Too big too fast? This is one of the explanations for why the speedball side of the sport is hurting. Perhaps the economy is the culprit but then again this aspect of our sport has been on the decline for longer than the last few years, we peaked a few years ago and have been seeing the numbers dwindle ever since.
If people want the sport to grow we need to start at the grass roots, set up a sort of singular rule set for those just starting out all the way up to the pro rankings. For this to happen there needs to be a lot of egos deflated. To grow the sport you need to work together, and unfortunately this is something the industry has not yet figured out how to do. Where does this leave us the players? Stuck between a rock and a hard place is my opinion. Most of use love to play paintball, no matter what version or side of the sport it may be. But to grow to the national levels you have to memorize two rule sets, play on two field types and be able to field two different size teams. With the economic constraints that we are in currently this is an expensive endeavor for even a well sponsored team. If there were only a singular rule set and a single national league we could progress the sport much further. The game would be taught to the new players using a standard rule set, thus preparing them for the local events that would also follow the same rules. From the local events they could then travel to a mid level or regional event and progress from there.
All of this is a nice thought but the industry is too busy fighting amongst themselves trying to prove who has the better product. Not until we can agree on one single league and rule set will we be able to grow. This goes right along with the talk I always here of the Olympics and paintball, not going to happen until there is a single set of rules governed by a single body on an international level. Right on back to where we are now, among competing leagues, companies and fields who are more worried about being right or making the almighty dollar in the short term as opposed to the long term.
So how will we grow as a sport with two national leagues? How will we grow without a single governing body? How will the sport of paintball get into the Olympics?
We will not grow, we will not get the sport into the Olympics until we as a whole can get organized. Not until then will the sport progress to the point it needs too, thus relegating us just another “extreme” sport looked down upon by the general populace.
We have made strides in the last few years with changing the general public outlook on a small scale, but this is not enough to have our sport accepted as we would like. I would like to see the sport grow but with our current status we will never grow, we will just continue to exist as we are now. Our numbers will fluctuate up and down as people come and go.
We need some of the big names in the sport to stand up, to take charge of the forward progress, to set up a single ruling party and rule book. Dreams? Perhaps, but then again what are we without dreams.
Paul Forcier
