Monday, January 31, 2011

The Monday Poll

This week's poll is going with a more generic paintball topic; the local field. This is a poll that probably needs to be run two or three times a year to see how the numbers may or may not fluctuate with the seasons, weather, etc. Keeping it simple y'all only get one vote this week. Pick the option that best represents your local field. If you have any additional observations please post them up in comments. For example I'm curious about the impact of location in a tighter market. We keep hearing so many different stories about fields doing well, or beginning to come back while others continue to decline, etc. I'm wondering if location (among other variables) is having an effect. Are the regular rec players less inclined to travel distances to play at specific out of the way fields? Are urban or suburban fields more likely to be doing well in the current climate? This poll won't tell us that but who knows, the answers may be a surprise nonetheless.
Get to voting.

Monday Poll in Review
It seems last week's poll strained the limits of your collective abilities. Even the non-handicapped among the VFTD audience struggled somewhat (apparently) probably due to the fact that being lazy slackers nobody bothered to read The Monday Poll post before participating. The poll consisted of four pairs of questions to be compared and contrasted. I know, I should have known better--and I did--but I took the chance anyway--so I'm not really put out at the result or the inability of some to get the poll right. But just for record with 99 respondents--low for recent polls--'cus it was hard--there should have been 99 votes total with each pair of questions. There isn't, which tells me that most voters voted for two or three options at most and may or may not have considered the questions in their proper context.
The goal of the poll was to review some of the key changes in the PSP and see if any or all (or even none) seemed to be contributors to a diminished interest in playing in the PSP. Has the latest controversies put some teams and players off? The first pair set a baseline as it concerned what percentage of voters had previous PSP experience. That result was 2.5:1 min favor of having played the PSP before. The second pair focused on whether or not the voters believed the PSP needed to make changes based on economic necessity. The vote was better than 6:1 in favor of believing the league's explanation. The third pair of questions wanted to know how voters felt about the specific changes proposed. Here the results were 5:1 in accepting the changes being made. The concluding pair of questions asked who would (or would not) be competing in a PSP event in 2011. That result was less than 1.5:1 in favor of playing a PSP event.
What the poll as a whole suggests is that despite a large majority who accept and understand what the PSP is doing and why that some percentage are still unlikely to compete in a PSP event this season. In a direct comparison between those who have played PSP in the past and those who plan to this year the drop is around 10%. And it seems fair to conclude that the changes made were not decisive if and when season participation does decline.

4 comments:

Reiner Schafer said...

Location, location, location? Our field is the furthest out of town and the busiest.

I don't know if it's coincidence, but I happen to have been reading lots of comments from people about how they are driving farther to get to a field that is more to their liking. Location is always going to have an impact. If I go out to buy a jug of milk, I'll probably get it at the first place I get to, but with paintball fields, I think quality is always going to trump location.

I think the current economic downturn and the general state of paintball is doing exactly what it should be doing, weeding out some of the paintball fields that should maybe not have been in business in the first place. The rest are going to get more efficient to provide a superior product. Capitalism at its finest.

Missy-Q said...

I'm in Canada. Paintball won't be back until March, unless you want to get covered in slime and run/skate around in relative darkness - then you can go play indoors..

DanC. said...

--michigan. winter. indoor or bust.

What the results of last week say to me is that the small rule changes are not what drove players away. it was the cost of playing. and that those who cannot play a PSP event this year again its cost, not competition that drives it.

papa chad said...

Reiner- I like what you said about capitalism weeding out worse fields. it's definitely happening where I am. If you like to win, you go to 'Plex.
paintball here is becoming a community again simply because everyone is starting to go to the same place. I drive 3 hours past probably 5 fields to get there.