No.343 Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 Why would a "non-gun" person watch guys that look like us shooting for real when there are hundreds, if not thousands, of smoking hot, gorgoueos women and good looking men shooting for fake with great sound tracks, fabulous fireworks and amazing acrobatics. Lets face it, we will never be as good as The Lone Ranger at shooting a pistol out of the bad guys hands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wideload Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Not sure about "mainstream" but would like this sport experience steady growth in the numbers of new people coming on. I would like to see some of the regular local monthly matches grow to an average of 50+ shooters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 For those of us who continue to explore the waythrough our shooting, the idea of becoming part of popular culture is irrelevant. Let's not let ourselves become distracted by the bright lights and shiny objects along our path. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vluc Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 (edited) Not sure about "mainstream" but would like this sport experience steady growth in the numbers of new people coming on. I would like to see some of the regular local monthly matches grow to an average of 50+ shooters. Would be nice - as long as there is a corresponding increase in helpers to set up, run and tear down! We have seen increases in our local clubs but it has not translated into additional help yet. Edited November 16, 2011 by vluc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beltjones Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Not sure about "mainstream" but would like this sport experience steady growth in the numbers of new people coming on. I would like to see some of the regular local monthly matches grow to an average of 50+ shooters. Would be nice - as long as there is a corresponding increase in helpers to set up, run and tear down! We have seen increases in our local clubs but it has not translated into additional help yet. I definitely understand the need for more help to set up and tear down, but I think a big part of it is communicating to everyone that you need the help. Asking new shooters to help set up and tear down makes them feel like they are part of the club, believe it or not. It also helps you get to know people, and all of those warm fuzzy feelings help bring people back to future matches (which is pretty much the foundation of growing the sport). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarge Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 I would like to see some of the regular local monthly matches grow to an average of 50+ shooters. This is probably why I have a different opinion than most. Unless there is something unusual going on(bad weather, Holiday, Area match nearby)we average well over 50 shooters now at nearly all of the local matches here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFlowers Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 I think this is one place were Steel Challenge can help. Easy setup, multiple setups possible, non-threatening targets, divisions for everyone. Also the Pro-Am. For TV, I think a Man-on-Man reactive Steel match with some type of auto-resetting target arrays would be the best bet. Very much like NHRA Drag Racing but with guns. Give the audience someone to root for... the grudge match of Robbie vs Todd, the young guns of Chris vs Jessie, etc etc ad nauseum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rgkeller Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 The only thing more boring than watching shooting is watching golf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wideload Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Not sure about "mainstream" but would like this sport experience steady growth in the numbers of new people coming on. I would like to see some of the regular local monthly matches grow to an average of 50+ shooters. Would be nice - as long as there is a corresponding increase in helpers to set up, run and tear down! We have seen increases in our local clubs but it has not translated into additional help yet. I definitely understand the need for more help to set up and tear down, but I think a big part of it is communicating to everyone that you need the help. Asking new shooters to help set up and tear down makes them feel like they are part of the club, believe it or not. It also helps you get to know people, and all of those warm fuzzy feelings help bring people back to future matches (which is pretty much the foundation of growing the sport). Agree that it's not just attendance but getting the quality attendees with mix of experienced shooters that know what to do and be willing to help get new guys involved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexmoney Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 We've had the discussion locally on how to get more shooters to come to matches. We do OK around here, 50-60 shooters per match, weather and wives permitting. Most of our ranges will only have 5-6 bays to use anyway. I asked the folks who were trying to get more shooters to come out, "Where you gonna put them? Are we ready for 80 shooters per match? Are we going to be there 3 hours longer for the same amount of shooting?" I'm all for growing the sport as long as I'm not put out any ^ This observation is vital !! We need to be doing more to develop (and maintain) ranges for our sport. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Griffin Posted November 17, 2011 Share Posted November 17, 2011 The only thing more boring than watching shooting is watching golf. Yes, terribly-neglected woefully-compensated professional golf. Thank god we aren't suffering like those guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillD Posted November 17, 2011 Share Posted November 17, 2011 The only thing more boring than watching shooting is watching golf. Yes, terribly-neglected woefully-compensated professional golf. Thank god we aren't suffering like those guys. Lots more golfers than shooters. Lots more money to be made selling golfing equipment than shooting equipment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chills1994 Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 [bill O'Reilly voice on] The purpose of every medium is to sell you something. [/voice] The way you sell things is to attach a lifestyle to it. If you're a "Smith" and you're at some level of lifestyle "X", and you see the "Jones's" living at lifestyle Y, then I can leverage my advertising to sell you some product Q to make you believe you're now keeping up with the Jones's at the Y level. That, I think, is the advantage that golf has over just about every other sport. Besides that, just like all the other major sports that are televised, those sports are just a medium for advertising. The guy who I think we should be talking to especially when it comes to making any comparisons to golf is Jay Townsend a.k.a. "zhunter" here on the forums. IIRC, when I met him back in 2008, I think he said he was a golf commentator.... I guess...overseas most of the year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chills1994 Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 The only thing more boring than watching shooting is watching golf. Yes, terribly-neglected woefully-compensated professional golf. Thank god we aren't suffering like those guys. Lots more golfers than shooters. Lots more money to be made selling golfing equipment than shooting equipment. Paradigms...my man...paradigms. Probably next to attitudes and prejudices, they are next hardest thing to change in us humans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maksim Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 Our local clubs typically average over 60 shooters. The bigger club gets a good amount of times over 75 to 100 shooters. I must say I take pride in getting those numbers high. Through my forum, I got at least 25 to 30 new uspsa shooters. At our last local match we had 23 or so forum members come out to shoot, (njgun forums.com) and accounted for over 25% of the total match participants. Once someone tries it, they are hooked, and in turn, in a communist state like NJ, we turn casual range goers, into real gun owners for life. Televise the sport, and that many more will come out! I think World Shoot 2014 is our opportunity to do that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chills1994 Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 I don't have cable TV, so I don't watch Top Shot or the 3 Gun Nation shows.... does USPSA have a TV commercial during those shows? does USPSA.org have its own channel on YouTube? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rgkeller Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 As I posted before, USPSA cannot update its website in a timely manner because of manpower shortage. They/we have no resources to spend on mass media recruitment or, evidently, even youtube. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aztecdriver Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 I don't have cable TV, so I don't watch Top Shot or the 3 Gun Nation shows.... does USPSA have a TV commercial during those shows? does USPSA.org have its own channel on YouTube? btw, you can watch top shot directly from history.com the day after it airs... I agree - a youtube channel will be good, but they gotta video some people to put there - requires staff.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillD Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 I don't have cable TV, so I don't watch Top Shot or the 3 Gun Nation shows.... does USPSA have a TV commercial during those shows? does USPSA.org have its own channel on YouTube? btw, you can watch top shot directly from history.com the day after it airs... I agree - a youtube channel will be good, but they gotta video some people to put there - requires staff.. I believe USPSA could send out an email asking for match videos from the members and be inundated with replies. They might require staff to sort them but I'm pretty sure in a couple days, one person could put together quite a video library from all the replies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JakeMartens Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 As I posted before, USPSA cannot update its website in a timely manner because of manpower shortage. They/we have no resources to spend on mass media recruitment or, evidently, even youtube. so where does the money go? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JakeMartens Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 Until it gets popular, why not get behind 3-Gun Nation in the meantime? http://3gunnation.com/episodes/ozark_3-gun_part_i Why can't USPSA work with a production company and come up with something like this for USPSA Matches? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rgkeller Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 As I posted before, USPSA cannot update its website in a timely manner because of manpower shortage. They/we have no resources to spend on mass media recruitment or, evidently, even youtube. so where does the money go? Steel Challenge for one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chills1994 Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 I just started a new Steel Challenge club here. We are yet to have a for real Steel Challenge match, but in looking through the paperwork I got from HQ, each shooter, not just Steel Challenge members, are required to have $1.50 of their match fees get sent to HQ. I had to send an email to Kim and she replied back with that clarification...not just S.C. members, but all the shooters basically pay a per capita tax for each S.C. match they shoot in. I thought Paul Earhardt was hired on/in as some sort of marketing consultant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nik Habicht Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 I just started a new Steel Challenge club here. We are yet to have a for real Steel Challenge match, but in looking through the paperwork I got from HQ, each shooter, not just Steel Challenge members, are required to have $1.50 of their match fees get sent to HQ. I had to send an email to Kim and she replied back with that clarification...not just S.C. members, but all the shooters basically pay a per capita tax for each S.C. match they shoot in. I thought Paul Earhardt was hired on/in as some sort of marketing consultant. Which matches USPSA requirements..... There is a $1.50/head fee for shooting the match..... And a separate $1.50/head fee for shooting the classifier.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chills1994 Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 You missed my point... Sorry ... I should have clarified that. If the SC can't be self-supporting through membership fees/dues and per capita taxes, and it continues to be a drain on USPSA's finances, somebody is going to have to drastically change that business model. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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