Thursday, December 15, 2011

Baca's Mailbag, December 15

Have you been able to find out anymore information about what actually happened at the merger talks? Who ended up sinking the deal? From a few posts around the internet it appears it was the NPPL that ended things.

To answer the first part of the question, yes, I've found out more about what happened. Without assigning blame here's roughly what happened at the end. As everyone (who cares) now knows the meeting in Vegas ended badly. There was an effort made after that via a series of conference calls to get back on track the day before the NPPL announced their 2012 event schedule. [The joint the-merger-is-off statement came out November 30th and the NPPL announced their complete 2012 schedule the next day, December 1st. The PSP announced their first two events on December 5th.] Proposals and counter-proposals were made and rejected and neither party apparently could agree to any middle ground between the proposals offered. To the best of my current knowledge format wasn't the make or break issue--it would have been dealt with after a basic deal was agreed to. It seems the core issues were ownership stake(s)--who ended up with what--and something VFTD remarked on back in September, uncertainty about the legal structure of the NPPL and the status of its team/owners in some instances. (Both parties agreed months ago, during the process, to release records to a third party for review and it took the NPPL months to comply.) How much bearing the later issue had on an inability to agree to the former I've no idea--nor can I break down the numbers or dollars being discussed. (If I can get the-rest-of-the-story and be reasonably certain of its accuracy I'll tell that tale when I can.)

I don't think either league left the bargaining table unhappy with the outcome and from here on out we will see what sort of line the industry takes, along with the players. (And I do mean players, not the etools who have never played either one but insist on repeatedly declaring their opinions.)

13 comments:

Don Saavedra said...

I resemble that last remark.

Anonymous said...

I heard a rumor (I don't know how true it is) that merger talks are possibly still going on even after the statement was made and that the NPPL switched to the race to format to quote "prepare there customers for the ultimate switch to xball"...any truth to this?

Baca Loco said...

Anon
Nope.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, the merger talks are over, over over. No discussion whatsoever.

Anonymous said...

But the real question is will Tampa Bay Damage support both leagues? Or will they take the hard line (I'm guessing against the NPPL) next season? Im curious...

Don Saavedra said...

What actual damage is being done to people who play paintball by having 2 leagues?

IOW, what hard line?

Baca Loco said...

Anon #3
If by support you mean compete in the correct answer is: undecided. The various scenarios have been laid out for ownership and principle sponsors have suggested some specific interests and a dialogue is ongoing. As of right now TBD will be competing in the PSP and making a minimum of 2 or 3 international (outside the U.S.) appearances. The rest is still to be determined.

Don
You're not an etool even if you occasionally resemble one. ;)

From a player's perspective 2 leagues is swell--at least in the short term. Industry of course wants to have one league to support and they have it within their power to do that--but they won't.

Anonymous said...

Who actually owns NPPL? Do the owners get to see a financial report that shows what money came in and where it went?

Reiner Schafer said...

Looks like TBD will be playing both PSP and NPPL again in the coming season.

Baca Loco said...

That is a premature conclusion, Reiner. A final decision has not been made yet.

Anon #4--excellent question ... and I wouldn't even want to guess although you'd have to consider Bart as first among equals at the very least. Rumor has it the financials, such as they were/are, aren't particularly complete so they may have a general idea but (apparently) a to the penny accounting doesn't exist.

Reiner Schafer said...

So the ProPaintball news article is premature then?

"ProPaintball has confirmed that Justin Rabackoff will play exclusively with Tampa Bay Damage in both the NPPL and PSP series throughout the 2012 paintball season."

Anonymous said...

That could just mean he won't be playing NPPL with another team if TBD doesn't play it.

Baca Loco said...

Reiner
Yes, did I stutter the first time?

Anon
Correct. ALL TBD players are exclusively TBD players. And we will give them plenty to do.