Paintball: Lifestyle activity or sport?

I'm quite sure this must have been covered a gazillion times in various forums, publications and kopitiams everywhere but since it hasn't appeared here I'm gonna shoot from the hip anyway.

I've been sending out feelers to some media folks in Singapore about coverage of tournament/competition paintball and the response, or rather initial reaction, has been rather disappointing.

Here's an excerp from an MSN conversation I had today with an ex-colleague, a former sports journalist with a local newspaper (names have been changed to protect the identity of the people involved, their respective organisations and their pet shit zu):

Amok says:
if i need to get some coverage for a paintball tournament in singapore, you know of any reporters i can speak to?
Kermit says:
hahaha
Kermit says:
someone asked me two years ago when i was at *******
Kermit says:
i dared not even ask my editor
Amok says:
why not?
Kermit says:
coz its erm... i guess its for lifestyle
Amok says:
its not man
Amok says:
paintball is a proper sport
Kermit says:
haha
Amok says:
sigh
Kermit says:
i am not having this conversation
Amok says:
but now there's a Singapore paintball Association
Amok says:
recognised by the Singapore Sports Council somemore
Kermit says:
hey, stamp of approval from the SSC is... you know the score
Kermit says:
haha
Kermit says:
i think teh lifestyle guys may do it

Doh, there's the dreaded L word again. Based on my conversation with Kermit and a few other journos, it's quite clear what the perception of paintball is here in Singapore. The fact that it is being played competitively with national, regional and even world class events taking place all over the world does not seem to convince them of its viability to be published in the Sports section of a newspaper instead of the L-word-that-will-not-be-mentioned.

So what do we do to change this? Education should obviously be the main angle of attack. We need to first educate the media about the sport and maybe then paintball might have a fighting chance of getting some decent coverage as a SPORT.

To keep the momentum going, we then need to ensure that whatever paintball tournaments/competitions that are run in Singapore are well organised and continue generating public interest. We're bound to see more people getting involved even if they only see it as the L-word activity at the start.

The more people we can get onto paintball fields, the more potential converts we have for competitive paintball. With the number of teams signing up for the Singapore Professional Novice Series (SPNS) Leg 2 doubling compared to the first event three months ago, there is hope yet for the SPORT.