It's not that nothing is happening. All the usual stuff is happening--which is good--plus some extra stuff like the NCPA finals on CBS Sports earlier today. I confess I haven't seen it yet but I watched a large chunk of FGCU thumping a hapless Liberty and that alone could stand as the reason we now play Race To 7. (Although with the advent of Champions "real" Xball might be a completely different animal the second time around. Just a thought. I mean if it's good enough for the NCPA why not the PSP? Anybody want to take a stab at answering that? Raehl?)
It's not even that there aren't a couple of juicy rumors floating around even. I expect the word to break soon that a high profile pro is leaving his current team and looking to make a move. (No names or teams until it's a done deal, if a deal is gonna get done, cus I don't want to interfere.) Even bigger than that is the talk a Champions level team may call it quits after this season. No lie. But not, that I've heard, a done deal just yet though it seems to be a legit possibility.
And there's always the MS to kick around--still no sign of the long-rumored rule book--but even the Millennium Board has been making various overtures to at least pacify their peasantry lately so what's the point? (And everytime I hear from some Eurokid on the down low who is gonna have a scoop for VFTD it never seems to materialize.) The sad truth is despite their desire for world paintball hegemony and spotty officiating (and no rule book) the MS is doing a good job in the eyes of most of their critics and customers.
Then there's the NPPL. For now. Here today--could easily be gone tomorrow. 43 teams registered for NE Open. All the rest of their promises disappearing down the memory hole as fast as Chuck can dig. It's gotten so bad that slapping the NPPL around is like shooting fish in a barrel or engaging in a battle of wits with a Downs Syndrome kid. It's only fun the first time or two.
In the meantime this is your opportunity to ask a question--or even two. Unless something significant strikes my fancy I'll be nonstop answering questions submitted to Baca's Mailbag. (Use the email link on the sidebar.) As long as there's a paintball connection all questions will get a reply. Who knows, if enough questions come in VFTD might even start giving out awards and prizes for stuff like the best, worst, dumbest, etc. It's not like you're winning Powerball any time soon.
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
14 comments:
time to speculate about the PSP Pro/Champions team calling it quits... I'll say Afterschlock.
Didn't know you were from Bizzaro-Earth, sdawg. Over here Shock is settled deep in Challengers.
What do you think about Joey Blute's suggestion in the recent Social PB video about limiting events to specific paint providers so as to avoid an advantage? Empire would say have exclusive rights to selling paint at Dallas, GI at MAO and Dye at Riverside and at the end the three would reconcile sponsorships, etc... Is there that much variance in paint from event/manufacturer event to event to provide an advantage and warrant such a change? Note that I'm not asking who is/isn't consistently better...
Anon 802
Very good. I'll start with yours.
"Champions-level", I guess I thought that meant that they could have been at that level. Sorry, my brain was cooked from Bunkerfest today.
Of the teams in the champions as of the next event, it's hard to see any of them calling it quits. Maybe Impact, with the owner frustrated at the NPPL's demise and the inability of the franchise to win an event despite an all-star roster? I think Impact has only one Pro win after 6 years Pro.
Joey Blute's suggestion about exclusive single paint sponsors per event would be a hard sell to the manufacturers. Why would they want to give up their marketing opportunities at every event which they currently enjoy? And from a the manufacturers point of view I'm sure they are hoping that their paint proves more consistent at more events/varied conditions than their competition's paint.
@Grant Harrison:
If paint manufacturers would get exclusivity in the way Blute suggested, they would sell about the same amount of paint per season with the costs of attending 3 tourneys going down to 1 event.
Being a name/title sponsor for an event would have some worth too, if it were broadcasted in the webcast.
All the teams present in the tournes already know about all the manufacturers, so they don't lose market share that way.
Bacca...you're such a tease!! I must know who the team leaving is! The team I thought would leave this year would of been XSV....but KEE needs a JT flagship and they aren't Champions......perhaps its Infamous....
Damn. Hahaha. Dynasty getting to old? I can't see that being the truth after two wins...they are motivated.
I'm curious indeed.
I'd say Heat, especially if Art Chaos has designs on the PSP in 2014.
@ Anon - I just think the idea would be a hard sell.
I'm sure if the paintball manufacturers had enough cash to splash that they could negotiate to be an exclusive supplier for an entire season similar to what happens for ball manufacturers in other sports but I doubt any of them have the cash to attempt this or could navigate their way through the web of entities that have duel involvement with PSP and paintball manufacturers.
In 2004 Spalding paid $125 Million for an 8 year deal with NBA. For the NBA that works out to be about $50 mil. less than an average 1 year's worth of retail sales.
Let's say excl. paint licensing for PSP only rates at a mere 1% of what the NBA is worth, then that's at least $156,000 per year. Sounds reasonable given the long term benefits.
Just my Sunday morning ramble...
Pro leaving,Federov.There was/is nothing keeping heat together but the wins. Once this team stopped winning, it was bound to implode.
Outside shot, Thomas taylor, he needs something new and he cannot continue to play on a team that has a player who wears a baseball cap on backwards...Yikes
Damage.....real jobs are affecting the players.
Well I have noticed one Jacob Edwards selling all his gear(minus cleats and beanies) on facebook... But I can't realistically see him leaving Damage, due both to his age and his family.
I think it's Russian Legion that's calling it quits. We could have a worthless and wretched poll to entertain us ....
Post a Comment