[rocktheweak520]

Its no secret that paintball has more or less hit a certain barrier in regards to popularity. Sure, anyone who plays knows just how fun it is, and its a great sport to watch when you know whats going on. However, for people who dont know what paintball is, or how its played, its extremely boring and anticlimactic to watch.
In my opinion, many sports are based upon a central point of focus. For basketball, the action is based around the ball, same with football. The audience knows where to look. With paintball, if you just keep your eyes on the center flag you will miss all the action.

What changes do you think the sport needs to make in order to grow and reach a widespread audience? Format changes? Endorsements? Etc.

[pbstar1792]

money.

[Dhops187]

Paintball needs to get back on tv like when they had the NPPL Miami event, the 3 man indoor jaunt, or the smart parts event! I put that on everything

[eternalmergy]

one unified league. simple as that.
then find a way to get this on tv like ncpa. this live webcast is awesome(the PBA one for PSP)
that is all.
I believe that once theres a unified league you can actually focus on moving forward.
these different formats are hindering the growth.
but im not getting my hopes up.

[saints11]

^^^^ and money..

[swanton23]

well it would get bigger in d4 race 2 if they gave good money prizes out other than free entry. it would help more teams want to compete making the sport bigger and better

[ombres13]

Originally Posted by swanton23

well it would get bigger in d4 race 2 if they gave good money prizes out other than free entry. it would help more teams want to compete making the sport bigger and better

Why would they give money?
1) It costs more.
2) It does not promote repeat business.

1) Giving money costs more than giving away field time.
2) Giving money only appeals to teams who do not plan to continue to play the series. Why would they cater to teams who only want to play one event as apposed to teams who plan to give repeat business?

Also.. there were 71 teams in D4 5man at Cup.

edit:

I've been seeing a lot of local series giving amazing prizes for D4. PE guns, Empire guns, cases on cases on cases of paint, masks and soft gear..
Believe it or not, PSP probably does not want its lower divisions to become any more popular. PSP would need to put more money and time in if it grew much larger, they would need to ensure their venues could handle the extra fields and people (I'd say most of the venues they're using at the moment can not handle significantly more). 4 day events can only get through so many games as well. Turn them into 5 day events and you see a drop in players capable of playing said events.

PSP surely wants growth.. but I'm not sure it wants (or rather, is currently ready for) drastic growth.

[raehl]

Originally Posted by swanton23

well it would get bigger in d4 race 2 if they gave good money prizes out other than free entry. it would help more teams want to compete making the sport bigger and better

Yeap, football, baseball, basketball, soccer, all those sports are being devastated by the lack of prize packages for peewee, junior high and high school teams.

Prizes would reward a tiny handful of teams while making it more expensive for everyone else to compete, making the sport smaller and smaller.

There's a reason the leagues that have been cutting prizes in the lower divisions over the past few years are the ones who are getting the most teams competing.

Remember, small or no lower-division prizes doesn't mean you can't compete for prizes, it just means D4 teams don't have to play against other teams trying to win prizes. Makes it more fun for them, which means more of them keep playing.

If you don't want to play unless there are prizes on the line, that's what D3 (local) and D2 and up (national) are for. If you can't win prizes in those divisions, well, practice more. They're called PRIZES (not handouts) for a reason.

- Chris

[koolguysk8r14]

i think the biggest way to grow the sport is for the current players to be more proactive about getting new players on the field. How many friends do you have or kids you go to school with whether high school or college who have never stepped foot on a speedball field before? If each person got 1 new person next year hooked on speedball, we'd explode with growth.

No matter how much i love paintball, i'll be the first to admit its a pretty boring sport to watch. at least live. Highlight reals are always fun, but a typical match is boring. i'm not sure this sport will ever have a huge future, esp nothing that involves huge fan followings like other professional sports. its just doomed to start with. But why can't people be content with an exciting hobby type sport? Could you imagine how fun 600 teams at world cup would be? A giant vendor area, activities in the vendor area to mess around with. who knows.

[rocktheweak520]

Many people keep saying it needs more money. Unfortunately, money doesn't just come out of the blue. There needs to be a reason to put money into the sport. What changes could possibly bring in more revenue? I dont agree that better prizes are the answer. I think it also has to do with normalizing the sport, many people have no idea what competitive paintball is.

[GundogHitman]

Paintball will never be football. It will never be soccer. Paintball is like golf... fun to play, boring to watch. The sooner we can accept that, the better off this sport will be. It's a great sport for competition or recreation. It will never be cheap, never be mainstream, but will always have a cult like following. Respect the game for what it is and if it ain't broke, don't fix it. My .02

[skwirnmn]

Originally Posted by pbstar1792

money.

Originally Posted by saints11

^^^^ and money..

... and more money

edit: Pardon my pessimism, if you care to call it that.. but why do we want paintball to get bigger anyways? I play paintball because I like to run around, shoot paint at people, get shot by people, travel with friends ect.. If it gets big and goes mainstream, which I don't think it will, will we stop running around, stop shooting paint at people, stop getting shot by people, and stop traveling with friends? Paintball is going to be the same regardless of whether it's big or small. Paintballs will always travel at 300 fps, you're always going to have an opponent that you're trying to shoot while they're trying to shoot you. Paintball is paintball, doesn't matter to me whether it's all over TV and everyone at your highschool/college/work place plays the sport. Just like any sport, there are a boat load of kids who dream about playing professionally, and very few of them ever make it there. So to be completely honest, why not keep it small and focus our efforts on enjoying the game while we're young rather than trying to get it televised and have it become a highschool sport.

[El Jefe GIP]

I believe it is moving back to the next level. We've been here before, and it will grow bigger than before, it's cyclical. What the player can do: Always bring 1 person to the field w/ you that had never played before. Don't be a "D*ck" on the field to the Newbies. Stay professional. LIFT got beat at Cup, and they were dropping F bombs loud! I could see the crowd reacting, by grabbing their little ones and walking off. If I was PSP I wouldn't want them back. I dont tolerate at my field. We must be ambassadors of the sport, not just players.

[CreightonBaller]

Originally Posted by El Jefe GIP

I believe it is moving back to the next level. We've been here before, and it will grow bigger than before, it's cyclical. What the player can do: Always bring 1 person to the field w/ you that had never played before. Don't be a "D*ck" on the field to the Newbies. Stay professional. LIFT got beat at Cup, and they were dropping F bombs loud! I could see the crowd reacting, by grabbing their little ones and walking off. If I was PSP I wouldn't want them back. I dont tolerate at my field. We must be ambassadors of the sport, not just players.

is there a like button around here? This man hit the nail right on the head

[ProtoBaller1991]

Originally Posted by skwirnmn

... and more money

edit: Pardon my pessimism, if you care to call it that.. but why do we want paintball to get bigger anyways? I play paintball because I like to run around, shoot paint at people, get shot by people, travel with friends ect.. If it gets big and goes mainstream, which I don't think it will, will we stop running around, stop shooting paint at people, stop getting shot by people, and stop traveling with friends? Paintball is going to be the same regardless of whether it's big or small. Paintballs will always travel at 300 fps, you're always going to have an opponent that you're trying to shoot while they're trying to shoot you. Paintball is paintball, doesn't matter to me whether it's all over TV and everyone at your highschool/college/work place plays the sport. Just like any sport, there are a boat load of kids who dream about playing professionally, and very few of them ever make it there. So to be completely honest, why not keep it small and focus our efforts on enjoying the game while we're young rather than trying to get it televised and have it become a highschool sport.

if it's more mainstream it could lower costs. Which is why I can't afford to play right now.




money

/thread

[Traci]

Of course money, but bringing new people in and getting them addicted(lol).

Also, current field improvements, and MORE fields since there have been a lot of fields closing down the past few years.

[The Wigglestick]

mow the grass at cup before they set up the fields. worst field conditions i've played on. the grass looked like it was 8 inches tall.

everything about cup was great apart from that.

you also have to remember, as fun as we think it is, there are lots of people who tried paintball and didn't like it. lots of people i know. so you have to take into account that a certain percentage of the population just doesn't want to play or even try it. we are a niche sport, regardless of the fact that i think everyone on earth should play.

and its cost prohibitive. make paintballs $10 a case for wholesalers and $20 a case for the consumer and you've got a recipe for success. i know people who are interested until they find out how much it is.

[Andocommando]

Originally Posted by The Wigglestick

mow the grass at cup before they set up the fields. worst field conditions i've played on. the grass looked like it was 8 inches tall.

everything about cup was great apart from that.

you also have to remember, as fun as we think it is, there are lots of people who tried paintball and didn't like it. lots of people i know. so you have to take into account that a certain percentage of the population just doesn't want to play or even try it. we are a niche sport, regardless of the fact that i think everyone on earth should play.

and its cost prohibitive. make paintballs $10 a case for wholesalers and $20 a case for the consumer and you've got a recipe for success. i know people who are interested until they find out how much it is.

lol wow. at your whole post.

[Snpr13]

I think a lot is cost. You'll see an improvement when the economy gets better. I know a lot of guys who've had to sell the equipment for bills and such. Plus you don't see as much younger kids working and there parents won't shell out the cash. I've always bought my own gear since I was 12 and started playing. And the ecomony has screwed over Fields. The only field I know of with in a half hour is pretty junky.

[Reject69]

Just my .02 but at cup I found it very hard to believe the lack of advertising for the event. There were no billboards, commercials, no way of knowing that it was going on unless you were there specifically for that reason. If we want to grow the sport we need to get people who are currently not playing or even don't know what tournament paintball is to come to these national events. Keeping the same people we have in the sport now will only cause a money shift that will never change we need new players and sponsors. This doesn't mean putting paintball on tv it just means advertising events more efficiently

[hscpaintballa]

Originally Posted by Reject69

Just my .02 but at cup I found it very hard to believe the lack of advertising for the event. There were no billboards, commercials, no way of knowing that it was going on unless you were there specifically for that reason. If we want to grow the sport we need to get people who are currently not playing or even don't know what tournament paintball is to come to these national events. Keeping the same people we have in the sport now will only cause a money shift that will never change we need new players and sponsors. This doesn't mean putting paintball on tv it just means advertising events more efficiently

This is actually a good point... At least some type of local advertising the week or two before the events to try to get people interested