NPPL Chitown Webcast?

Lost to the Blogger hiccup were some of the comments to the Burning Question below. A couple of which were very interesting because they appeared to be predicated on information similar to the drips and drabs passed along to me.
What we know--the NPPL, less than a week away from the event, has made no formal announcement about any sort of webcast. One commenter claimed there would be a webcast. Another claimed that the numbers from the HB broadcast weren't sufficient to entice ESPN3 to pay for future broadcasts out of their pockets. Which is an interesting way of framing a response. It implies ESPN3 made a decision not to move forward. It also (kinda) implies the HB viewer numbers didn't reach their targets. It also avoids being an outright falsehood--at least given what I think I know--which suggests to me the commenter knew what he was talking about.
Here's where it gets tricky. This story is a big deal for competitive paintball and could have greater implications for the league as well--but at the same time the league wants to keep what it considers its business private until it has something to promote in a press release. Yet here we are less than a week away from the Chicago event and there has been no news about anything. Given that the NPPL and its member teams, along with numerous other paintball websites, made a very public and concerted push to get the paintball community to sigh up and watch the HB live broadcast on ESPN3 it seems to me they owe that same community some sort of response as to what happened. Or that some of you people (yes, you) would show some interest and start demanding some answers.

I am not--at this time--gonna tell you what I've been told about all this because I don't have permission to use the info for a VFTD post or postings. (If I get it, I will.) But here are a couple of questions worth asking, and re-asking. If there is a Chicago webcast will it be affiliated with any outside of paintball broadcaster or media company? If not, does that mean the latest attempt to gain the interest of a company like ESPN--not to say ESPN itself--has failed? Is there any truth to the rumors the viewer numbers exceeded the target numbers?

Mainstreaming Paintball

VFTD has discussed this topic at some length in the past; wisely, astutely and on occasion even brilliantly (as is the norm around here) and I would happy to provide some links but that would be borderline braggadocio and I am nothing if not modest and humble.

Also, a number of items in paintball news this week touch on the subject. Over at X3 there is news from Tippmann on their new media outreach. Along with a story on Empire's continuing relationship with the Boy Scouts & the Free Rookie Pass program. And a timely post over at Reiner's blog adds some nuance to the whole idea of mainstreaming paintball. Top the whole thing off with the NPPL's ESPN3 live streaming video experiment and it all begins to look like real, honest-to-goodness positive progress. Well, mostly.

Reiner makes an interesting case that paintball may be as mainstream as it's going to get given that the average person under 40-ish (my paraphrase) knows about paintball, more or less. It's not some quasi-secret backwoods activity that operates like the Masons or Fight Club. That the general awareness of paintball is probably about as mainstream as it's going to get simply because the realistic potential player pool for paintball is small and that's unlikely to change. He might be right but there's still opportunity there.

Empire's approach is an interesting one; a targeted approach that should deliver quantifiable data on the effectiveness of the programs. Remember the billboards? Working in cooperation with local fields it should be possible for Empire to determine if the billboard advertising contributed to improved local participation. The free passes only target high interest would be players and the Boy Scouts association is nearly perfect. Ideal demographic, middle class upbringing (predominantly), interest in the outdoors and outdoor activities.

Now Tippmann is going to try mass media using a 30 second TV commercial on assorted cable networks with a core demographic similar to paintball's. It sounds like a pretty serious campaign. It's also interesting in that it may be difficult to see a correlation between the advertising and say, increased Tippmann sales and if Tippmann isn't looking for a direct sales boost it will be nearly impossible to determine the program's effectiveness. On the plus side it's a bonafide effort to mainstream paintball, but--at least from my perspective--I'm not a big fan of promoting that aspect of paintball--yes, I know recball is the lion's share blah blah blah and at least they didn't go hardcore scenario but even so I think the competitive aspect of paintball is a better figurehead for all of paintball. (Yes, I'm biased. I'm also right.) Of course that's not Tippmann's market, is it?

Speaking of TV (nearly) there's also the recent ESPN3 live streaming broadcast. Let us, for purposes of speculation, say the project is moving forward. At this stage what's its impact on the mainstreaming of paintball? To that I'd have to say (practically) nil. However, longer term, it would mainstream (and normalize) paintball in that it would give paintball (competitive paintball) (the right kind of paintball) (yes, dammit, I said it!) a place in the public conscience and marketplace. And it would drive interest in playing paintball like nothing else.

So here we are with all sorts of mainstreaming efforts going on all of a sudden. Will they be another flash in the pan or, after the manner of the fits & starts we've seen over the years or is this finally the beginning of something lasting?

Remember those links I wouldn't give you before? I've thought better of it. Who am I to deny you the pleasure of more VFTD? If you want more VFTD wit & wisdom--and who wouldn't?--look here, here, here & here.

Paintball Stuff

It's Monday so I am once again harassing you with the by now familiar reminder that the weekly post is up at Baca's Blog over at the Big Bullet. You might want to check this one out as it deals with some further thoughts related to the past weekend's NCPA championships. It's called, 'The Future of Competitive Paintball'--so not really a big deal. And if you are a member of the PSTA or know a member of the PSTA give them a nudge and encourage them to take a look 'cus this is, near as best I can tell, one of the principle reasons the organization exists. And if it isn't maybe they ought to expand their vision. No doubt it won't be a shocking revelation--or at least it shouldn't be--but if it encourages some more dialogue or helps engender some action that would be a good thing.

By the way, don't let the PSTA website discourage you. I'm sure better is on the way and whoever is responsible for the music has been fired. They really are a professional trade organization. Right?

UPDATE: Oops. I just realized according to my brand new shiny schedule I was supposed to post that playing the game piece on the HB layout on Saturday. The dog ate it. Hey. (I'll get it done today sometime.)

Hiking in the Wilderness

No, this isn't New Look Pro. (Yes, it's still coming.) This is an update on Off the Reservation. It was suggested to me that the MS did in fact bring something to the table--a new TV deal. After I stopped laughing I thought about it for a moment. If having mediocre paintball on American TV led to the MS gig then okay, maybe the TV deal in Euroland will prove to be a big hit for the U.S. and finally get competitive paintball over the hump and into the mainstream. (And if that didn't make a whole lot of sense to you, join the club but that is the logic involved--such as it is.)
Another way of looking at this (rumored) endeavor to internationalize or standardize competitive paintball is that at long last the powers that be are attempting to take sensible incremental measures to build competitive paintball into something that might be recognized as sport and actually attract serious outside interest (at some unpredictable time in the future.) Hey, anything is possible.
Here's another idea. Name the two large independent U.S. paintball manufacturers [makers of paintball gear] who chose not to pay the MS's extortionate sponsorship fees and skipped the series last year. (I'm not using "extortionate" to imply any criminal conduct--in case you weren't sure.) If you guessed that the answers coincidentally happen to also be owners of the PSP treat yourself to a piece of pumpkin pie. Will the negotiation result in some rapprochement that will see the missing companies at MS events next season? Inquiring minds want to know.
How 'bout all of the above? Call it Big League multi-tasking at its finest.

Btw, you guys are really boring. 76 comments on relegation (which isn't even going to happen) and nobody wants to talk about competitive paintball's future?

UPDATE: blogging etiquette says one doesn't delete content but rather corrrects it. So, where it says paintball manufacturers the intent was manufacturers of paintball stuff, not paintballs specifically. And if that has left you dazed and confused here's what I was getting at.

The Big Picture issue is that the MS will have a say in what xball looks like in the future over here for no other reason than the PSP has decided now is the time to standardize the game and given what xball (xtra lite) looks like over there that is a sorry thing indeed. Particularly if we end up paying for what may amount to another reduction.

Off the Reservation

I've been told before there's no point in fighting it (or even arguing about it)--and that's not really what I'm doing--because it (whatever it is) is gonna happen whether I like it or not but passive acceptance ain't in my nature. And while it probably doesn't matter what any of us knows or when we knew it--or what we think of it--so what? What's the point of bothering with the blog if I'm gonna censor myself?
About now you might be wondering what the hell is he going on about now?
Same thing(s) I've been dancing around all week. Fortunately there's now been more info posted on a public forum about at least part of it so I feel free to add my two cents.
As some of you will be aware the PSP is having their annual shindig in Vegas soon in order to decide this season's installment of The Future of Paintball. This season's installment may turn out to be a much bigger deal than the norm (for a couple of reasons)--and we'll see and hear about it when we see and hear about it--and in the meantime I'm gonna address an item that will be on the Vegas agenda.
One chunk of the agenda will be given over to hashing out some arrangement with the MS on "standardizing" the competitive game. In one respect this is a swell idea. On the other hand it's been played at before with all the World Federation jabber of a couple of years ago when all it was then was another skirmish in the power struggle to be jettisoned when it--the struggle--had played out. This time it's supposed to be different. But why? Because the next road down the path of mainstreaming the game is another version of professionalizing--which is this notion of setting an international standard. And the purpose of mainstreaming paintball as sport--yes, give yourself a cookie, it's the "selling" of paintball one more time in another guise.
Of course nobody is opposed to "selling" paintball if the price is right and there's not much point in getting all worked up over decisions that aren't made yet.
But still, what does standardizing look like in practice? And what does the MS actually bring to the table? They play Xball XtraLite in most divisions. They've got locked divisions down thru D1 and rumors of wholesale defection and/or team losses coming they've done such a good job of late. They've a got a partial rulebook from, when, back in the 90's? (Maybe it ain't quite that bad but it's a joke nonetheless.) They charge license fees on top of entries to get in a locked division. They apparently want to drop ROF to 10 bps (and at that ROF if my grandma couldn't make her corner I'd kick her ass.) And their players routinely drop a couple divisions to come and play World Cup. Just what do they bring to the table? Or is this a negotiation of what the PSP can expect to impose or some broad compromise for the sake of a deal that benefits who?
And one more thing on the sudden push to standardize a world game. Could anyone possibly pick a worse time to start pushing this idea? Let's see, we's all going to hell in a handcart and we're all gonna have to find ways to economize and hang on until things improve--hey, I know, let's make decisions in this environment that may set the course for the future of the game. What better time than when everyone needs to cut back as much as possible. It's freaking genius is what it is. And doesn't surprise me in the least.

Next time: The New Look Pro