For close to four years now, I have had the distinct privilege and pleasure of working with you to help grow our exciting sport. On many fronts the sport of paintball has seen an increase in participation globally and you are a significant part of this tremendous spike in play . The amount of time and money being invested in the game and the equipment is growing exponentially, and this bodes well for the future of paintball. It is with great certainty that exciting times are in store for the paintball industry and enthusiasts. As the sport continues to grow there will be other advances, but the most important thing is that we as an industry continue to expose as many people as possible to the sport. From there the possibilities are limitless!

So, at this time I wanted to take a moment to let you know that my last day with KEE Action Sports will be on May 25, 2012. I have been presented with a new and challenging opportunity that will take me out of the sports industry which I have been engrained in for over 20 years. I have enjoyed working for and with KEE and I appreciate having this fantastic opportunity to work with all of you in the media. With many of you, I have shared a unique camaraderie which I hope will continue in the years to come even though I will not be here with the company. I plan to maintain an active role in helping promote our sport when and where I can, as this sport has treated me with great respect and admiration.

In closing, attached you will find a job description for the position to be filled. Please take a moment to post this career opportunity on your website to share with our paintball community.

Again, I want to thank you for your continued support of our brands and our products, because without you, our consumers would not have the great opportunities of learning about all of the facets of our great sport.

Continued Success!

Jason A. Kreisman

Marketing Manager

KEE Action Sports, LLC.

With that said, he attached this description of the position being created by his departure: 

Empire Paintball is a leading paintball manufacturer and distributor of paintball equipment, apparel and paintballs. We are currently looking for a Marketing Manager to oversee all aspects of the Marketing including: advertising, direct mail, public relations, promotions, and consumer websites and cross promotions Empire, Empire Battle Tested, and JT Paintball.

We are currently recruiting for an experienced Marketing Manager located in the Sewell, NJ facility.  This is a salary, exempt position DOE.

Education and/or Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree
• 2-3 years experience in general solicitation category, with emphasis in online, print, media, and advertising
• Advanced in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
• Proven ability to meet deadlines and manage projects with internal and external customers
• Strong, positive attitude and work ethic desired.
• General understanding of paintball industry preferred.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities: include the following. Other duties may be assigned.

• Create, manage and track annual advertising and marketing operating plan budget
• Create and deliver advertising, marketing collateral, promotions and direct mail copy
• Develop and write creative briefs and provide creative direction for marketing materials and programs including: advertisements, in-store collateral, tournament and direct mail pieces
• Edit, write and assign editorial content for consumer websites, print media, product information, online media and catalog listings to ensure consistent tone, voice and message
• Direct and supervise the development and implementation of editorial calendar, media lists, convention and event calendar
• Work with organization to determine means and methods for new player acquisitions
• Maintain media relationships and oversee public relations efforts to garner additional brand awareness and product exposure
• Research, initiate and generate incremental revenue opportunities through targeted cross promotions and marketing programs
• Plan, purchase and coordinate all print, advertising, broadcast and web media

Full benefit package after 90 days of service including PPO Medical, Dental, Vision, Short Term Disability, PTO and 401k.

Human Resources

KEE Action Sports

570 Mantua Blvd, Sewell NJ  08080

Fax: (856)681-6043

Email: jobs@keeactionsports.com

*Qualified candidates will be contacted – no phone calls or Agents please*

*No company paid Relocation*

We are a drug free workplace and an Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/V/D

Behind the scenes, Mike designed and manufactured a lot of different products for paintball use, including the Dragun electronic blowbacks, the DXS Pulse, the Hard Corps Torque, and now he’s heavily involved in designing and manufacturing the Vapor paintball gun and coming soon, a line of other products for paintball.

In this latest venture, Mike’s brother George isn’t involved, but his other brother Andrew is. In order to aid the general paintball playing public as well as my brethren in the media below is a short profile and picture of each Spurlock mentioned on forums, blogs, and news websites.

I believe George Spurlock is the eldest brother. He possesses a sunny personality and in previous ventures, he served as the public face of the venture and handled aspects of the business that involved interacting with the general public. George is a deeply religious man, and is a father and husband living in Alabama.

At the moment he has no involvement with paintball, instead working for a software company in Alabama. An inquiry to George confirmed that he isn’t involved with paintball at all, other than speaking to me every now and then.  Of the Spurlocks, I know George the best, and consider him a good friend.

I believe Michael Spurlock is younger than George, but to be honest I’ve never bothered to check ages and who stands where in the sibling lineup. Outwardly speaking Michael is quieter and more reserved than George, but once you get to know him and you gain his trust, he’s very open and honest about what he’s doing and how he feels about it.

Mike’s appearance and manner are deceptive, however. From a design standpoint, his work is generally considered top of the line, given the parameters he’s given to work with. The Hard Corps Torque was intended to be a relatively simple, inexpensive loader that gave maximum performance. Born and raised in the U.S., Mike Spurlock is now a naturalized Taiwanese citizen, living in Taiwan building and managing the factory that produces cell phone parts, automotive parts, and of course the line of products coming from Machine Paintball.

Of the three brothers, I believe Andrew to be the youngest, and the one I know the least. I’ve met him several times over the years, and swapped emails with him on occasion, but generally speaking I don’t know him very well. Like George and Mike, there’s no mistaking his parentage…he’s a Spurlock!

Andrew is currently involved with Machine Paintball as the US Sales Manager, and from what I’ve been able to get from our conversations online, he appears to be an even mix of George and Mike’s personalities. As things start ramping up with Machine’s efforts, I’m sure everyone will get to know Andrew better.

Economic times are tough in the U.S., but lucky for us in 2012 we are about to enter the biggest boom in paintball history. Are you ready for it? Giant Sportz is proud to announce we will be selecting one lucky field to be a part of the first ever Field Makeover Program, a once in a lifetime opportunity to expose your business to an entirely new set of clientele, skyrocket your attendance numbers, and fine-tune your marketing programs by working alongside some of the best media and manufacturing companies in paintball.

The creators of Giant Sportz, owners and operators of paintball parks including SC Village Paintball Park, the multi-faceted Hollywood Sports nine million dollar extreme park, California Paintball Park and Giant Paintball Parks in San Diego, have banded together with Empire, Tippmann, Spyder, PbNation, APG, Social Paintball, Paintball Photography, PaintballX3, Paintball.com and ProPaintball.com to create an all-star cast of paintball marketing experts all teaming up for this exciting new project.

“We want to change someone’s life” explains Dennis Bukowski, managing partner at Giant Sportz. “The lucky field receiving this makeover is going to see their business grow and their attendance numbers rise beyond their wildest dreams.”

The winner of the Field Makeover Program will receive:

-Brand new additions to their rental fleet

-A new marketing plan catered specifically to the chosen park

-A social media army exposing their park to a brand new set of clientele

-Weekly webinars and operations meetings

-Management training at our SoCal facility as well as an on-site field evaluation

and so much more!

“With absolutely no strings attached, no long-term commitments, and no investments required, this is a paintball sweepstakes that truly is a once in a lifetime opportunity” states Giovanni D’Egidio, managing partner at Giant Sportz. “We are going to involve the winner with major corporation employee benefit plans, city fundraisers, and many other proven marketing techniques we’ve used in Southern California that can be easily implemented at other parks.”

**Field owners of all sizes interested in The Makeover Program should send an email to Makeover@GiantSportz.com. Please include a short introductory paragraph that introduces yourself and your business. The deadline for submissions is April 21st, so operators are encouraged to send in their request for an application as soon as possible.

Those who are not fortunate enough to win will still be a part of our e-mail blast program filled with helpful research and techniques that can be used to increase revenue at your park. All program information will also be available for viewing through a special forum on PbNation. The forum will be the main information channel for this new venture, and we would like to invite all of those interested to check back often to see what new insights have been shared!

Giant Sportz

(562) 867-9600 (ask for Chris, Gio, or Pando)

Makeover@GiantSportz.com – www.GiantSportz.com

First and foremost, I wanted to thank the NPPL as a whole and especially the teams making the trek to Huntington Beach to celebrate my birthday this weekend with your season opening event! I find it very flattering that an august organization such as the NPPL would go out of their way to hold their season opening event the same weekend as an obscure paintball writer/photographer in Norman Park, Georgia.

I’ve never made it a secret that I’ve always preferred the showmanship and venue selection of the NPPL over the PSP. Oddly enough however, during the course of my career as a tournament player I mainly played PSP events rather than NPPL. As a matter of fact, I’ve only played one NPPL ever, the 2005 Commander’s Cup in Miami.  As a matter of fact, the picture on the left there was taken at that event!  I know, I know…it’s a crime to look that good!

But to be honest, I’ve always liked the NPPL better. You’re just so darned nice! Even though Camille (Baker) Lemanski isn’t with you guys anymore, your organization as a whole is populated with very nice people. Now, as a writer/photographer, I’ve covered as many NPPL events as I have PSP events. One thing I can say about the NPPL, eye candy is not a problem! Granted, the PSP has stepped up their game in the hottie department recently, but they still have Lane around and let’s face it, he’s a bit hard on the eyes.

Since I got you guys here, can I make a couple of recommendations? Now, I’m not a tourney guy anymore, so there’s a chance I may be a bit out of touch with the realities of The Grind and how it is to be a tourney player these days.

First: You guys have some seriously fun fields to play. Now, I know you partnered up with Virtue to make sure everyone’s shooting semi, and that’s cool. But, back in the day when I was still doing that whole tourney thing, a lot of the time we’d end our practices at CFP (Central Florida Paintball, for all you Northern types out there) in Lakeland, FL by playing the NPPL fields with our ramping guns.

I know, I know…it takes away from skill and all that. Trust me, Raehl and I had that argument, at length a few years ago. Funny thing was, I was one of those voices protesting the inclusion of ramping into the game, while he was extolling the virtues of the simplicity of enforcing a ROF cap. In the end, he and I agreed to disagree, since neither one of us was going to back off of our points. But to be honest, I’m not exactly the most athletic guy in the world, and I’m no spring chicken anymore either!  But the thing is, we discovered that playing your human-sized fields are alot of fun with ramping guns, especially the really fun 15.4 bps ramping, not that boring 12 bps stuff!  I mean, isn’t the reason we’re doing this is because it’s fun?

But for us normal (round is a shape, damnit!) guys I’d love it, and would even consider a comeback to the tourney game if you were to include the PSP 2007 Ramping to the NPPL. It’s a tempting offer, I know…having the Hairy Hotness gracing your tournament series again, in all my granduer! Your fields are great, with nice human sized bunkers to play in, and I think if you started rocking and rolling with the machine guns out on those fields, you could make for some quality paintball out there!  I know the paint guys would love it!

Anyways, I hope you have fun this coming weekend in HB. Since my wife (now there’s a girl you ought to talk to about bringing the hottie factor to your events!) and I just moved, we’re staying home this coming weekend to continue unpacking the surprisingly large amount of crap we have and just relax. This whole getting old thing sucks, but as they say I’m ‘aging gracefully’.  In a couple of weeks the wife and I will head over to LCP (Low Country Paintball, to you Northern types) to play out in the woods making believe we’re Zombies, or we’re Humans who’re being attacked by Zombies.  We haven’t decided which we’ll be yet, but either way we’re going to shoot alot of paint, and have alot of fun!  You ought to come out and join us!  Ask Frank about LCP…he loves it there!

Thanks,

Dale “Furby” Ford

The Ford Report

Shooting Hot Magazine

South Beach Pimp

• LCP Graphics and Designs have expanded into hydrographics…let them dip your goodies today!
• For the pics or shens crowd, here’s the video of me and Greg Hastings getting into it at Old River Paintball: http://thefordreport.com/2012/03/dale-ford-and-greg-hastings-in-altercation-on-blues-crew-tv/
• Little did I know that Greg has backup: http://thefordreport.com/2012/03/greg-hastings-and-blues-crew-join-forces/
• My Valken Redemption pants showed up today…look for a review in the future. So…do I have my wife model them or do I model them myself?
• I also treated myself to a new V-Force Grill mask from SoBe Paintball…John managed to steal a set of the LE ones with the ‘tattoo’ pattern on them and the new thermal lens.
• Tim and Suzy from Shoreline Paintball are bringing Armor…. http://thefordreport.com/2012/03/shoreline-paintball-and-warfighters-combat-gaming-centre-will-be-working-together-for-the-forthcoming-tippmann-challenge-uk-event-to-be-held-at-sennybridge-in-july/
• Valken’s Greg Muller has a new hobby: standing brooms up. The new planking?
• The NPPL cancels their Vancouver event, bringing them down to 4 events this year.
• Meanwhile, the PSP is gearing up for Galveston this weekend.
• Valken and TSSOC join forces for 2012: http://thefordreport.com/2012/03/tssoc-and-valken-join-forces/
• SoBe Paintball’s John Navarro is up to something, but I can’t pry it out of him…and none of my Minions will mess with him, so I guess we get to wait!
• The PSP is “Changing the Face of Tournament Paintball”, with stats: http://thefordreport.com/2012/03/paintball-sports-promotions-is-changing-the-face-of-competitive-paintball/
• The Tampa Bay Times is reporting that Alex Spence is returning to pro paintball. Beating leukemia then going back to the grind…that’s toughness right there!
• Kreisman says you’re out of excuses if you’re going to Galveston…use Empire goodness to win!
• This weekend I’m cramming my gear, my wife, my stepdaughter and some clothes (maybe) into the McClain Motorsports Civic and heading up to Big Indian Paintball in Perry, GA for a game there…new field, new faces…
• That and I really need to shoot someone. Just sayin’.
• Tiberius Arms worked with LAPCO to create some barrels for their 8.1 pistols.
• RAP4 tells me they went to Paintball Extravaganza and blew everyone away!
• ProPaintball.Com reports in on Empire’s new “Super Freak” barrel kit. The news I took away from that was that they won the battle to buy Smart Parts’ patents. Nobody tells us media guys anything…
• Only a week or so left to register for the D-League’s season opener.
• Speaking of things California, Soccer super star David Beckham took his son out to Hollywood Sports.
• While I’m out playing this weekend, I’ll have an uber-classified goodie I’ll be trying out…guess you’ll have to come to Big Indian Paintball to see what it is, maybe.
• Tee Hee.
• Nxe steps up to sponsor the NPPL for the entire 2012 season.
• SoBe Paintball’s John Navarro feels so strongly about the new Deadlywind Null barrel that he sent me one to review! It’s silly light…be very interested to see how it shoots!
• I have it on good authority (and I have .pdf’s of the paperwork to back it up) that the ownership of Cousins Paintball in New York were served with subpoenas in connection to the Paintball Sports Magazine bankruptcy case. Yep, that case is still ongoing.
• Speaking of Cousins, they’re having a Dark Ops Extreme event March 18^th.
• The NPPL released their 2012 rule book.
• Slingpaint.Com is 1 year old today!
• Speaking of birthdays, today is my mother’s 71^st birthday, and she shares this birthday with Chris LaSoya. Not sure how old Chris is, but he’s damned lucky to have the same birthday as my sainted mother!
• Which brings up the uncomfortable subject of my impending birthday later this month. I share it with Bob “Saucy Aussie” Cartwright down in Florida, and he and my wife (among others) are conspiring to ‘do something’ for my 42^nd birthday this year. Personally I’d just as soon forget that I’m getting old(er), but they’re insisting.

“This is an incredible way for me to get fans excited about playing paintball, and entertain them with action and shenanigans from events all around the world. Maybe even get a few to start traveling to events they may not have known much about.” Says Greg Hastings. More about Greg at www.GregRedHastings.com and www.Facebook.com/NJNinja

“It was perfect timing with Greg’s projects coming on line, just as our super high tech media team headlined by Chris Hanse and Anthony Bove, came on line. Wait till you see what we produce and especially how we deliver this kind of entertainment to Greg’s and our fans. We are excited about our ability to generate professional innovative media for Greg and his Sponsors, such as Tippmann, where we’ll be highlighting their new products in all the action we shoot!” Says Michael “BLUE” Hanse”

Victoria was not present for this Beckham-boy’s day out, as much as we would have loved to see her in a trendy camouflage outfit, it was probably for the best that she sat this one out… wouldn’t have been very “Posh” of her to be shooting paintballs at her son & his friends (although David & his son certainly would have enjoyed shooting back!)

Oops.  And the video camera was rolling….

Adding insult to injury, after Blue broke up the media giant and former XSV star from beating each other up on the set of the live streaming presentation at “4 Real 2″ at Old River Paintball Greg’s pack started smoldering as it laid on a studio lamp on set.  After breaking up the altercation, Blue had Greg talk about the 2012 Tour of Duty while Dale talked about Shooting Hot Magazine, The Ford Report, and the latest information on the Machine Paintball Vapor.

Check out Greg’s new Re-Play camera at http://www.r7usa.com and stay tuned to http://www.bluescrewtv.com for more live streaming game coverage!  Hopefully Dale won’t beat anyone else up….

• For the “Pics or Shens” crowd, Machine Paintball has put up pics of their Vapor ‘in the metal’ on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MachinePaintball
• Seeing the guns with their molded parts tells me that I ought to be seeing one for review soon…
• Speaking of pictures, Valken posted up some CADs of the upcoming Proton on their FB page: https://www.facebook.com/ValkenSports I’ve tried interrogating Muller and Potter, but they’re displaying some commendable toughness in resisting my interrogation techniques. Less ‘restrained’ Minions are on the way.
• Deadlywind has signed on with The Ford Report to become the official CF barrel! Can I get a “Hell Yeah” for Brady and Colin?
• E-Money has a new Living Social Paintball promo going that can get 300 people to your field…give him a call at (310) 750-6219 to get in on that action!
• Over the weekend, Vanguard Paintball’s US division announced that they would no longer be working with Vanguard, which is based in the UK.
• Right after I put that PR up, I was contacted by none other than Frank “Da Tank” Connell to announce that he would be setting up a brand new service/support/sales network in the North American market for Vanguard.
• **blink**
• Speaking of UK paintball, the first Super 6 of the season has gone off, and Tim and Co. are already spooling up for the next one.
• Poor Suzy…apparently she played a little prank on Tim, and now I’m informed that she may be coming to South Georgia to serve out her banishment. It’s all good…we’d just drag her to LCP to break her Pink Lady Ego 11 in properly.
• Of all people, Maximus Lundquist dropped me a line this week to make sure I knew about the new goodness coming from KM: http://thefordreport.com/2012/02/new-km-design-development-sneak-peek/
• In Sweden, I’m known as “The Mighty Reporter”
• **flex**
• Valken goes way south to support the SARPL, South Africa’s paintball league: http://thefordreport.com/2012/02/valken-to-sponsor-the-rpl-in-south-africa-the-sarpl/
• Procaps Direct is heading to the Paintball Extravaganza February 28th-March 1^st. Make sure to stop by and tell Barno I said “Hi”.
• LCP Scenario Games is doing a series of games all over Georgia, Zombie Apocalypse: http://thefordreport.com/2012/02/zombie-apocalypse-the-series/
• If you want an idea of what it’ll be like, check this out: http://youtu.be/_0ou8xveGqY
• Get warmed up at the end of this month with SBP Scenario’s “4Real 2”: http://thefordreport.com/2012/01/sbp-scenarios-and-greg-hastings-tour-of-duty-present-4-real-2/
• I figure fighting with or against Greg Hastings ought to be a good warmup for some Zombie abuse….
• Return to Sexy Rexy’s Old River Paintball for “Ma Barker’s Shootout” at the end of March just to make sure you’re ready for the April leg of the “Zombie Apocalypse” series: http://thefordreport.com/2012/02/ma-barkers-shootout/
• The MAPL has released their 2012 rules and prize packages: http://www.maplseries.com/
• The PSP reminds me that for those of you looking to sell at the Galveston event, it’s time to get signed up!
• In more PSP news, they’ve changed the dates for this year’s World Cup to October 24-28, 2012 at Fantasy of Flight in Polk City, FL.
• From the RPL, it’s almost too late to register for the first RPL of the year! Might want to get signed up before it’s too late!
• RPS and Living Legends have teamed up this year to make Empire Evil Paintballs the official paintball of the event: http://thefordreport.com/2012/02/empire-evil-paintballs-named-official-event-paint-of-cpxs-living-legends-5/
• The NPPL has partnered up with Shorebreak hotel for the HB event.
• TechT announces the release of their Lo-Pro bolt pin and “Zero Ping” ram for the G6R.
• RAP4 is celebrating their 10^th anniversary by giving away some clear Hawkeye goggles.
• Empire has some LTD clothing that only a select few will get…make sure you’re one of them!
• I’m hearing very vague, 2^nd and 3^rd hand rumors that Tippmann is developing and testing a new tournament style gun. Hoosier Minions are on the way to Bussler’s house to have a little chat.
• Met up with McClain Motorsports’ Houston McClain outside of Valdosta this afternoon to get the title to the car, and discuss some of what’s going on with it. I think I got it through his head that putting a massive turbo on it is out of the question, so now he’s making the case for supercharging my truck…. No Houston, no!

Early this afternoon I spoke with Gino in regards to the PSP.  For the 2012 season, Valken will not be selling paint at PSP events.  Initially I thought that Gino wasn’t interested in spending the money to (reputed to be $25,000) for the privilege of selling paint to players and supplying sponsored teams competing in PSP events.  As it turns out, I was wrong on both counts.  For the privilege of securing a spot for your paint trailer to sell paint at a PSP event, the cost is $45,000 (!!!), and as it turns out he was keenly interested in supporting the league as well as selling paint to players and supporting his sponsored teams.   However, at this time the PSP is refusing to take Mr. Postorivo’s money to allow him to sell paint at PSP Events.

Leagues like the PSP, the NPPL, and the Millenium series over in Europe routinely sell the privilege of selling paint on-site to interested industry members like Valken, DXS, and RPS.  While the initial cash layout is pretty high I’m told by industry experts that the paint manufacturers do in fact make a profit with this arrangement, and it’s a definite win-win from the PR standpoint of people as well as the paintball media, who make sure that everyone who couldn’t make the event see their favorite teams and players using the products they hear so much about.  It’s also a good way for manufacturers of paint, guns, accessories and clothing to get direct feedback from players using the gear the hardest, so it’s definitely worth doing from an R&D standpoint.

To be honest, I had a hard time understanding why a cash-strapped industry would be interested in plunking down a large check to a paintball league, which realistically appeals to maybe 5% of the playing public.  However, my experts insist that sponsoring a league like the PSP and/or the NPPL are profitable ventures, both in tangible ways as well as intangible ways.

So that opens up the possibility for several things, none of which bolster my confidence in the ethics of the people who may or may not be involved.  Especially unsavory is the possibility that one or more companies who are currently supporting the PSP at high enough levels to get the privilege of selling paint at PSP events paying even more to keep a competitor out, like Valken.   At this time there are no allegations of wrongdoing on anyone’s part, but after my conversation with Mr. Postorivo today, I sent an email to officials at The PSP, who at this time have not responded to my inquiries.

Stay tuned to The Ford Report for updates as we continue the investigation into what may be a shutout of Valken from the PSP.

UPDATE 2/14/2012

While the PSP didn’t take the opportunity to respond to my inquiries before this story went live yesterday evening, apparently the reaction from players on Facebook and other venues made The PSP’s Lane Wright respond via ProPaintball.Com:

Misinformation is circulating that paintball manufacture Valken Sports was “shut out of the PSP”. As typical on ProPaintball, we immediately reached out to Lane Wright of PSP Events. Being the COO of the PSP, Lane was able to cut through the misinformation and set the record straight.

Here are the facts;

    In addition to being an exhibitor, Valken and DYE Precision both expressed interest in being a paintball sponsor of the PSP for the 2012 season.

    After a period of review, both requests to be a paintball sponsor were denied. According to Lane, this decision was reached with the intent of preventing a race to the bottom (see below) and returning paint vendors were given first considerations. (Neither DYE nor Valken supported the league as a paint vendor in 2011)

    Both Valken & DYE Precision are invited to exhibit their products at events – just as they have done in the past. However, they can’t sell paint.

    Lane mentioned that the PSP tried having several paintball vendors at events. However, in their experience, too many paint vendors selling inventory to a limited audience created a lose-lose for everyone. It created a race to the bottom environment that depressed prices in the short term and created a situation where the paintball manufactures lose interest and question their investments in competitive paintball.

Community member Eforce (via PbNation) has done an excellent job in putting this into perspective.

    There’s a limit to the number of cases sold at each event. I’m going to use entirely fictitious numbers here so don’t read too deeply into this but I think this may help you understand why a decision like this is made if it’s about competition.

    Let’s say that 5000 cases of paint sell at every PSP event, independent of the number of paint vendors in attendance. I obviously do not have sales data from each vendor so again, we’re going to use fictitious numbers to explore this concept. It’s more or less the equivalent of carrying capacity. Let’s say that hypothetically speaking, paint sales are divided evenly by each vendor.

    5000 cases / 1 vendor = 5000 cases sold per vendor
    5000 cases / 2 vendors = 2500 cases sold per vendor
    5000 cases / 3 vendors = 1667 cases sold per vendor
    5000 cases / 4 vendors = 1250 cases sold per vendor

    Given that companies have to pay $____ to the PSP to earn a spot on the paint vendor list, they will need to sell X cases each in order to break even on their investment. If the difference between, for example… 2 and 3 vendors (nearly 900 cases each) is the difference between breaking even and losing money for each vendor, the PSP will be expected to draw the line at 2 vendors in order to retain a viable sales model. Otherwise, they could face one or more vendors pulling out and face a potentially fatal paint situation. If the carrying capacity of the PSP market is 2 paint vendors and they put 3 at every event, problems arise.

As it currently stands, players will continue to have options at PSP Paintball events. Teams have the option of purchasing paintballs from GI Sportz, Empire Paintball/RP Scherer and ProCaps/DXS. ProPaintball insiders suggest that if the number of PSP teams were to grow by 15% in 2012, the PSP may consider adding another paint vendor.

I’m not going to argue Lane’s logic in denying DYE and Valken the opportunity to sell paint and/or support sponsored teams at PSP Events.  As the COO of PSP Events, he’s pretty much the final say on who does what at PSP venues.  The market will determine the wisdom of Lane’s decision in due course.   I have my own opinions, but this is neither the place nor time for me to express those opinions.

Having said that, it seems to me that it would have been far more constructive to have simply replied to my emailed requests to Camille and Lane both for information and have given them the opportunity to have their say, rather than commenting elsewhere.  However, given the market that The PSP serves, I can’t really blame him for deciding to reply to this story over at ProPaintball.Com.

More as it becomes available…or not.