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‘Euro 5 Man’ re-scheduled
to Spring 2008
The event
organisers, Pure Rush Promotions, in liaison with
Extreme Mayhem, last week made the difficult decision to
delay the European 5 Man Paintball Championships
until 2008.
After months of preparation and hard work, planning,
promoting and marketing the event, this was a painful
conclusion brought about by, in the end, the harsh
reality that only 20 UK teams were in a position to
commit. While the response from Europe was notably
stronger than last year, teams essentially fund
Paintball Tournaments, and had the event proceeded with
less than 40 teams, not only would it have undermined
credibility in the Euro 5 Man competition, it would have
resulted in a substantial financial loss.
Warren Maxwell of Pure Rush Promotions said “with the
backing and support of Ex Mayhem and one4one TV, the
strongest marketing campaign to date, supported by PGi,
local media and all our partners, an excellent prize
purse plus a stadium-full of spectators and
entertainments, we had every confidence of delivering an
exceptional ‘land-mark’ tournament. The Euro 5 Man has
been well supported over the last 5 years and in 2005 44
teams participated.
Our initial conclusion was that holding the Euro 5 Man
at the end of the season might have been a misjudgement
– and this may still be true, however over recent weeks
we have personally called every UK team on our database
and we are faced with a worryingly long list of teams
that have completely disbanded, or teams short of
members and/or funding. In addition key paintball brands
that are most active in team sponsorship failed, for
whatever reasons, to really get behind the Euro 5 Man
this year and we clearly need to understand why. We are
of course bitterly disappointed but certainly not
beaten”.
These observations are echoed in hard statistics
provided by The Millennium Series, Europe’s top
tournament series. UK team participation has steadily
declined by over 30% in the last 4 years with only 50 UK
teams in the 2007 season, compared to no less than 112
French teams. Even more telling: national team support
is obviously strongest when their country hosts that leg
of the series, and French teams consistently account for
+40% of all teams playing when the series hits French
soil, however here in the England, UK team participation
dropped from 39% in 2006 to an alarming 29.7% in
2007!
Duncan Farber said “it is clear that while the UK is
reputedly Europe’s biggest paintball-playing nation, the
competitive side of the sport is suffering a decline. We
must also conclude that the cost of participation is a
significant factor. While we support regional leagues
and indeed the Super League concept (encouraging
migration from woodland to tournament paintball at
grass-roots level) as best we can, it remains a critical
challenge to also retain teams and in this respect the
established tournament leagues here in the UK clearly
have a job on their hands.
The cost of league tournament participation is, in
general terms, evidently too high to be sustainable,
particularly with so much historic reliance upon
sponsorship, and we are working closely with Pure Rush
to rework the financial model. It’s clearly important to
draw paintball into the wider extreme sports arena,
diminish the cost of team participation and generate
funding revenue’s elsewhere. As a one-off stand-alone
event, the Euro 5 Man championship is the perfect
testing ground”.
Pure Rush and Extreme Mayhem would like to thank the
event sponsors, the teams who never wavered and everyone
who gave such generous support this year, including (in
no particular order) The Scottish Warriors, The
Ghurkhas, Jewson, Warped Sports, Raw State, Manic,
Regency Marquees, PGi, one4one TV, Viledge, Draxxus, Ex
Time, Paintball Kit Magazine, Paramina, Funtrak, and
Juggling Inferno.
Spectators who purchased tickets to attend the event
will be contacted and fully refunded, and all paintball
teams have been informed.
To
visit the official Euro 5 Man website visit
www.euro5man.com
For
further press information about the ‘Euro 5 Man’, Extreme Mayhem please contact:
Lis Hunt, Extreme Mayhem
T 0044 (0)1233 664432
M 0044 (0)7751 810202
E
lis.hunt@extremeinternational.com
W
www.extrememayhem.co.uk
Notes to editors:
Extreme Group & Extreme Mayhem
Extreme Group was started in 1995 by Al Gosling, founder
of the Extreme Sports Channel and is a collection of
businesses with a shared brand and shared values. Aged
24, passionate about extreme sports and unable to find a
job that interested him, Al set up Extreme. Today
Extreme delivers a range of branded lifestyle products
and services including, Extreme Entertainment (TV), Ex
Stores, Extremepie.com (online retailer), Extreme Mob
(an MVNO mobile phone network), Extreme Drinks, Extreme
Hotels, Ex Parks (sports based theme parks), Ex Freshies
(cafés), Extreme Cred, Ex Travel, Extreme Element
(sports courses and experience voucher service),
Viledge.com (first ‘real time live’ social network),
Extreme Mayhem (paintball), Extreme Medics, Ex Decko
(large pic and graphic service), Ex Raw State (apparel
and footwear range). Extreme employs 247 people and
operates in more than 70 countries around the world. The
Extreme Sports Channel gives the Extreme brand
continuous 24/7 exposure and reaches over 40 million
homes in 60 countries around the world.
Extreme Mayhem is a new business committed to growing
the paintball industry, with a community website that
provides a completely free paintball booking directory
to a nation-wide network of paintball sites, all of
which operate to ‘UKPSF’ quality standards.
For further press information about the Extreme Group
please contact:
Gemma Parkinson, Extreme International
T 0044 (0)207 244 1000
E
gemma@extremeinternational.com
W
www.extremeinternational.com
One4one TV
In two years, One4one.TV has become the world leader in
producing and broadcasting paintball movies, using its
internet network to reach 110 countries. One4one.TV is
also the first provider to secure video on demand
broadcasting deals with major US internet providers.
www.one4one.tv is
the web cast portal where paintball video fans can view
the latest productions, with high quality service and
options. The site is visited every day by thousands of
paintball fans coming from all over the world.
In 2006 One4one TV signed a major broadcasting deal with
Akimbo System, the USA’s largest Video-On-Demand
service. This is the first time in the history of
paintball that a production company has brought the
sport to the new exploding service of VoD. AKIMBO is
co-owned by CISCO SYSTEM and AT&T. AT&T Homezone has 8.2
million subscribers.
For further press information about one4one TV please
contact:
Mathieu Luquet
T 0033 (0)675 497036
E video@one4one.tv
W www.one4one.tv
Warren Maxwell and Pure Rush Paintball
The Euro 5 Man Championships is the brain-child of
Warren Maxwell, the owner of Pure Rush Paintball (based
here in Ashford).
Warren started playing paintball in 1992 and has
achieved a simply outstanding career history as a
world-class tournament paintballer, playing in teams
that have collectively won quite literally over 100 UK
competitions in the last 12 years.
His competitive career started with the Dark Angels in
’94, followed by a stint with Backlash UK (Pro Team). In
2002 he hit the big-time, joining The London Tigers –
the UK team to most successfully compete in the USA (in
the NPPL). In the States, paintball is the 3rd largest
action sport with over 10million players.
Key career highlights include:
2002 1st UK, 10th in Europe
2003 1st UK, 6th in Europe, 4th place NPPL (Pro
semi-finals), represented England in X-ball for full
season
2004 1st UK, 3rd in Europe, 8th in the world, NPPL world
championships - qualified for 3 out of 5 Pro semi-finals
(the most successful UK team to ever compete in the USA)
2005 NPPL world championships – repeated their 2004
stellar performance
2006/7 Started a new team, the South Coast Stealers –
already ranked in the top 40 European teams, and now
playing at semi-pro level in Europe
Julie Rose Stadium
The stadium is named after local middle-distance runner
Julie Rose who was killed in an air crash in Nov 1985.
The foundation stone was laid by Julie's parents Don &
Joyce Rose on 10th May 1996 and the track was officially
opened on 18th May 1997 by Tanni Grey. This exceptional
athletics facility, which cost £3.4m to build, also has
an indoor straight track, gym and a licensed bar.
The grandstand is called the Cliff Temple Grandstand
after Julie Rose's coach and renowned athletics
journalist who died in tragic circumstances in the early
1990s. The tensile canopy which covers the grandstand is
made of spun glass coated with Teflon and at 86 x 18
metres is one of the largest structures of its kind ever
made.
To download this Press Release as a .pdf
click here
Any questions
regarding this news article please email
matt@extremeinternational.com |
