AFL Arena football league suspended their 2009 season. NFL office cuts 150 jobs..
In the news today something that's firmly in the "this is bad for the paintball industry" category. According to an NYtimes article NASCAR(Americas 2nd most watched sport) is having sponsorship problems. Take the best paintball sponsorship ever and add a bunch of zeros and you get where most NASCAR level sponsorship packages are. If they are having problems with their "multibillion-dollar TV deal" how bad is tournament paintball looking with no TV deal? Aside from the Milleniums deal of course. Is TV even the answer? Do we as an industry have any measurable results anywhere from the TV programming have run?? Will paintball ever be attractive enough on screen to pull new players off the couch and onto the field? These are all points that never really got brought up in the mad rush to get us all on TV.
I did find it funny that when they talked about cutbacks it was in the form of no more private jets. Cutbacks on some paintball teams this year arent just 5 to a room anymore; some might not be in existence.
From the Times article :
Now sure the paintball industry isnt that big. Paintball also doesnt have "ticket sales revenue" but we did have that period of astronomical growth from 1998 to close to 2005. Sometimes when things get that big that quickly, they can get distorted. Add some egos, people making some serious $$ into the mix, shake well and you end up with the current situation we have in the game.
"This year revenue was approximately $3 billion, a 50 percent increase from 2001. That’s better than the N.F.L., the N.B.A. and the National Hockey League in the same period. Only Major League Baseball grew faster. “If you go back to 1998, there is no question Nascar has shown the biggest growth,” says David Broughton, research director of SportsBusiness Journal."
Fortunately there is hope. The veterans of the sport have taken to their podiums to argue for change, to try and find a better way to do things. Read all 3 of the bloggers listed if you want to get away from the flame wars, read and talk to the paintball intelligentsia..
John Amodeas Blog
A 20 year old school vet who has been a writer and editor in the paintball industry before there really was any "industry" to it. He is someone that has seen the evolution of the paintball market and as such has some keen observations.
ViewfromtheDeadbox
Baca Loco a popular writer for PGI and well known commentor has a great site setup. Extra kudos for frequent new content keeping things fresh and shaming us less prolific writers.
thepaintballagenda
Brandon Lamertson and the Pbagenda have some impassioned appeals to paintball players. They are trying to get some change for the sake of the players, the people out there grinding with their blood, sweat, and tears..
2 comments:
So far, the only effect paintball TV coverage has had at the field level is to send us players that have to be deprogrammed. No, we do not bunker. No we don't shoot 15 balls per second. No you can't throw a tantrum and get up in my ref's faces if you don't like a call.
And these are the people that bother to come out to the field at all. Lord knows how many changed their mind about ever wanting to play after being exposed to TV tournament coverage.
At the expense of better forms and direction of advertising thousands if not millions of dollars have been thrown at the TV industry with no more apparent reason than to feed the egos of a few at the top.
Just adding to your list. blog.iamgoose.com, paintball, player, promoter and event organizer from Venezuela. Writting abot the evolution of the sport down south.
blog.iamgoose.com
Keep up the good writting.
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