Popularizing paintball
- Thread starter Baca Loco
- Start date
Another overlooked area is how it all looks.
How are spectators supposed to differentiate one team from the next if they're wearing the same jersey by the same company?
If they don't know anything about paintball their gonna be asking who that JT or Dye team is.
Team's need to start promoting themselves and setting themselves apart from each other. Don't get me wrong teams should support their sponsors and the products they love but they shouldn't put the sponsor's identity before their own. The average Joe on the street will not recognize it as a sport until it starts to look like one.
How are spectators supposed to differentiate one team from the next if they're wearing the same jersey by the same company?
If they don't know anything about paintball their gonna be asking who that JT or Dye team is.
Team's need to start promoting themselves and setting themselves apart from each other. Don't get me wrong teams should support their sponsors and the products they love but they shouldn't put the sponsor's identity before their own. The average Joe on the street will not recognize it as a sport until it starts to look like one.
R
raehl
Guest
Rancid is on the mark.
Not having outside money is not because we're not looking to get it - it's because outside money doesn't want to spend itself on us.
For example:
One way to do advertiser involvement is through cross-promotion. We put paintball promotional material in their product packaging, they have a sweepstakes campaign to give away paintball gear or trips to the Whatever Paintball Event Finals, websites are cross linked, paintball players are featured in their advertising, or maybe the advertising just has a paintball theme to appeal to paintball players. Think Mt. Dew ad with paintball instead of snowboarding.
The problem is that the only thing a company executive wants more than new customers is to keep the ones they have. They don't worry that mom is going to call the customer care line and bitch that her child went to the website on the package and saw a bunch of snow boarding information. But they *DO* worry that mom is going to call if her child finds paintball information, or worse yet, mom sees the paintball promotion on the box before she buys it and decides NOT to because she doesn't want the paintball material in her house. They'll pay a lot of extra money to promote through some other avenue that reaches the same audience without the perceived risk.
THAT'S our problem. It's a problem that's been overcome by sports like skateboarding and snow boarding, although it's probably a little worse for us. We need to be an unremarkable part of culture, where a paintball field in a community is about as objectionable as a bowling alley (ok, maybe a bowling alley with lots of rowdy drunk rednecks.)
Anyone who thinks providing better toilets for the thousands of participants at World Cup is of any concern is totally missing it. We don't need thousands of satisfied participants at world cup.
We need 20, two teams.
The rest are just glorified spectators there to foot the bill. No one thinks we need a national Novice circuit. You're there because you're profitable, and that's it. The sooner people accept that the ONLY way they're going to get anything is because it's going to make someone else MORE MONEY, the sooner you'll be able to do what it takes to get what you want.
Or you can continue to ask people to ignore profit and do the "right" thing.
In which case you're all out of a league, because the reality is paintball would do a lot better with a series of two-team events between a small pool of teams than we'll ever do with an "Anyone who pays can play" tournament structure.
- Chris
Not having outside money is not because we're not looking to get it - it's because outside money doesn't want to spend itself on us.
For example:
One way to do advertiser involvement is through cross-promotion. We put paintball promotional material in their product packaging, they have a sweepstakes campaign to give away paintball gear or trips to the Whatever Paintball Event Finals, websites are cross linked, paintball players are featured in their advertising, or maybe the advertising just has a paintball theme to appeal to paintball players. Think Mt. Dew ad with paintball instead of snowboarding.
The problem is that the only thing a company executive wants more than new customers is to keep the ones they have. They don't worry that mom is going to call the customer care line and bitch that her child went to the website on the package and saw a bunch of snow boarding information. But they *DO* worry that mom is going to call if her child finds paintball information, or worse yet, mom sees the paintball promotion on the box before she buys it and decides NOT to because she doesn't want the paintball material in her house. They'll pay a lot of extra money to promote through some other avenue that reaches the same audience without the perceived risk.
THAT'S our problem. It's a problem that's been overcome by sports like skateboarding and snow boarding, although it's probably a little worse for us. We need to be an unremarkable part of culture, where a paintball field in a community is about as objectionable as a bowling alley (ok, maybe a bowling alley with lots of rowdy drunk rednecks.)
Anyone who thinks providing better toilets for the thousands of participants at World Cup is of any concern is totally missing it. We don't need thousands of satisfied participants at world cup.
We need 20, two teams.
The rest are just glorified spectators there to foot the bill. No one thinks we need a national Novice circuit. You're there because you're profitable, and that's it. The sooner people accept that the ONLY way they're going to get anything is because it's going to make someone else MORE MONEY, the sooner you'll be able to do what it takes to get what you want.
Or you can continue to ask people to ignore profit and do the "right" thing.
In which case you're all out of a league, because the reality is paintball would do a lot better with a series of two-team events between a small pool of teams than we'll ever do with an "Anyone who pays can play" tournament structure.
- Chris
R
raehl
Guest
No doubt, and it's amazing that people don't get this.
When we did college X Ball, we had VERY specific rules on jersies - sponsor logos on the sleeves only, and those had a maximum size. Team logos had to be on the front and at least a certain size, player numbers on the back and at least a certain size. We preselected two designs that were "easy on the eyes" - avoiding loud/complicated designs that appear on many paintball jersies, and everyone had to use one of those two, varied for school colors. Not getting uniforms that met spec was not an option.
And if you look at the team pictures, our teams look like they're wearing team uniforms, not sponsor billboards, which is as it should be.
- Chris
there should be some trial events of some sort where those interested in paintball can try it out without having to shell out that much money in 1 day
i think allowing more people to go through a trial for a few games could get them hooked
after 4-5 games, trial is over, watch people start pulling out their wallets for 'just one more game'
i think allowing more people to go through a trial for a few games could get them hooked
after 4-5 games, trial is over, watch people start pulling out their wallets for 'just one more game'
R
raehl
Guest
We have them, sort of..
Most college clubs can get a newbie player a full day of paintball for $30. It's a little higher for smaller clubs and clubs in expensive areas (like the Northeast), but with free rental and maybe a $10 field fee per player, you can get a player equipment and 500 rounds of paint (which is just about average, the people who shoot less sell to the people who shoot more at the end of the day). For a day's entertainment, $30 is pretty good.
But part of that is also that the club is providing a service to earn the reduced rate - they find new customers, educate them, get the waivers done before they get there, chaperone them at the field, and pick up their own trash.
As for pictures....
www.customsportsgear.com should have them all. Click on the gallery link. They did all the college X Ball jersies BTW, I think they retail for $65, totally custom.
- Chris
Most college clubs can get a newbie player a full day of paintball for $30. It's a little higher for smaller clubs and clubs in expensive areas (like the Northeast), but with free rental and maybe a $10 field fee per player, you can get a player equipment and 500 rounds of paint (which is just about average, the people who shoot less sell to the people who shoot more at the end of the day). For a day's entertainment, $30 is pretty good.
But part of that is also that the club is providing a service to earn the reduced rate - they find new customers, educate them, get the waivers done before they get there, chaperone them at the field, and pick up their own trash.
As for pictures....
www.customsportsgear.com should have them all. Click on the gallery link. They did all the college X Ball jersies BTW, I think they retail for $65, totally custom.
- Chris
Rancid is on the mark.
If we do what you say then paintball will die in 10 yrs.
It's all the long $ vs short $.
If we do what you say then paintball will die in 10 yrs.
Actually Chris, at UMASS (the only college owned and operated field in the US) you can get a rental, field fee, and 500 rounds of paint for under 30 bucks. We don't reduce the rates to increase customers, and we're in the northeast, and we average around 60 players a sunday now (more once additioal parking is resolved). There are other fields out here in New England with very similar pricing structures who have multiple concept fields, woods fields, forts, etc to cater to all the players.
Again I'm starting to think that the NCPA and eventually the high school equivalent that you're creating is being shoved down our throats as the future of the sport. Currently the player base is growing just fine, we're seeing more, younger players starting to play. New players are getting interested in the sport due to mass merchant exposure, magazines in the major bookstores and magazine sellers in North America (but can we please see more PGI, and less APG on the shelves). Increasingly more old school field owners are realizing that moving to concept fields and out of the woods is destigmatizing the sport. Major markets in the U.S. are seeing more advertising via radio, print, and even TV.
Sticking with the status quo, the sport will continue to increase exponentially over the coming years. My biggest concern is seeing the sport legitimized in the eyes of the public. Given current rates of sales, increased players, field and store openings, etc, it is no doubt that the public will see paintball as a legitimate pastime. My biggest concern is without a quality national circuit, that the sport will only be seen as such, a pastime or hobby.
Which brings us back to increasing the quality of national events, which will in turn make them spectator and media friendly (and more comfortable for the players).
Chris
The other one. Same long posts, different content.
Again I'm starting to think that the NCPA and eventually the high school equivalent that you're creating is being shoved down our throats as the future of the sport. Currently the player base is growing just fine, we're seeing more, younger players starting to play. New players are getting interested in the sport due to mass merchant exposure, magazines in the major bookstores and magazine sellers in North America (but can we please see more PGI, and less APG on the shelves). Increasingly more old school field owners are realizing that moving to concept fields and out of the woods is destigmatizing the sport. Major markets in the U.S. are seeing more advertising via radio, print, and even TV.
Sticking with the status quo, the sport will continue to increase exponentially over the coming years. My biggest concern is seeing the sport legitimized in the eyes of the public. Given current rates of sales, increased players, field and store openings, etc, it is no doubt that the public will see paintball as a legitimate pastime. My biggest concern is without a quality national circuit, that the sport will only be seen as such, a pastime or hobby.
Which brings us back to increasing the quality of national events, which will in turn make them spectator and media friendly (and more comfortable for the players).
Chris
The other one. Same long posts, different content.
damn, what i wanna know is how did paintballers get the college to purchase their own field? some rich alumni plays paintball and decided to buy a field when they found out there was a paintball club at the college? 
i'm lucky that my school actually bought equipment. as for everything else, it's pretty hard to get anything because the budget is extremely low.
i've been working out how to squeeze each dollar and how to raise some more $$ for the club. i thought of raffles but some people won't really be into it because the school owns equipment that anyone can use if they don't already own their own.
i'm lucky that my school actually bought equipment. as for everything else, it's pretty hard to get anything because the budget is extremely low.
i've been working out how to squeeze each dollar and how to raise some more $$ for the club. i thought of raffles but some people won't really be into it because the school owns equipment that anyone can use if they don't already own their own.