"Sport" in Singapore

If you haven't heard- the center line will be removed for the SPNS tournament. They have finally agreed to officially let us play without a border for the first time in Singapore.

Thanks to the hard work of the PBAS President Jane Koh. Now its a matter of EVERYONE showing the authorities that paintball is a real sport and its safe and clean. I hope I don't see anymore monkey-ing around on the field during the tournament and after. Players have to follow the rules and play as fair and with as much sportsmanship as everyone will be under the spotlight.

It is important that we show paintball as a clean and real sport- because parents and everyone will come and watch. Even old pros like Bob Long tell you that they don't want any monkey-ing and attitudes in the field because parents come and watch the tournaments. By monkey-ing I also refer to especially the Army twats. (read my previous post)

Paintball in Singapore now needs a successful tournament to further show people that it is a real sport. The SPNS needs people to come and play and show the country that its a real sport and people form teams and play it.

It should not be like Formula 1 where they waited 10 years before they jumped on the bandwagon because Malaysia has it. They should take a chance on Paintball and come and have a look and see what it is.

Singapore is throwing money at sports and wants to be a major player in sports. They got the youth Oylmpics and they're building stadiums and racing tracks. But I'm my opinion they are going about it they 'kiasi' way. They only want to back sure winners and not take risks. Paintball is new and unknown and they don't really know what category is it under and its been a struggle to get it recognised as a "sport".

We had a local sports TV show who came and shot scenes at the park and despite us showing them what Paintball is and how its played as a sport. The producers used Paintball as side line and we had about 45 seconds of coverage out of a half hour show. To say I was disappointed was an understatement but I am amazed by the narrow mindedness of the producers to just overlook Paintball.

It would be great if Paintball got into the X games and X games Asia and be seen on TV. Then more people and more sponsors will come on board. Today I went to adidas and had a look around and one of the sales guys came up and offered to help. All I can think off was the contempt I was shown by adidas' marketing people when I approached them for sponsorship. I guess if this county who (until recently) couldn't get a shirt sponsor for their national football team - Paintball doesn't stand a chance to get anything for a while yet.

Maybe in 10 years time when they host the World Cup (the Disney one) in KL- Singapore will wake up and want a piece of the pie. But I think the better avenue is for ESPN to pick Paintball up for their X Games and when Singapore wants to host the Asian X Games- they cant deny that Paintball is a sport.