Tuesday, July 12, 2011

More MLP Merger Talk

Time for you kids to learn to read between the lines. The proverbial little bird has tweeted in Mr. Curious's good ear--he's deaf as a post in the other--and passed along some intriguing info. VFTD is not however gonna pass it along to you--hence why you need to learn to read between the lines.
There is no united PBIndustry front but active elements are once again pushing for the one league solution. As noted before without cooperation amongst the paint manufacturers each in turn is afraid to act unilaterally. Which is why NPPL 3.0 wasn't strangled in the cradle and why past leverage was applied to try and compel the leagues to sort things out amongst themselves. (Which they did once. Just before Pacific Paintball declared bankruptcy. General terms were agreed to over a weekend. On Monday Pacific called it quits. Or something quite like that.)
Assuming there's renewed dialogue what are the pros and cons of the leagues making some sort of deal. (Btw, VFTD is assuming the future one league would be the PSP with the NPPL merging and not the other way round.)
The NPPL owners, however many of them there are now--is it over 20?--get a piece of a viable national tournament series with the world's most prestigious event in a format played virtually everywhere else in the paintball world. But only a piece. Certainly a non-controlling piece at that but one that is likely to include the so-called place (or places) at the table as might be agreed upon. So they get a real stake and a real voice.
What do the NPPL owners lose? Control over their own tournament series.
What do NPPL owners bring to the table? They are going to claim they bring years of experience in dealing with potential outside sponsors, lots of contacts, the HB venue and a significant number of pro teams. They in fact bring the pro teams--a number of whom do not play the format. As to the rest what value does one assign years of failure? And as for the beach venue if there is no NPPL the date is open. If there is a NPPL the lack doesn't seem to have been too difficult for the PSP to overcome in the past.
What does the PSP bring to the table? The more popular format. The larger series. The World Cup. Superior leadership and staff with a history of getting the job done. General organization from Raehl's APPA to Tim's reffing program. A viable tournament series.
What does the PSP lose? Current owners may lose some of the value of their share(s). Take on new partners who may prove to be divisive. (Too many chefs and all that.)
What does the PSP gain? Unified industry support and at least a temporary monopoly on national events. A significant number of pro teams highly motivated to help make the league succeed.
That's a major over-simplification but you get the idea. There could be something in it for both sides if rational and appropriate terms can be agreed to. (I figure it's ten to one against.)

Is a merger the be all, end all that fixes all competitive paintball's ills? No, but it could be the move that gets us a little closer.
And just to show y'all my heart is in the right place I'ma tell you how to make this work. (Which is probably the kiss of death.) There are seven shares split among the PSP owners today. One of those belongs to a giant of the PBIndustry. That industry member "sells" its share to the NPPL. The result A) gets a major industry player out of the tournament business, and B) doesn't dilute the value of the existing shares. The "cost" is nominal, the industry player favors the merge and buys a lot of general goodwill in the process. The PSP then restores HB as the season's lead off event but with a twist. The logistics of trying to put on a full fledged PSP event on a prestige beach are (almost) certainly a losing proposition. However, retaining the showcase value of the event would be the perfect bookend to WC. So split the difference and offer a capped event designed to showcase world class competitive paintball. And return to five seasonal events. Maybe it's just the pros, D1 & D2 in limited numbers. Whatever works. But if it is restricted that's all the more motivation for up and coming teams to meet the requirements and be included.
One league supported by a united industry is far better positioned to weather the current tough times than two leagues with split support.

18 comments:

CadeX said...

I love the idea of one league, five events, starting in the West and ending in the East, but this Pros/Cons list looks might Con.

Anonymous said...

So this owner has one seventh of the league, and NPPL has 20 owners. So each NPPL owner would end up with 1/140th of PSP? Is 1/140th really any better than nothing? Having 20 new owners certainly isn't worth the hassle to PSP.

You mention that NPPL brings Pro teams to the table. Except they don't. If we assume XSV is going to play PSP next year, what teams remaining in the NPPL Pro division are actually PSP-Pro level teams and don't already play PSP? And if several of them are currently paying no entry fees, how many of them can even afford to be PSP Pro teams even if they wanted to be?


If the paint companies are not willing to sponsor NPPL or NPPL Pro teams in 2012, then NPPL will die no matter what PSP does. And if the paint companies are willing to sponsor NPPL in 2012, then NPPL has no reason not to continue what they are already doing.

Either way, there will be no merger beyond NPPL simply folding and PSP opening up some Pro spots.

Baca said...

Hey Anon
Fair points. The 20 number I pulled out of a hat. The league started with 16 but not all of them paid their own buy-ins. There have been some number of new shares bought as well. Are all the teams that once bought in, still in? I don't know.
I'm guessing some number of the NPPL teams to fill the pro division up to say, 15. The result wouldn't be any worse than all the D1's coming up--or not much. Far as I know all the teams/owners pay an entry fee each event.
As to the paint companies they've never followed thru before and so far as I know there isn't any agreement amongst them.

I did suggest I figured the odds were 10:1 against. :-)

Anonymous said...

How many owners are there in the PSP currently?

I was under the impression that there was a new ownership program drawn up recently in that the people that owned shares but were not contributing no longer owned interest in the new company.

In my understanding, Dave owns the league outright. Lane runs it, and Chris brings APPA to the table. Rennick, the Gardners and the rest of the party aren't involved.

Anonymous said...

Baca has it right on PSP's ownership structure.

Anonymous said...

http://pspevents.com/2010/12/statement-from-psps-lane-wright/

Anonymous said...

Nothing in that link conflicts with what Baca said.

Anonymous said...

Nothing in the link you say - Did you read between the lines though?

Anonymous said...

Why the NPPL and PSP Don’t Work
By Anonymous

The NPPL is run by a bunch of old guys who no one want to see party.

The PSP is run by a bunch of young guys who no one believe have leadership.

The Pro players are run by players who A) Don’t Party and B) Are Leaders.

CadeX said...

^ The only smart thing about this comment was the fact that you didnt post your name...

Missy Q said...

Yeah, agree with Cade 100%, that was so ill-informed it just sounds wierd. I actually feel unsettled knowing how wrong someone can be.
My fave is the last line. left me speechless.

Don Saavedra said...

The only way I can read that and not lose all faith in humanity was to assume the person was being sarcastic. Real, hard sarcasm. The kind where you should stretch first or you'll hurt yourself.

Missy Q said...

Don, that would have to be be the type of sarcasm that would cause a rift in the time/space continuum. In fact, the word 'Sarcasm' would have to have a totally different meaning where he comes from, like the way a German word can sound similar to an English word, but mean something totally different. It would surely be easier to lose faith in humanity, than to try to justify the post in any kind of rational way.
You know, I actually can't look at it again, and would ask our host to remove the post as I need to get some sleep tonight - Even the thought of someone that dumb walking around in the real world just scares the crap out of me..

No offence to anonoguy, obviously...

Anonymous said...

I call it "the voice"..

It's less of a gift and more of a calling.

CadeX said...

I'm going to need you folks to start putting names on your posts so we can properly assign shame, guilt and possible punishment.

CadeX said...

Baca! I just noticed that PbPickEm.com is not listed in your links section... (assigning shame)

Baca said...

C'mon guys, the lunatic fringe are my peeps too.

Baca said...

Cade
If it's available all the time drop me the URL and I'll get it up. I guess I sorta assumed it's a by the event dealio.