PbNation.com Bans NPPL – Who Should Be Crying?

Sometimes you just have to take stand. This is one of those times. – Ed President of PbN

It looks like the NPPL stood up before you, Ed.

PbNation.com is the largest paintball forum in the world. The NPPL (National Professional Paintball League) is a paintball tournament venue. They host paintball tournament events throughout the year with teams all sizes and experiences.

Now that we’re all on the same page, it’s my sad duty to report that PbNation.com has cut off all support to the NPPL for apparently signing a contract with the Fox television network that restricts video taping of other small paintball DVD companies like DerDer, Traumahead, and Monkey With a Gun. Monkey With a Gun brought PbNation’s owner, Ed, a good amount of money through an affiliation with the DVD company. Ed (and PbN staff) were apparently outraged that NPPL would do such a thing. This obviously means less money for Ed and his site.

68Caliber.com writes about the same situation saying,

Come on, now…I dig watching paintball DVD’s as much as the next player, but does Ed and Co. really in their heart believe that the various DVD makers do and can do more for the NPPL than Fox Sports, a mainstream media outlet?

I agree 100% with Dale Ford and The Internet Gnome. I might have a few things to add though.

Ed from PbNation.com seems to think that he possesses the power of PbNation.com. Well, it is his website – I understand he wants the best for it. But this is starting to get pretty ridiculous. The message he’s giving out is that Ed and PbNation are more interested in the money than the sport. Why does he have to throw a fit like this just because they didn’t get their way?

NPPL signed a deal with Fox because paintball on TV was in such high demand. It’s pretty hard to find a paintballer that can honestly say that Paintball on TV would hurt the sport of paintball. So, paintball of Fox is a good thing – right? I understand that Derder, Traumahead, and M.W.A.G will be taking a financial blow due to this new contract between NPPL and Fox (although I doubt PbN could care less about M.W.A.G’s competition). I highly doubt that any company will end up belly-up due to the new contract. Even if they do, that’s just how business works. The main point is that NPPL made the right decision to go ahead and make that contract with Fox, BECAUSE not only was it in the best interest for the NPPL, but also for the sport in itself. Idea of paintball playing (maybe live?) on the Fox network excites the average paintballer.

Also, how does banning the NPPL benefit anybody other than PbNation staff? And does it even benefit them? Doesn’t seem like it so far. Did the users have anything to say regarding the matter? Nah of course not.

This issue involves power and money. Paintball isn’t even the issue here. Only time can tell how this situation will unfold both legally, ethically, and for the good of the sport of paintball. It’s all about that green.

Forgive me for embedding some of my own, personal feelings I have for PbN in this post. I believe that PbNation made a pretty big mistake here – as it’s going to do nothing but cause controversy, loss of money, and it certainly doesn’t help out the sport in general.

The original PbNation post can be found here.