What Happened to Pro Paintball

DynastyWP · 09-25-2011, 07:13 PM

I just got back into paintball after 4 year and what happened to pro paintball. IS seems like it just died. It went from playing at professional football and soccer stadiums to regular fields. In 2007 they even had a event indoors.The stands used to be packed and now they are completely empty. It went from 6 events a year to 4.

What Happened

LuckyAce · 09-25-2011, 07:50 PM

Economy says hi.

TiPPtoeMANN · 09-25-2011, 10:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LuckyAce

Economy says hi.

^^that's so true

Horizon · 09-25-2011, 10:37 PM

Reality caught up with dreams.

pykim01 · 09-26-2011, 02:47 AM

haha not even reality catching up to dreams. no one wants to play anymore. i feel like society has a lot to do with people's opinions on things and now people just look at paintball as a CHILD's SPORT thanks to all the manufacturers targeting them. and now adults who have all the money don't want to get looked at funny. to this day i tell people i paintball and have been for years and i get laughed at and told to grow up :S sucks.

Facker10 · 09-26-2011, 12:20 PM

PYKim, what you said couldnt be more true. I told my gf's parents i had to go to a paintball tournament, and they looked at me like i was 7. My gf thought the same thing though until i took her and she thinks its exciting now. Shows how little people know about our sport and are so willing to dismiss it. I compair paintball to Hockey because it is fast and always something happening, rather watch paintball then a game of football or baseball that feel like they drag.

evilbunnycookies · 09-26-2011, 12:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Facker10

PYKim, what you said couldnt be more true. I told my gf's parents i had to go to a paintball tournament, and they looked at me like i was 7. My gf thought the same thing though until i took her and she thinks its exciting now. Shows how little people know about our sport and are so willing to dismiss it. I compair paintball to Hockey because it is fast and always something happening, rather watch paintball then a game of football or baseball that feel like they drag.

I am actually lucky that my girlfriends parents support me playing paintball. I do agree though so many people look at me like all paintball is is me playing pretend war like I am seven years old. If only more people would be willing to actually watch the sport they would realize how legit it is.

**Pump Scout** · 09-26-2011, 01:37 PM

Flashy venues, ie, being able to claim the event is at Raymond James stadium when in reality it's the parking lot of the same, are still expensive. Even putting events into locations like Bollinbrook Recreational by Chicago were expensive. Being able to have a large field host an event helps not only that field, but keeps the costs down for the teams and leagues. Additionally, holding events is expensive, again both for the leagues and the teams. Travel, accomodations, meals, equipment and supplies/paint.

DynastyWP · 09-26-2011, 02:36 PM

I just felt holding events at the stadiums would show people who do not know about paintball discover it. For example If you listened to the Jim Rome interview of Kyle Spika he has a complete misconception of paintball. Now when people see that the event is held at the stadiums they will consider it more of a sport and not like how everybody in this thread say people view it.

Here is a link to the interview
http://vimeo.com/28470152

jonesy1304 · 09-26-2011, 05:27 PM

is there paintball on tv ever anymore?

Fubarius · 09-26-2011, 06:10 PM

I think one of the issues is the way paintball tournaments are setup to make money. Right now the tournament is the product and the competitors are the customers. This is of course backwards of many other legit sports, where the competitors are the product and the spectators are the customers.

We've been "by the players, for the players" for so long, I wonder if a change to "by the experts, for the spectators" might be just what we need to improve things. Imagine showing up for a tournament, which you don't have to pay to enter, where you can shoot paint provided to you by sponsors or even the event, to try and win prize money taken from the entrance fees of all the spectators who came to watch you play. Of course if you don't like the bunkers they use, which were picked because they give the audience the best view instead of providing the best cover, well too bad. If you don't like the dress code they enforce, because it makes the hits much, much easier to see for the audience, well too bad. If you don't like the very, very harsh punishments they have for things like wiping, because the audience doesn't think it's "part of the game", then too bad.

WagonDubber · 09-26-2011, 06:29 PM

agreed

steve_81 · 09-26-2011, 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pykim01

haha not even reality catching up to dreams. no one wants to play anymore. i feel like society has a lot to do with people's opinions on things and now people just look at paintball as a CHILD's SPORT thanks to all the manufacturers targeting them. and now adults who have all the money don't want to get looked at funny. to this day i tell people i paintball and have been for years and i get laughed at and told to grow up :S sucks.

Couldn't Agree more. When I started playing Paintball it was dominated with adults who could afford to play. Now I hardly see any adults. With these kids came all of the negative things about Paintball...the lack of knowledge, the "OMG! that gun sucks because it can't do 30 BPS!", and the whole AGG bull****.

Paintball was growing when Paintball was an adults game now look at it. The average lifespan of a Paintballer today is 18 months.

Paintball because of all this is looked at as a kids game. When I tell people I play Paintball they give me this weird smirk like i'm childish. It happens all of the time. It's the hard truth but honestly I believe that this is the reason Paintball isn't doing so well. People can blame the economy which yes it doesn't help but ultimately marketing a game towards a demographic that can't afford it doesn't make sense and Paintball is now feeling the affects.

SpaceGhost (Banned) · 09-26-2011, 06:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by steve_81

Couldn't Agree more. When I started playing Paintball it was dominated with adults who could afford to play. Now I hardly see any adults. With these kids came all of the negative things about Paintball...the lack of knowledge, the "OMG! that gun sucks because it can't do 30 BPS!", and the whole AGG bull****.

Paintball was growing when Paintball was an adults game now look at it. The average lifespan of a Paintballer today is 18 months.

Paintball because of all this is looked at as a kids game. When I tell people I play Paintball they give me this weird smirk like i'm childish. It happens all of the time. It's the hard truth but honestly I believe that this is the reason Paintball isn't doing so well. People can blame the economy which yes it doesn't help but ultimately marketing a game towards a demographic that can't afford it doesn't make sense and Paintball is now feeling the affects.

couldn't agree more.
sport would be way better off if the age limit was raised to 16 IMO

steve_81 · 09-26-2011, 07:28 PM

A better question would be to figure out how/when Paintball started changing from an adult oriented game into one that is saturated with kids. To see if anything can be done to change the marketing and demographic around.

Horizon · 09-26-2011, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fubarius

I think one of the issues is the way paintball tournaments are setup to make money. Right now the tournament is the product and the competitors are the customers. This is of course backwards of many other legit sports, where the competitors are the product and the spectators are the customers.

We've been "by the players, for the players" for so long, I wonder if a change to "by the experts, for the spectators" might be just what we need to improve things. Imagine showing up for a tournament, which you don't have to pay to enter, where you can shoot paint provided to you by sponsors or even the event, to try and win prize money taken from the entrance fees of all the spectators who came to watch you play. Of course if you don't like the bunkers they use, which were picked because they give the audience the best view instead of providing the best cover, well too bad. If you don't like the dress code they enforce, because it makes the hits much, much easier to see for the audience, well too bad. If you don't like the very, very harsh punishments they have for things like wiping, because the audience doesn't think it's "part of the game", then too bad.

But the problem always has been and will continue to be that paintball is boring to watch. Fun to play, boring to watch. The only people that don't mind watching paintball to some degree are those that play it. I play it, but still find it boring to watch. If there is no market, there is no money.

Fubarius · 09-26-2011, 09:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Horizon

But the problem always has been and will continue to be that paintball is boring to watch. Fun to play, boring to watch. The only people that don't mind watching paintball to some degree are those that play it. I play it, but still find it boring to watch. If there is no market, there is no money.

Ah, but it Shouldn't be boring to watch. It's a safe, repeatable, fully officiated gun fight. Movies rake in billions of dollars, countless TV shows are made, and people stop what they're doing to see a live newscast of gun fights. Formatted and marketed correctly the sport should draw in viewers in droves.

smokeage · 09-26-2011, 09:21 PM

Fubarius = my hero.

Horizon · 09-26-2011, 09:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fubarius

Ah, but it Shouldn't be boring to watch. It's a safe, repeatable, fully officiated gun fight. Movies rake in billions of dollars, countless TV shows are made, and people stop what they're doing to see a live newscast of gun fights. Formatted and marketed correctly the sport should draw in viewers in droves.

I'm glad you used the word "repeatable". Because that's what it amounts to, repetition. It's the same thing over and over again. Yes, if it were produced and edited and not shown live, it could be made a bit more entertaining, for a while. But even then, there is only so much spin you can put on it.

Then there is the fact that so many gun fights are happening all at the same time. In real time you can't watch them all and in an edited after the fact version, it would be a constant, "while player A was shooting at player B, player C and D were shooting at one another as can be seen here. Farther to the left, player E and F were shooting at one another while player G was cautiously watching player H to see if he could make a move on player E". Of course, all this is happening at the same time, but can't be shown at the same time. If done right, it would be more entertaining for a while on a broadcast version, but certainly, very little can be done for a live version.

There are a lot of smart people in the television industry. If there was a way to make paintball exciting to watch, in a format that would generate any sort of income, I'm sure someone would have done it already. TV is always looking for new stuff that can generate interest and advertising dollars. Paintball on a regular continuous basis has, I'm sure, been debated and discarded several times over. If there were money to be made, we wouldn't be here discussing this right now...we'd be sitting in front of our televisions enjoying a good paintball match.

WagonDubber · 09-26-2011, 10:17 PM

you should of seen the teeth that had to be pulled to bring my EX to my games

Fubarius · 09-26-2011, 10:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Horizon

I'm glad you used the word "repeatable". Because that's what it amounts to, repetition. It's the same thing over and over again. Yes, if it were produced and edited and not shown live, it could be made a bit more entertaining, for a while. But even then, there is only so much spin you can put on it.

Ideally the game would have to be re-engineered for live broadcast, though that would involve further sacrifice to make that happen.

Quote:

Then there is the fact that so many gun fights are happening all at the same time...

The games are currently too large. They'll have to be shrunk down even further. Not field size, that needs to go up for television (can't have people getting hit off the break, that's action but it's over too quickly), but team size. The last televised tournament I saw that was remotely easy to follow was that 3 on 3 indoor that was on a few years back (I think Smartparts was the big sponsor). Fewer players, needs fewer cameras, and needs less play by play. Plus you can make the game more about the individual players than some faceless team. Hype the interpersonal conflicts a bit (think professional boxing or MMA, or even WWE if you want to go crazy). With the right field design, something that really stretches the game while allowing a ton of movement, you could possibly go down to 2 on 2. Probably have to do a best of 7 game with that few though.

Quote:

There are a lot of smart people in the television industry. If there was a way to make paintball exciting to watch, in a format that would generate any sort of income, I'm sure someone would have done it already....

Entirely good points. Though I wonder what those early meetings were like. Maybe some television producer did come up with a good idea, but it was too different from the current "sport" so no one in the industry would back it. Paintball players do tend to be their own worst enemies at times.