. I know not everyone is like this but there are enough of them out there to spoil it for others.
Jon