As a paintball field owner this is a huge question. Because tournament players are a revenue source and a consistent one when managed correctly. I just saw an article in the LA Times that headlined “Attendance is down and corporate sponsorship is drying up in NASCAR.” Gee sounds a lot like the PSP and the NPPL too. The main thing is not to panic, like I talked about in my other blogs ; people will always spend money for entertainment, this includes paintball.
I actually think what is happening is good for paintball because it forces people to change. I have been doing my part to help chance paintball for the better for the past 5 years and I will have some exciting news shortly. Wish I could give you all the details now but…. Well you will just have to tune in to my next blog and make sure you get on my mailing list. Go to www.moneypaintball.org and sign up now.
Well many people have been wondering what the NPPL or better yet how the NPPL is going to run things without Shawn Walker. Shawn and I started playing tournaments together back in the day of the Great Western Series. We played for Team Jester at the time and when Shawn went off to college I started my own tournament series. In the last 15 years I have been involed in every stage of paintball, from opening a field to a store to putting on events etc. Shawn and I share the same passion for paintball and when he graduated college he went to work for Dan Bonebrake and eventauly bought the XPSL from Dan. Then of course a few years ago Shawn sold the XPSL to Pacific Paintball and the bought the NPPL and had Shawn run the whole thing.
I’m not going throw any dirt around and say this guy did this and this guy did that but Shawn and the NPPL are no longer. So the players and the people in the industry that have been around for any length of time are wondering what the NPPL will be like without paintball people running it. The answer is , I don’t know. What I do know is that 2009 will be very interesting indeed.
I’m a huge proponent for Pro Paintball and I think it’s a critical part of the sport, the challenge is the industry has out grown the current format of the game. My hopes are that the NPPL and the PSP will finally “ get back” together so we can have a unified format and then make improvements from there.
As always I’m taking action and working on ways to better the sport and grow the industry, our Money Turf, the only turf designed for the sport of paintball has been holding up well for the last two years the NPPL has dragged it across the U.S. Now when people see paintball for the first time on Fox Sports they see a World Class playing surface. This puts credability into the minds of people as they say “ wow these guys are playing on real turf.” Our Money Paintball Charity has helped to open up 6 new fields this year arcoss the nation. I have other things in the works for 2009 so stay tuned…..
That is a great question. Here is my answer from 15 years of serving paintball field and paintball store owners. Paintball is turning into a “Real Business,” meaning that you can’t accidentally make money in paintball anymore. It is something similar to the .com craze in the early 2000’s, the recent real estate boom, or even back to the Gold Rush. These were magic times to different industries when one could make a lot of money quickly and easily, even with a high margin for error.
Paintball differs from these other industries because it was good for a long time. It grew steadily for over 15 years. Once paintball was picked up by mass merchants like Wal-Mart, K-Mart, etc. the industry really started to grow. But very few people realized that there would be an end. It could only go so far. Paintball is not a sport everyone will play. You can’t just throw the ball around in the back yard so to speak.
However, now more people than ever want to play paintball. This is why a lot of fields are seeing more and more new players, but not repeat customers. In the old days, fewer people would play, but most would get hooked and be back. Now that ratio is thinning because of the economy and other factors. The fact still remains; there are millions of people that want to play. The industry just needs to reach them. Many people simply need a good excuse to play. They have the money, but they need a compelling reason.
Don’t believe me? Walk down any street in a major city and ask “Do you know what paintball is?” 75% of the time people will say “Oh yeah, it looks fun. I have never played but I would like to. Does it hurt?” If you had asked that question 15 years ago, people would say “What’s paintball?” If you had asked it 10 years ago, they would say “oh yea, it’s that war game”.
During the great depression, the biggest boom industries were movies, boxing, and gambling—entertainment. Some things never change, and people will always want to forget their problems. Millions of untapped fans would love to do so as well, through paintballing.
What does this mean to the paintball store owner? You are not Wal-Mart; stop trying to be a big box store. You are not an internet site, so stop trying to be one. Specialize, specialize, specialize. Don’t sell the gun, fix the gun. You make more profit and it doesn’t take any inventory. Only sell High margin items. Quit trying to stock every color of every gun etc. Take trade-ins, offer to serve them. This is the store model that will survive.
I hope this helps. Feel free to call the office so we can serve your needs.
866-999-6663 www.moneypaintball.org
This is an older article I did for Faceful magazine but it’s very relavant today. Starting or owning a paintball field means you get to deal with people. You get to see very interesting sides of people when you put them in competitive situations. As more and more paintball field owners put in turf ( we like Money Turf the best) and upgrade their tournament fields, we see more and more of the competitive spirit. This spirit can be enraged when a bad call is made. So how do avoid all this? Read on for a few suggestions.
With the whole JOY DIVISION Controversy going on in the NPPL I think it’s fitting to revisit the “daily topic” about tournament paintball reffing.
Please note if you follow the NBA, NFL , MLB or the NHL it really is the same story. From the game fixing issues in the NBA to the NFL’s use of instant replay which still doesn’t eliminate bad calls. As well as MLB’s umpire issues and even Hockeys inconsistent reffing. If your talking sports your always talking about the BAD CALLS.
The biggest challenge paintball faces is that the way the game is played now it is
“ IMPOSIBLE” to reff. If you know me you know I hate to use the word impossible but in this case it’s true.
The guns are too fast for the human eye, the action is too spread out there is no ball or puck to follow, the action can came from anywhere leaving even a good reff totally out of position.
In an earlier article I proposed a format solution called “ Moneyball” which basically forces the action around the flag and makes reffing much easier to do. But what about Xball , everyone knows the reffing is better in the PSP. I disagree, the format is better suited for reffing in the PSP. I.E. we know there are going to be bad calls but with the xball format you are only losing a point vs.a whole game in the NPPL. The NPPL has changed the number of games played and basically said hey, now you get more games to over come the bad calls.
So the question remains how do we eliminate the “ Bad calls” ? This is where I’m suppose to suggest the same stuff we have already heard, pay the reffs more, train them more, give them more rest and water, keep the same crews together bla,bla,bla.
The only way to reff an un-reffable game is to “change” wait that’s to strong of a word for a tournament player, how about “tweak”, let’s “ tweak” the format so even a half blind heat stoke afflicted reff could make the right call.
Here are some possible “ tweaks” that would make tournament paintball a better game to reff.
# 1. Head shots only. What if you were only eliminated by a head shot? Much easier for a reff to focus on one area only. A majority of the time it would be a goggle shot which is much easier to spot. Unless your Mike Paxson during a paintball video( inside joke).
Now before you e-mail me with 500 reasons why this is dumb your missing the point. Tournament paintball is broken, let’s try to fix it. Instead e-mail me with 500 ideas that you have to make it better. In fact I will URGE the editor to print the best ideas you come up with. E-mail your intelligent ideas to : evan.money@verizon.net I delete all profanity laced and derogatory e-mails FYI.
# 2. Smaller and less bunkers on the field. What if you made the bigger safer bunkers far and few between, which forced action in certain areas. Why give the back players a big safe place to hide , force to people to move farther off the breaks to the safer bunkers.
Ok so there are two ideas for “tweaks” now I put it in your hands to see what you can come up with.
As promised here is a flashback for you on how paintball used to be. When I started in this industry back in the early 1990’s I worked at a company called T.A.S.O. Which stood for “ The Adventure Supplier & Outfitter “. You see back then the only people that played were guys in there late 20’s to early 40’s. Guys who had $$$$$ and who wanted “ Adventure”. It cost major bucks back then to play. A few years before I got that job I paid $5 for a 10 round tube of paint back in 1990. It was at one the local fields here in Southern California. I remember seeing some 30 year old guys with a case of paint (2,000 rds ) and I thought they were Millionaires!
Anyway when I started working at T.A.S.O the Semi Auto revolution was in full swing. Automags and Autocockers ruled the paintball world. The rental gun of choice was the VM-68. This gun weight like 20 lbs. Not only couldn’t you play if you were under 18 you couldn’t even pick up the gun!
My desk was next to Glenn Forrester , you know the guy who makes the “Legend” Paintball Gun, the man who coached Dynasty to all their titles. He had a “ PRO” team back then called “ G.B.D.” The good the bad and the deadly. In those days there was the Ironmen and basically everyone else. Bob Long and Dave Youngblood both played on the Ironmen and it was just like golf is today, Tiger and everyone else.
Pro events were all held in the woods with zero spectators. If someone tried to watch they would be accused of cheating and be beaten up on site. It truly was an interesting time.
Ok, more fun on my next Blog. See you then.If your looking to start a paintball field then Money Paintball is the site for you.
Insane would almost be a more appropriate word for what has gone on in paintball. If you really think about it, I mean really sit down and figure that Paintball is pretty much played everywhere in the world now: Russian, China, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Australia, South Africa, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Dubai ( UAE) All over Europe, Iceland, Greenland, Canada, USA, Mexico , and all over South America.
The crazy thing is about 20 years ago one guy decided to take his Nelsplat Cattle marker with staining paint and shoot his buddy with it, and viola! An industry is born. Remember Paintball grew this fast BEFORE the internet. Ok now you know I’m old now because I was around PRE-WEB times 🙂
My wife and I still look at each other and can not believe what this industry turned into!
This section will feature Blogs on the industry in general and I will “flashback” to times in the Golden years for some of you who remember back in the day! We will also discuss some big names and who did what and a little bit on why the industry is the way it is. Stay tuned!