JERRY
BRAUN Exclusive
We spoke to veteran tournament promoter Jerry Braun during the
last PSP leg of 2003 on Disney grounds in Florida. He answered
tough questions about the Super 7, X-Ball, Dick Clark and the
future of paintball. Needless to say that when Jerry speaks,
the world listens.
Now that the year is over, what's your take on what happened?
I said it on the record. I never had a problem with competition, because
competitors are good, they do a good job. They're constructive in their competitive
ways, they'll expand the market for everybody's good. Bud Orr and Tom Kaye were
the first ones to learn that: Bud made the Cocker, Tom made the Mag, they were
the best of friends. They helped each other out and they literally grew the semi-automatic
market, and I would say that they spearheaded not only that market, but also the
way that it could compete. However, you can compete destructively as well, and
the way you do that is you try to knock your competition out of the box by not
trying to expand the market, but by trying to keep the market where it is and
get enough market share of your competitor's customers so they can no longer remain
in business.
And that has not happened this year…
Well it
did, they tried, in other words if you look at the Super 7, they made sure that
they were in every city that we were in two weeks before we were there. Yet obviously,
there are other tremendous markets: Atlanta, Dallas, New York, Boston…
Yet they picked the cities that they picked because…
Tell you what,
take anyone with half a brain, and tell me what you would think honestly. They
didn't knock us out of the box, we didn't knock them out of the box… What they
did is awaken a sleeping giant. Because honestly, we were the only gig in town,
we were trying to improve, but the impetus to improve was in an evolutionary way,
we saw something that could be improved upon, then we improved upon it the next
year. Here, we had to take a quantum leap, because they did a wonderful job in
Huntington Beach, and I have no problem saying that. They had six months to prepare
this and they did very well. In order for us to maintain our edge …we got Pomona,
which was respectable. If HB hadn't occurred, people would have loved Pomona.
Then, for Vegas, we think that we had a better venue, they said they had Sam Boyd
stadium, but they weren't in the stadium, a bit aways. We were actually in a city
park. In Chicago, we were at Maywood, there was no competition… but they had a
very bad venue in New Jersey, and they also had bad weather, but you know that
happens…
And here we are in Disney
Now we're here due to tragic
circumstances. After the September 11th World Trade Center attacks, nobody wanted
to fly except paintballers. I was in Las Vegas three weeks after the attacks,
and Vegas was virtually a ghost town, you walked through Caesar's Palace, and
full sections were closed. I went to Orlando, and I understood that there was
20% less tourism which is again phenomenal-depression era. We had 350 teams...
Larry King, who runs Paintball World, brought Disney down to see the World Cup.
They were more than impressed with the numbers-we had phenomenal turnouts. We
made a deal for 2002, to let them see whether paintball was a fit for them. We
did the Xball competition on the Disney grounds, which we negotiated.
What kind of negotiations?
What we could do, what we couldn't do,
how we were going to do it, how we did things in general. It worked out very well.
They were surprised by the concession activity. They enjoyed the sport, the game,
and we, of course, capitalized on the opportunity and in January negotiated a
deal to hold the World Cup on Disney grounds. Disney was marvelous, and I'm not
saying that because we have to give them kudos. They had 30 to 40 people doing
parking… So not only did we have a wonderful venue, and not only did we manage
to legitimize the game through the Disney name, we had a level of service within
that venue that we were not used to. It was unique, and paintball was on the radar
screen. Things are happening, to everybody's benefit.
And you've been
doing the necessary advertising and promotion?
I just finished with Channel
Six, PBS… The reporters were actually playing against Bob Long, Thunder, Strange.
We made television news. It all worked out very well.
How about the
format? Xball seems to be taking over quite rapidly…
I can't speak for
my partners, but I don't think that anyone wants to lose out on classic 5 and
10-man games or move towards 7. They both have unique characteristics that 7 does
not have.
So 10 is still alive?
Ten is still alive, we still
service it. The only time 10 will die is if there aren't 10-man teams to service.
Five-man gained in prominence because Xball, the thing that is going to get paintball
on TV, is structured around the lines of 5-man centerflag games. As a matter of
fact, it's 5-man centerflag games within an overlay of hockey scoring and hockey
penalties.
There's been a huge development over this past season of
Division Xball. Is this managed by the PSP or the NXL?
It's managed by
the players. They obviously see the pros at the World Class Level. They watch
the games, they try it… every game gives you the rush as though it were a final
game in the series, any point [gives you the rush]-and there can be 20 to 25 points…
And to have that rush, even though you're not out there for all of them, you're
getting ready, you're biting your nails, you're in the game. People play it, they
become addicted to it, because it is so like a professional sport. Ten and 7-man
have two specific drawbacks to get to that level. The first one is that with two
flags you don't have a focus. You have one football, one basketball, one hockey
puck, yet you have two flags? The second is simplicity for the spectator. I think
that we have found a winning formula. And it's a formula where people start out
playing 5-man…
Then they move on to Division One Xball…
They
do, or they move on to 10-they used to move on to 10-man from 5-man. The beauty
of this is that you can take two disparate 5-man teams that are good and you can
play Xball, without having to try to meld them into one 10-man team.
So in a way you do see a way to avoid 10-man.
It's not avoiding it,
because the 10-man has a strategic component within the body of the game that
5-man or Xball does not-like in chess, you can sacrifice pawns for position. So
it doesn't matter if you lose one or two men in a 10-man, if your position becomes
dominant and you control the field. It does matter if you lose two guys in a 5-man
game, whether in Xball or regular 5-man.
Every kid I see at a PSP
tournament sees Xball and says 'that's what I want to play!'
And that's
the natural order for them. I grew up in 20-man, from 1983 up until 1992, [then]
we played 15-man, in fact, the first two World Cups were 15-man. We came out of
the woods in 1998. There have been evolutions in the game, and everybody laments
what is left behind, and you don't disparage that because they're right, there
is something left behind… It was a great game, a game of stealth and a game of
power. There's no stealth out here, it's all power. My perspective on paintball
goes back almost 22 years, I can tell you the changes and I've been through every
one of them, and they are natural. Ten-man could be around for an eternity or
it could dissipate rapidly. And that's really up to the players, but it's not
the game for spectators the way Xball is, and it's not the game for television.
So with Disney, there were some tough negotiations, you had to shell
out a lot?
I can't tell you that. What I can tell you is that the negotiations
were not difficult at all.
ESPN is owned by Disney.
Yes,
owned by ABC which is owned by Disney.
Dick Clark has acquired the
rights to the NXL, have there been negotiations with this channel?
I
haven't been talking to anyone, I can't speak for Dick Clark or anybody else,
but I would say that at that level you never mention negotiations with anybody
until those negotiations are successfully concluded or you become damaged goods.
If I'm negotiating with network X, then Y and Z know it. And if network X doesn't
want you, then Y and Z are never going to look at you. You're damaged goods.
The NXL isn't about to go anywhere, it's a merger with the PSP…
Well
there's tremendous overlap in ownerships.
Will players be paid more
next year in the NXL?
You can't put the cart in front of the horses.
In order to pay the salaries which are wanted, you have to raise sufficient funds...
Right now, it takes $200,000 a year to run an NXL team. We have sponsors to offset
some of that… gear, travel, hotels, some spending money. It does take significant
resources to run a team. If we get sponsors, TV sponsors, and we start doing well
that way, obviously players will be getting paid. We want to do that. One step
at a time. Disney is the epitome right now for paintball venues.
The
notion was never expressed by Disney that paintball might be a little too aggressive
for them?
That's why we brought them to see the game in 2001. They liked
what they saw, they saw it as a sport, they saw that it brought to bear all elements
of a sport: a true contest with skill levels involved in terms of the game and
athletic prowess.
What's going to happen next year, five venues, six
venues?
We haven't decided that yet, it's up to the Super 7 to do what
they want to do.
You're still bitter?
I'd rather not answer
that question.
Have you been approached by manufacturers who sided
with the Super 7?
I personally have not, I think manufacturers are going
to make decisions that better their business.
So you think that the
Super 7 has managed to establish itself in just one year as one of the two US-based
leagues?
Only if people are willing to grow it. We're reaching capacity
levels. I could have not held another hundred teams here, in terms of the area.
It's an enormous area that we used up at Disney. Personally, I don't know if we
want to be growing that way. The logistics are very difficult, you have 200 5-man
teams and that's a challenge, you have 500 5-man teams, and that's a bigger challenge.
So you think that there is a market for two major leagues here, or
rather three leagues, counting the NXL, of course?
I think that there
is constructive cooperation. Obviously, if they tag to our cities, then we are
going to divide what is a limited market. My feeling is that they will try other
venues as well, maybe they'll do some of ours, maybe all of ours, maybe none.
It's not my decision, all I can do with my partners is decide the road we're going
to travel. I can't dictate or control the road they're going to travel. It's in
large measure going to be a circumstance dependant on the choices that are made
and how much money anyone has to shell out. They may change the way they play
the game, where they play the game, when they play the game, and all of those
are factors in determining the viability of their league, as well as of ours.
I think that we're in pretty good shape with the venue that we had at Disney,
having finished the year on a high note.
Will you be going to Miami
to check it out?
I don't think so.
Comments
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| VIP |
| "Thats for NOT trashing the players on this one like Richmond Italia did. " | ogplayer
13/03/04 at 03:53
 | | "I think psp/nxl is a fastest growing league and you know whats gonna happen when it starts showing on TV, it's gonna be BIG.Keep it Jerry and Partners.." | k-f
31/03/04 at 23:02
| | "Im still waiting for that TV deal.... and waiting. " | dave1414
25/06/04 at 13:33
| | "Still waiting...I'll just watch NPPL on Fox Sports Network till you get going-ok Jerry. " | dave1414
02/07/04 at 14:29
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