NPPL and XPSL purchased by Pacific Paintball LLC

[cory]

From the XPSL newsletter.......

For Immediate Release:
January 22, 2007
Contact: Shawn Walker shawn [at] xpsl.com 714-719-9011

Pacific Paintball LLC has acquired both the NPPL and the XPSL, the leading national and regional paintball tournament operators in the United States. Shawn Walker, current owner and President of XPSL, will be President of Pacific Paintball.

Mr. Walker stated: “We are very excited to bring a level of professionalism, consistency and coordination to all tournament and league events from the national to the regional and to the local level. With the financial backing of Pacific Merchant Capital, we intend to bring significant investment to upgrade all aspects of our product offering. This will bring substantial value to our players, sponsors and spectators.”

“The experienced professionals at Pacific Merchant Capital have a long list of successes to their credit and are dedicated to add another success through the paintball industry. The combination of the largest regional league with the most recognized national level league is a perfect alignment of goals to achieve optimum success.”

Mr. Walker has managed the XPSL tournament series for the past 3 years and has worked with numerous paintball tournaments across the US. He has been involved in all aspects of the paintball industry for the past 15 years, and is co-host and consultant for the television show Inside Paintball, broadcast on the Outdoor Channel.

Bart Walkerdine, current CEO of NPPL and Pure Promotions, will consult for the league and tournament series. Mr. Walkerdine stated: “We have been approached by many people over the last several years seeking to become involved in the NPPL. Pacific Paintball is the first group to come along which combines significant paintball industry experience, meaningful growth capital and a dedicated focus to league and tournament operations.” Camille Baker, Director of Marketing for the NPPL, will be a key executive of Pacific Paintball.

National Professional Paintball League (NPPL) has continually set the standard for high quality tournaments. Its innovations include: use of specialty turf, holding events at large well know arenas like Raymond James Stadium and Gillette Stadium, and offering a professional referee organization. The first NPPL event of the 2007 season, at Huntington Beach, California on March 23rd-25th, will feature over 200 teams hitting the beach for an unprecedented fifth straight year. Registration opens January 29th and more information can be found at www.nppl.tv.

Chuck Hendsch, former President and owner of NPPL, will serve on an advisory board to the NPPL. Mr. Hendsch stated: “I have known Shawn Walker and the principals at Pacific Merchant Capital for over three years. They have been interested in growing paintball participation and this provides a solid platform as the largest and only independent paintball tournament and event operation in the United States. Their efforts should help to grow overall paintball participation as well as the number of core players in our sport.”

Xtreme Paintball Sports League (XPSL) is the largest regional event series in the United States. In 2006, over 120 teams attended each event and thousands of spectators continued to call the high quality, affordably priced circuit home. The first XPSL tournament of the season is February 16th-18th at the Kern County Fairgrounds in Bakersfield, California. Registration is now open with more information available at www.xpsl.com.

Pacific Paintball has been formed by Pacific Merchant Capital (“PMC”), a Santa Barbara, California based investment group. The principals at PMC have owned/operated middle market radio stations as well as built several niche media companies, including the largest taxi top advertising company in the United States which is currently an integral part of Clear Channel Communications’ outdoor division. In addition to Pacific Paintball, PMC is currently building Brite Media Group, a leading alternative media business.

It looks like this puts Shawn Walker in control of both the NPPL and XPSL. Should be an interesting season.

[Allen Turner]

Thanks for posting this Cory..

I am not sure where this leaves us locally or what it all means.

I will try to get some direct information from Shawn and Bart and let you guys know what I find out.

[Allen Turner]

Ok I have read around on this and I just got off the phone with Shawn Walker.

Both the NPPL Feeder and XPSL Affiliate systems will be changing.
However it will be several weeks before Shawn has a plan in place for the Feeders. He has to deal with Bakersfield and HB Registrations in the next couple weeks so he is a bit busy.

If things come together as Shawn has planned the NPPL & XPSL will be using a new registration system and integrated database system the APPA. APPA is the system currently used by PSP, CFOA and others.

What does this mean for the UXPL.

If things go well there will FINALLY be one player sactioning body for all player classifications, and one unified definition for Divisions

However this system may not be completed this year.

From my perspective this could FINALLY be a step towards getting paintball on the national level to be unified but its still early.

Either Way the UXPL will be producing the same high quality, High Value events in 2007 that we have been producing since 2002.

I hope to have details of sponsorships available for 2007 soon!

The UXPL will be launching our new Website very soon as well, look for the email!