The Wild World of TB!

In this I mean more of a financial statement then a philosphical one. In these days there are producers who either don't want our business or say that our business 'costs' more than it is worth. But is that really the case? I guess in the end, all promoters reserve the right to refuse service to anyone that they choose. And if indeed the person is breaking the rules, I would agree with taking appropriate measures up to and including a ban. That is only right, to be sure. To attempt to neuter someone because of an opinion or a disagreement on how to play a game is a little harsh and at time draconian on it's best day.

But what does a team like Thunderstruck, of which I am a member and arguably one of the most visible faces of, bring to a scenario game? In the financial aspect, it is pretty simple. Everyone on my team is over the age of 21 and all have a job or other means of gainful employment. While in the past we have been sponsored by gun manufacturers and others, in the end, the vast majority of us are not sponsored at games. Because of the past issues in that, I am not looking for that kind of thing ever again really. I will pay my way and then I owe you nothing that you don't expect from everyone else. So let's look a that based off the games that Thunderstruck has played in 2009.

So far, Thunderstruck has played in over 10 games this year. In every game that I am aware of we paid the same price as everyone else who attended. And we wound up averaging about 3.5 cases per player on my 12 man team. TO be fair we had 10 people at most games and rarely had over 12, however we did have several games where we added 4 to 5 extra people not team affiliated to come play with us. So I will leave the number at 12 just to be fair to the averages. Early bird entry for most games is $50, so 12 x $50 is $600 bucks in entry. For air at most places is $15, so we have 12 x $15 =$180. And a case of paint averages around $65 based on several of the games we attended. Some it was $70 or $80 at others it was $55. We averaged 3.5 cases per player so per game that would be 12 X 3.5 = 42 cases of paint for the 12 of us. At $65 per case that turns out to be $2730 in paint money. And that doesn't include any incidentals, we travel so we tend to eat at the field and such as that. But we wont go into that part. So the grand total from us is $3510 if we just shoot our average. At some games we were 4 and 5 cases deep, but that is another story. So you take the $3510 that we average a game and multiply that by 10 and that comes out to $35,100 dollars in money to the producers in the games.

Now I don't know about most of you, but $35k is more than most people make in a year and quite a sum of money. In comparison, lets take a 30 man team who shoots the average of 1.2 players that is the scenario average (and has been for years on end). Do all the same math above (I ain't breaking it down again) and you come to $4290 for a 30 man team. That's a difference of $780 or 5.5 players. So my team brings as much to the table, financially as a 25 man team. The difference is that up until this year, we pretty much played one promoter's events, oh we traveled to other events, but we mostly stayed in one circle. But if you got just 6 games out of us in a year, that's still $21,600 which is no small number to sneeze at. And to replace that income you would have to add 25 players per event that we no longer come to that shoots at least the scenario average. Aren't all the promoters complaining about the game shrinking?

But to speak on that, Thunderstruck also has friends (hard to believe I know) and of course teams who want to play against us, that do travel and sign up on either side. Yes there are teams out there these days who say that they will boycott the game if myself or my team show up, but those guys, if you really look at them bring far less to the table financially then we do. On top of that, there is the fact that we do require people to step up their game. And I have yet to be at a game where someone on the other side or any side actually came up to me or a member of my team off field and asked for advice that we laughed at them or made them feel stupid. Most anyone will tell you, on the field is one way to look at the game, off the field is another. I am not going to be nice to you on the field, but I will treat you with respect and courtesy off the field if you bring the same to me. And while I could probably replicate how much money that is with teams who may or may not come to your events, I am not going to do so, I will conservatively say it is the equivilent of the above mentioned 30 man team. So at any game you can add an additional $4000 that we bring to the table just for people to shoot with us or against us.

In this hard economic times, are we really the kind of people you don't want at your games? We play hard, yes, but we do play according to the rules. We don't wipe and we play at night. We are known for being the team that the commander depends on and we don't walk off the field until the commander does. We go off for paint and air, but most of the time we don't even eat (well I might, but cmon, I am a big boy). That is one of the reasons that we have gotten as many awards and accolades as we have, we are simply there more then most other teams.

For 2009, we have slowed down a bit. The fiasco at VIP was tasking as was the breakup last November. The team is only stronger and shoots a lot more paint then it did then and we are looking at a promoter to spend out coin with. So far we have a few, Bill Bailey, Billy Smith, Rich Dolph(Phoenix) and Damian from TAW being the big four. If the bigger promoters don't want our money, then we will for sure spend it with the smaller local promoter and we will promote their events and try our best to direct teams to them. Regardless of what people think, we are ambassadors of the sport and there are a lot of teams that look where we play and come to play with us. We provide legitimacy to the events we attend and a lot of people have said that the events we have stopped attending no provide little to no challenge without them going against us. So take from all that what you will.

This isn't bragging by any stretch of the imagination, just some simple math and some simple statements. In the end think about the money you spend with a promoter and see if you are providing their house payments and car payments. If so, maybe, just maybe you should get a little more respect than the jokers who show up at one game and split a case with a friend. Well maybe not, but you get what I mean, right?