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State of the USPL, an Open Letter
The USPL and 7-man format have been a hot topic in our Pro Paintball Smack Box. Throughout the course of the 2009 season, the paintball community has argued the pro’s and con’s of paintball supporting two national circuits and the viability of the sport on the pro level. No stranger to stirring the proverbial pot, the Information Merchant has put together a thought provoking open letter to the USPL. Peer into the crystal ball and see “what could have been” and “what was” in the sport of Paintball. This is one article you won’t want to miss.
An Open Letter from the Information Merchant:
In an ideal world there would be two national (US) paintball leagues and both would be able to support themselves and further the sport. That is an ideal world. Given the realities and constraints of this world, consolidation and unification is the only option for national-level paintball (the feasibility of a regionalized structure is out of bounds in this letter, as I hope we all want a platform for national competition). To that end, I would like to humbly ask you to ask yourself, “Is what I am doing really best for paintball?”
I don’t know if 7-man will die without the USPL. I do know that the USPL isn’t saving it. The league is alienating the support base with sub-par events and is “proving” 7man to be unsustainable as a national circuit. I don’t know if that is a false-positive, but after the failures of Pure Promotions and Pacific Paintball, and now the USPL with the combined strengths of Chuck, Tom, Bart and all the other intelligent and/or experienced individuals putting their efforts towards that league, 7man’s inability to be run successfully at the national level will be a given. The longer the USPL exists, the harder it will be for another 7man league to start up in the future. (And this ignores the rumblings that the USPL is moving to a match-based format of play, so even the saviors of 7man are going nontraditional to try to save their league. Put another way, the league formed to save 7man is rumored to be forsaking 7man in order to save the league).
It is irresponsible to suggest that it is our duty, as paintballers, to (blindly) support paintball in all its forms and formats. Supporting all of paintball, as it is today, is hurting the sport. It is dividing our (very limited) resources is bad for our sport. We have enough companies (i.e. sponsors) and enough teams interested in national competition to support one league. All we accomplish by splitting up is to create distraction, diffuse resources and prevent any one group from pulling itself up, not to mention the increasing likelihood, if not actually probability, that we will cause both leagues to fail.
I can’t help but think about what could have been done this year if we had unified under one banner and really supported the sport. The PSP probably lost $100,000 to $150,000 in entrance fees to the USPL and another $100,000 in sponsorship. Imagine what the PSP could have done with that;
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NPPL Championship Paintball on XBOX 360
Right now $100,000 people are out of work and taking $50,000 jobs. The PSP could have hired a salesmen, a PR rep, to approach non-endemic sponsors, something the NPPL was having moderate success with (Army, Marines, video game industry, energy drinks, car companies…). There is no saying whether this would have borne any fruit. If not, it is $50,000 lost, but if so, it would have been that much more money and exposure coming into paintball, that much more mainstream attention coming into paintball.
- The PSP could have expanded their webcast. The PSP webcast is our best avenue for attracting new national players. with more cameras,more interviews, more content, more statistics, it would have been an even greater draw. The more people who watch, the more people who have an increased likelihood to play.
Will webcasting take paintball to the next level?
The PSP could have put more effort into getting all the regional leagues around the country behind them, creating one unified structure. This could have involved getting pro teams to attend those events, to promote the PSP and X-Ball (and themselves). This effort may have involved donating entrance fees to the prize packages of the regional events. These activities would help the regional leagues attract more players (thereby making more money). It would get more local players into the sport, helping local stores and fields. And it would further increase the likelihood that some of those teams end up playing the PSP. We need to introduce the best regional teams to the PSP if we hope to continue to have a PSP. This is all part of the larger unification of paintball.
We could have had more teams and better events with better webcasts which would make paintball more attractive to sponsors, who could have been courted by a full time professional salesperson. We would have given back to the players, to the sponsors, to the regional leagues and to the sport. And we would have taken some steps towards unifying paintball across the country. And in so doing we would have helped local stores and fields and leagues and local players.
That is the opportunity cost of the USPL, right there. The damage that has been done may be irreversible (will Rockstar ever come back with a $90,000 sponsorship proposal?).
Sit back, all you owners of USPL pro teams, all you divisional teams supporting the format, all one tourist teams looking for a good time playing one national event per year, sit back and ask if what you are doing will lead us down the road where this all goes away? I believe it does. I believe it will. I hope you reconsider the blind support of paintball in all its glory and restrict yourself to only supporting paintball that helps support the sport.
This article was authored by Justin – who has written 876 paintball news and gear articles.
Justin was introduced to the game of paintball in ’96. Since then, he has been actively involved in promoting and playing in recreational and tournament paintball.
58 Comments
Wow, just wow.
This all sounds good of course but is, after all, very one sided. It’s easy to point the finger at the multiple leagues, multiple teams, and the players who play throughout more than one league. The truth of the matter is most of the players, who as you put it, are playing blindly are playing for the love of the sport. This is the case in Pro on down to the divisional teams. It wasn’t too long ago that both leagues were able to coexist with each other, both pulling in multitudes of teams, as well as pulling in sponsorship dollars. I would argue to say the NPPL did more for the sport in 2007-2008 than the PSP has ever been able to accomplish. Outside sponsorships, exciting venues, TV, as well as hundreds of teams showing to events. The NPPL, at least for a limited amount of time was able to bring paintball away from “paintball.” And what I mean is that the generalization of all paintball players playing “war games” was able to slowly start deteriorating and the word “sport” became more of a common verbiage used to explain paintball. Now with the above said, the only reason players are even choosing a side, is because they have to. Our economy, which has been slowly swirling around the toilet bowl, has effected this sport. Players, team owners, as well as sponsors don’t have the dollars to spread to go to multiple events. Two years ago, this was a non issue; The more paintball, the better was the motto of most players and sponsors out there. So what does this say? Do you we slim down paintball to a one format? If by this rational; Do we now get rid of the local or state wide 7 man tournaments? Or, do we wait this thing out? Obviously there is still some kind of demand for 7 man, as well as the Race To format.
If in fact the ultimate decision is to combine efforts and form one league there needs to be a lot of changes (those of which I am note so sure the XBall or Race To series will be obliged to follow).
All in all, no one has got it right and as long as there are two leagues, there will be sides chosen. Everyone right now is looking to be the “top dog” in a dying sport that is trying to justify itself to their customers, I mean, players. And every player is looking to establish themselves in the “best,” “most competitive” league out there.
You are living in the past. It doesn’t matter what an entirely different company that went bankrupt did two years ago.
The USPL is not viable. They can’t get enough teams to sign up to keep the bills paid, and only continue to exist on the continued investment of a small handful of paintball fanatics who apparently have more money than brains. EVERYONE would be better off if those resources were concentrated on one effort.
Those people who play in the USPL are not blindly supporting the sport, they are genuinely interested in playing the format. Even pro players love to play 7-man, Alex Fraige for example. You cannot ask USPL players to give up the format they love and play the PSP. It wouldn’t make sense, just as asking PSP players to stop playing PSP and join USPL wouldn’t make sense.
Would rally/nascar/F1 drivers give up their racing format and join the other…. no!
I say the players should support whichever format they love. Hopefully the 50cal revolution will help make paintball cheaper and bring back the glory days of the sport.
This article is so one-sided, so biased, it makes PSP look bad. As if they had paid Information Merchant to write this.
Who knows? MAybe the USPL will flounder in the coming years, and instead of passing up the opportunity like they did with the NPPL, the PSP could buy out the seven-man format and take in the money from seven-man and X-ball. There’s your unification of the sport. I’m just pissed that they didn’t have the money to do it last year.
Uh, WHAT 7-man money?
Hey, before the NPPL went bankrupt, it was bigger than the PSP. It was the outsourcing to non-industry sponsors that killed it. The only reason that the USPL isn’t as big is due to the fact that it’s so new. In time, it’ll pick up. However, if PSP bought it out and had the attractiveness of a seven-man format and the tradition of the oldest successful league still in operation, it could possibly rake in more money with the older format than the X-Bal style.
Talk about a one-sided article! Shame on Propaintball for making this sound like a fair open letter to USPL.
Who care if it’s one sided. It’s an open letter to the USPL saying stop the fail. And open letter submitted by a reader. Be less clueless.
this does not deserve to be on propaintball. propaintball is about rumors and or facts about paintball and not of opinions of one man
There’s a rumor right there : “And this ignores the rumblings that the USPL is moving to a match-based format of play, so even the saviors of 7man are going nontraditional to try to save their league. Put another way, the league formed to save 7man is rumored to be forsaking 7man in order to save the league”
This deffinitly deserves to be up here to educate the Paintball Community to what exactly we are doing to this sport withouth even realizing
AND BALDAR! BALDAR! BALDAR!
What gives? Did Dye write this? You do all know that Dye, who does not support the USPL/NPPL is an owner of PSP right? Are you telling me Dye needs money to grow the PSP even more to make even more off us? Do you know how expensive PSP events are to play?
We played at the USPL Vegas event and it rocked. Such a great event. We don’t want to play Xball format.
Don’t blindly support anything – support what you love even if it is a longshot – support the player owned 7 man league even as it stuggles to grow and let the corporate owned PSP continue to make a fortune off us as well. Then in 5 years look at how great it is to have 2 formats both being run successfully.
Let the corporate owned PSP continue to make a fortune off us? Really??
I hope Sawyer wrote that, and not Dad…
What player-owned 7-man league?
The only players who ‘own’ a portion of USPL are some of the guys who own Dynasty who own part of the USPL and Telford. The rest is owned by Bart, T4, Chuck, and other Pro team owners who don’t actually play.
PSP is owned by Billy and Adam Gardner, Dave DeHann, KEE, Rennick Miller, and Rob Staudinger.
Bart has never been a competitive player. Tom Fore has never been a competitive player. At least PSP’s owners are almost all guys who have been involved in competitive paintball for an average of almost 20 years each.
The “player owned league” is a lie that you’re stupid to believe. What difference does it make to a D1 or D2 or D3 team who makes up for the league losses at the end of the season? They just want the best bang for their buck.
There are still people who want to play 10-man in the woods. That doesn’t mean there are enough of them to run a national 10-man woodsball league, just like there are not enough 7-man proponents to run a national 7-man league.
How about :
Infamous which is owned by Travis and L.B
Avalanche is owned by Frank
Elevation is owned by Ryan
Bushwackers is owned by Ron
Legend is owned by Dennis
Mutiny is owned by Tommy
There are more but I can’t think of them now so to say that the league is not owned by players is totally wrong…..
Some teams may be owned by current/former players, but it’s not owned by the players.
And how many of the teams on that list had their 10k paid for by Bart and T4?
None of those teams had their fees paid by Tom or Bart.
I did hear Telford borrowed his fee or a portion of from Bart.
What Information Merchant is saying is true. Who cares if it seems on e sided? Sometimes people need a slap in the face to step back into reality. Whether you support the USPL or not it is a joke, face it.
It is time for one unified league.
These leagues have co-existed in the past, there is no reason they shouldn’t be able to going forward. Personally I like the fact that players (and myself) have the option to play a format that they like to play. Isn’t that what playing paintball is all about, to have fun? Is everyone supposed to just stop playing, or supporting, 7 man just so we can see xball explode into some glorious world renowned sport? If you think that is going to happen by axing 7 man you better take a reality check. Just because the big players in the industry are forcing PSP and xball down everyone’s throats does not mean is the only way to play paintball at the competitive level.
These leagues have co-existed in the past, but the economy alone is a good reason why it wont continue. There is no clear path here, and you cant just take all the players from one format and put them in another. There are almost too many debates and not people citing real source of evidence to defend of these points thrown around.
Many Olympic sports have multiple formats, so why not paintball?
Once we settle on a format are we stuck to move forward in it?
These are just barely touching the surface, but there is a lot at play here transcending the basic idea of two leagues. If there was one league, would both 7 man and X-Ball flourish? The realistic thought of that is hard, it really is. Most sports are generally the same from little league all the way up to pro, minus some changes in basic rules, everything stays consistent. In paintball we dont have that, you cant be a great regional 7-man team and expect to compete in PSP or vice versa with USPL.
Maybe there isnt a solution, and maybe we should stop referencing OTHER sports, and maybe we should REALLY address this issue before the season start, and MAYBE if we dont this will just be another season in purgatory while we kill each other and block outsiders from entering. Whichever it is, we have to remember that we all came into this loving paintball and should work together to help each other, not separate motive.
information merchant is a dunbass period
Matty just shitted on everyone. Discussion closed.
There are more people supporting 7man on this website than at the USPL events!
In order for paintball to ever have a chance in the real world, there needs to be one format. There is only one football. There is only one baseball. There is only one basketball. I could go on forever. It needs to be one format. The PSP format is much more attractive to spectators because they can relate it to other sports because of the point system. They have an amazing webcast, and you can tell they know what they want to do. It’s not perfect, but once there is a set format, then you can start tweaking the rules. The “xball” format/ very similar formats, is already strong in Europe, Asia, South America and many more places around the world unlike 7-man. Don’t get me wrong I play 7-man and I like it. I won 2 events and the series title in the USPL, but there should be only one format, and well the “xball” format seems to be the best. Don’t be selfish and try and do what is best for paintball.
“One” format isnt the answer. You cant compare football, basketball and baseball to paintball. We are more like skate, snow and moto cross, all of which have MULTIPLE formats. We just need BETTER formats (and MUCH better industry leadership, which goes without saying). Both Xball and 7Man are tons of fun to play (and watch, depending on who you ask), but they just dont have ALL the parts needed to be that staple we think of when we see paintball mainstream.
well written IM, excellent read touching on huge problems with paintball and the PR and marketing behind it.
ever is making the decisions up at the top needs to think outside the paintball box. the mentality every one in paintball has towards business is kill the other business in an almost psuedo mafia mentality. do you think billabong and hurley sit around and plot ways to put the other out of business?does empire, dye, etc. go to magic and present to the world? ive seen shitty clothing companies get into zumies, pacsun, etc.. but no paintball brands.everyone has the wrong mind set
as soon as paintball execs start thinking like the rest of big business, this thing might have a shot. until then it will always be a backwoods sport, no matter what venue, city or tv station its on.
The problem is Who, the leagues are run by ex-players or some paintball insider who has never had to run a “Real” and truly successful business outside of Paintball. Everyone is too connected to the middle. If I was a business owner and saw the two leagues, I would want to put my money where I had the most exposure. A single league system takes the confusion out of where to go for National exposure. However let’s say PSP did become the only game in town, then I am beholden to whatever they want to charge me for booth space and that in itself could be cost prohibitive.
No you’re not. You can just not pay them for booth space, and go to scenario events, or buy mag ads, or do any number of other things with your ad dollars that don’t involve paying for booth space.
Dude, do you have any experience to speak of, or are you even referring to nybody with experience? These events get more people going to them then anybody else except maybe Oklahoma D-Day and ION. Putting up a booth gets word around.
Maybe the best thing for paintball is that both leagues fail. A new league may or may not be borne out of the ashes. I find it interesting all of the arguing about whether race2 or 7-man is better when over 1/2 of the teams that entered both league’s year-end events were 5 man teams. The most popular format is being ignored in all the blathering about race2 and 7-man.
This comment will upset many people but the numbers tell the truth.
Alot of that is price related. 5 man is typically cheaper in all regards.
Well, a seven-man game is a single game, over with quickly. Race-to format has a minimum of games between two teams, rarely less than two, and this oculd have an extraordinarily higher cost than the one-time games of seven-man formats. So, seven-man is actually cheaper.
With the fall of the NPPL last year there were alot of options the PSP had. They let a new league be created. They could have stopped it. Within the US market everyone has to know that the west coast is still a major HUB for 7man paintball. The PSP could have gone to 6 national events with 3 as 7man events and 3 as Xball. This would give teams the opportunity to complete in both formats. There could be a xball champ and a 7man champ. There could also be a overall champ. 6 events would make it much easier for the sponsors to support both formats and all the customers.
The manufactures need to support all customers not a league.
Here is how the season could go
Huntington Beach 7man
MAO xball
(new venue) 7man
Chicago xball
(vegas venue) 7man
Florida xball
This would all be under one banner and teams would get the best of both worlds. This would be the national league and you would draw team to every event. After time if a format no longer worked you could get rid of it.
Just my thoughts
How in the heck is the PSP going to stop Chuck Hendsch, et. al., from doing whatever they want? Last time I checked, this is a free country, and those who want to try and keep 7-man alive are allowed to do so.
uspl is pointless…i have no clue how they are still able to have events…. in vegas uspl had a total of 35 teams in d3 5man and 7man… psp had 60 teams in d3 5 man and xball ( race to 4 d3)mao… which is not a very big event… the uspl is pointless 7man is dead so is 10man everyone plays 5man… everyone should do paintball some good and start playing psp and forget about uspl/nppl sorry
You can say there is only one football and one baseball but the truth is, these sports have been through many incarnations before they have come into their own, where they are currently. Not only that but these sports listed are those of which are based on the participants (not directly about the companies who fund them). Players in true professional sports are paid athletes and all the sport does is provide them with a place to play. For comparison purposes; DYE does not associate themselves with the NPPL/USPL and therefore their signature, factory team (Ironmen) does not play that series. Is this because they truly find it an inferior series? Well it can’t be, because obviously their team players play on various participating teams. It’s a fundamental problem that seems to only be associated with the Xball/Race To series.
There needs to be a change in the industry and the tournaments in which the players participate in. You would have to be living under a rock to know the Xball format was only created to find the fastest route possible to the mainstream in order to cash in. But what is a format that doesn’t support the teams that make it popular?
And why does “Player run” even need to be a mandatory requirement for tournament promoters? I would much rather deal with someone who is straight up about running a league that is privately owned and operated than with faces compiled solely from Industry leaders. I think we are all smart enough to know what the latter means.
All in all, like I said above, no one has gotten a format correct yet. 7man has it’s down falls and so does the Race To format. Industry backing is another huge fault (if I had to go to a Lakers game and walk past a Nike, Reebok, Adidas, Underarmor, etc. booth, I would have to go kill myself). Player compensation is yet another drawback to both leagues. Why paintball hasn’t taken a more proven formula based upon true sporting formats is beyond me. So in summation, there really is no winner here but based on the fact the Xball/Race To format is ever changing, it only eludes to the fact Xball/Race To is an unstable format as well as 7man.
its all abut the biggest bag for the entertanment buck and psp is too far away and takes too much time from school and work. uspl is closer to home thus far less travel expense and is held on weekends.
problem isnt the leagues or what format is being played… it’s the marketability of professional paintball. with either format paintball will still fail if it stays inside it’s bubble. just like johnny5 said there are too many people connected at the middle…. the people at dye, kee, and all the other companies need to wake up. this lies in the hands of the individual players and companies..
does anyone grasp this?
if you ideal is two leagues, something is wrong.
For me (at least), it’s interesting to hear peoples’ view regarding the future of tournament paintball. I thought that this article was thought-provoking for sure, regardless of it being sided towards the PSP and the concept of having one league–something a lot of us believed to be eminent following the demise of the NPPL.
Something that many individuals tend to do when looking at the state of paintball is to, naturally, compare paintball to other professional sports. As players, we all acknowledge paintball as a legitimate game and rightly think that it should be judged on similar terms with all of the mainstream sports that we are familiar with. The problem with doing this is that we ignore the true nature of paintball and truly how different it is from other sports. It is really unlike any other kind of competitive sport that is played on a large scale. It can’t be compared to any sport that we watch on TV such as baseball or football. Contrary to most every sport where there is a focal point, a sole focus where only one individual has the “ball” at a time, we play a game where everyone has the “ball”. The mistake we are making in this sport is that we are trying to utilize and mimic the foundations of other established games to create our own system. We have to embrace the game of paintball as a process. Some may not like the USPL and how it “drew” money away from the PSP, but the PSP certainly not have the secret to success as this letter seems to imply. You can’t blame all of these pro-players for coming together to form a new league to pickup where the NPPL left off. I can’t see that as “blind” support.
Talk about all over the place. You are conflating the difficulties with covering/filming the sport with being able to learn any lessons from mainstream sports in regards to creating a sustainable model for a national tournament series.
No, you can’t film paintball like you film football… but lessons can be learned from the USFL, AFL (arena), XFL, and the early days before and during the NFL and old AFL merger, or even how the current NFL runs it’s operations. Will things pan out EXACTLY the same in paintball? Of course not… but there’s no reason to not try and learn from other sports where possible.
Did you go to both events I did. Would Cup huge tons of players, Vegas dead and no one there. Tom, Bart and Chuck you are only doing what is good for your teams and ego’s. We all need to ban together and stop going to those events and support the league that has show it will keep drawing huge tur outs and not a league that cant even get 40 people in the stands for the so called world championships.
Tom, Bart and Chuck for those of us that work in paintball and love the game STOP what you are doing you are not helping.
speak engrish preez
Every other sport has very large numbers of non-playing fans that like just watching the game. This will never happen with paintball, no matter which format you choose. Paintball will always be a fringe sport since there is not center of attention. Not even X-Games will take it since their format require each game to be less than 3 minutes and there has to be a center of focus. This same argument will be going on 20 years from now. Sorry, but this is reality.
… that Paintball is not or will be TV ready. But there’s a center focus with paintball. And there’s a way to have it on tv or in the x-games.
It’s really come down to the fact that not one of the “bigs” in paintball know how to sell it….
Time for a changing of the guard….
its very simple actually Tom, Bart and Chuck all dislke the people running the PSP. The people running the PSP are just trying to make money! The NPPL is truly a paintball players league. I dont see the all american boblong at any PSP events, why is this? maybe because the other companys (dye, SP) have pushed him out! now how is that helping paintball?
What Bob Long does is completely irrelevant from the rest of the industry. He has been a paintball tourist as long as I can remember.
That being said, Bob Long had official representation at EVERY single PSP event this season.
You don’t think Chuck and Bart and Tom are trying to make money? Don’t kid yourself. The whole reason Bart and Tom started the USPL was they thought they could make enough money running divisional teams that the Pro teams would get to play for free. Just turned out they were very, very wrong.
Bob Long doesn’t go to PSP events because he can’t afford to pay the vendor fees for a league that actually has people show up.
They all wanted to make money, but most are realists that understood, they were likely not going to see a return on their investment.
Bob can afford to do whatever he wants, losing money going to Florida has been a smart decision. His doors are still open, he’s committed to keeping that way, hasn’t laid off anybody, and hasn’t had the bank take over any of his assets or repo any vehicles. SP anyone?
paintball..paintball..paintball…oh how i love and hate the sport. i was lucky enough to play the last 10 man event in orlando when that went out and the psp proposed xball i was in love equally as much as i loved playing 10/7 man. this article is completly biased and to point the finger on how the uspl is draining $ from the sport why not help one another out?
I think the psp and uspl should unite and create captain planet..jk but no seriously by uniting both leagues we can spare both lifestyles of play. if the uspl/psp can cordinate a collegic league with a standard pro/divisional leaugue ran at the same venue why cant they ask for more help within both leagues. shoooot back in the day pro teams had to help ref when they were not playing why can’t we do that again?, (F! them if there heads are too big) we as paintballers can create a smarter more organized ran league. dont forget where paintball has came from, paint guns first created to brand cattle, to bob long and phil domingez battling it out behind sequoia trees to 10 man sup air fields to now. why cant we all just roll a phatty and talk about this at the round table like knights would in Arthur’s time? ill tell you why, GREED! last time i check this is a team sport, sheeeit corporate company’s use paintball as a bonding/trust retreat activity.
we have all the right tools just somebody please grab the J and keep that puff puff pass rotation goin’!
p.s. B&J Mase haha BJ’s haha…mad love brotha’s keep up the awesome work.
another post script, chris lasoya! cut that hair off!
oh and im a believer that chris lasoya still has got a 60% chance of cock gobbling goin’ on at those raves.
…That the current”guard” locked into an old way of thinking and are too busy worrying about quarters and jumping over dollars.There’s a big refusal to change how the leagues are run (Marketing wise)! And because of that the list of income resources are getting thinner and thinner.
The open letter is well written and touched on valid points that should be looked at.
But until the old school mode of “how leagues” make the income to survive is changed and where that incomes from changes PB might just got the way of the do-do as we know it now.
I don’t think the sport it’s self will disappear, but what we play and how we play it might…..
true
I think the PSP needs to find a new name to go by, Like take ownership of the NXL name. PSP? Paintball Sports Promotions… They need a new name. The league is great….but it should known as some kind of league like the rest of pro sports. NHL, NFL, MLB, and so on.
The psp website could also really use a good design and layout. Like the article says if the uspl wasnt around, they would probably have more money to hire a designer. These are things the NPPL had, and something the USPL has.
I favor the psp for its xball format, but it needs a better name and a better website in order to get more investors.