May 5th, 2006 | The Player | Facefull Issue 37

by FACEFULL Magazine / Photography by Brandon Showers
In one of the sports boldest moves, Dynasty's Oliver Lang has accepted a $100,000 multiyear contract to move to DYE and play with the LA Ironmen. Though that figure is still far from the million dollars in sponsorship earned by BMX riders, surfers or skaters, today it's definitly helped in benchmarking a paintball player's worth. But is it really as easy as it all seems?

The only interview I ever did of you was back in 2001 when I started working for this magazine. You were 18. I asked you if you made any money at tournament s, you answered: "If we win, our sponsors deposit a check intop the team account. For the Orlando event, I got $1000.00. that was nice." Now it's $100,000.00 a year from DYE. When did you first knnow of this deal?
I went over to Hungary to play with the Bullets. In the meantime we were trying to hash out a deal between DYE and Dynasty. Dave (Youngblood. CEO DYE) really wanted a winning team over there. I've known Dave for a while, I was trying to push it, to get it going, because I wanted to be part of DYE. I like DYE, they make great products. When that was all going on, he sent me a long email talking about life, the future... It was pretty much a week to the day when it had to happen, the last week of Janurary.

DYE was ready to front $500,000 to the team?
Yes, but you have to understandthat it might not sound that good for the time. all we would be using were soft goods, we would still be using Shockers, and all that stuff we already had... thats a lot more than JT gives us. Sponsorship for Dynasty is pretty much dealt with by Ryan Greenspan and our agent. Everyone else on the team is completely left out in the dark. They think that the best thing for them will happen, but I don't know all the details.

You didn't talk to Ryan and all the others about Dave's offer?
Like I said, i was in Europe at that time... I got home Janurary 31st, had one day to get back on my feet, and the next day was when I had the meeting... had one day after to think about it. I talked to my closest friends in the paintball industry, Rocky Cagnoni... I got a good outsider's perspective. that was Friday, and as bad as it could have been, the next day was a practice between Dynasty and the Ironmen. so I had one day to think about it, and had to go the next morning either as a Dynasty or as an Ironmen. My decision had already been made up, so I had to go to the field and tell my teammates that I would be playing on the other team.

Why do you think that this offer came in this late in the off-season, that thiscouldn't have been settled a bit earlier than a couple of weeks before the first event?
DYE likes to make things happen, they like to move, obviously you can see that in their products. That's just how they are , but they were trying to get Dynasty for half the year. We move slowly , we're just a bunch of kids. It was taking so long for that to happen, we hadn't signed our deal with JT, and we were so close of doing something with DYE... Honestly, this opportunity hadn't come to the table until very late in the game, two weeks before the first event of the season.

What were the pros and cons for you when you were thinking about it?
Obviously, the pros are finacial security, I can actually make something of myself and be a professional player. I can one day be able to provide for my family. I'm living my dream. I'm going to learn how a business works, have a team that I can call my ownand work with others to make another good team. This was an opportunity for myself to see if 'Oliver Lang' is truly the best player out there. The cons were obviously leaving all the guys, That's it. Playing on Dynasty is fun. We've won everything. We've had great times, but a year from now, I break my leg... I have nothing. Nothing at all. With this opportunity. I would be able to live a life that everyone wishes they could live. Getting paid to do something you love.

You're talking about security, so as I understand it, this is a multi-year contract. It's up to you to turn it down?
Dave and I are like brothers. He will take care of me regardless of what happens. I wanted to do a contract because I wanted to do it properly. He gave me an opportunity of doing this for one year to ten years. In California, contracts are limited to 7 years. This could have been a life-long thing, and this is what it's going to eventually be. But on paper, you can only do 7 years maximum. I chose to do it for 5 years, because in that time, a lot of things can change. You never know with the growth of the sport...

So there's also the option that you're going to be learning a trade in the company, venture on the business side of things when your playing days are over. Not that that's happening anytime soon...
I'm being taken in as an intern. I've already learned so much and I've only been there for one week. I'm learning how a gigantic corporation is ran within the US, Europe and Asia. I'll be going over to China with them, and have influence on products. I know how to make a lot of things better, and I know whats bad. I know a lot about the sport, and will now learn more about the business side.

Design side maybe?
Not yet. I'm don't know much about design, but they've bought me a laptop with all the programs... it's something I've always wanted to do. I have a lot of craetive juices but it's not going to be next week... But a couple of years down the road , I'll know how to design products.

So an Oliver Lang DM6 coming soon.
We haven't talked about that yet, but there might be something like that in the works.

Let's go back to the Finacial stability. If my numbers are correct, you were making something like $60,000 a year.
Going into last year, I had nothing. Going into every single year in paintball, you don't have anything. Last year, I was thinking about an online store, that I had to start marketing myself because no-one else was doing it. So I did that online store, took all the savings that I had, all the money I made from Greg Hasting's video game and i bought myself inventory and I was selling that through my site. Thats where I made most of my money. The money I was making from the tI won eight team? I won eight of the ten events last year, and made $14,000 off tournaments. it's nothing. For the amount that we won, that's nothing. i was busting my ass doing clinics, which I am still doing. Thats money on top of what DYE is giving me. But every time I did clinics, I got taxed by Dynasty. You get taxed by Dynasty for everything. If I'm not wearing a Dynasty jersey when I'm doing a clinic, or whenever theres media around, you get taxed $100, or $200 for two days, for clinics where i fly to Hungary for seven days, I get back and I'm taxed by Dynasty.

You're saying that for the Dynasty clinics, if only three players go, every player on that team gets a pay out?
No, only a percentage of that will go to Dynasty. When I go and do a clinic, I have to pay 10%.

Was there a bit of friction in the team before this deal? In a way, most players on the team... Now I hope I'm not being to forward, but most of the players have access to personal funding. What I'm trying to say is that some players on the team already have finacial stability.
Just like in anything, some people in life are dealt the cards where there parents will back them. I didn't have any backing. Everything I was living off of was paintball. But it was all money I had to go out and get myself... Even for the jerseys, they wanted to tax me on that because I was using the Dynasty name.

So there was friction.
No. there wasn't friction. It was just difficult to try and make something off it. It's a good way of doing things, it's a fair system, but it's difficult to try and accel at any point because you're constantly stopped and held down and fined. It's the right way to do it if everybody is making a lot of money. But when no one is, it's not a fair system. And it's difficult for someone like me who wants to go out there and try to push the envelope to make that extra dollar.

You sound like a Capitalist on Communist Russia.
What sucks is that there's people out there who will have financial security no matter what, so when they'll say "its just $100.00," I'll answer "sure, but when your parents are paying for your rent, your insurance, your car payment, your food, whatever it is, $100.00 isn't that much. But when I'm paying for all that, $100.00 is a lot of money.

Oliver, I'm a real momma's boy. and I'm not saying you are, but I do know that you're very close to your mother, and she's supported you throughout your career, did you ask her for advise?
She was one of the first people I talk to. My mom is always supportive no matter what. She's a very smart lady, and when she looks at something like this... her first reaction was: "What, your going to leave your team ?" But once it set in, she told me that it was an amazing deal and that I should definitly take it. That's what everybody said. She is 100% supportive, she's finding me lawyers, she's teaching me how to live this life.

Dynasty's agent can't have been too pleased by this decision.
Eric Crandall is an amazing agent, but the problem is that he doesn't have time to deal with Dynasty. He's got real atheletes that he has to take care of, and when we're signing a 'big' contract for the industry, his commission is nothing compared to the multi-million dollar deals he makes. The only people who talk to him are Rodney, Alex or Ryan.

Adam Gardner (CEO Smartparts) called you and tried to match DYE's offer.
Yes. All of Dynasty tried to do everything they could to keep me on the team. Some even offered all their tournament winnings. But I don't want to take money out of people's pockets. i don't want to do that just for one year... I'm not dying. I can live. I'm just looking for a future. i'm not like that. But yes, Adam called me after I had made my decision, and the last thing I wanted was to get into a bidding war. That's not what it's about, it's not about the money. It's about the future and security.

What did you tell him?
I said that it was an amazing gesture. He never said that he would match it. He said that he would do something similar to it. But in reality, I just bought a condo in San Diego. DYE is 15 minutes from my house. My relationship with Dave is a lot stronger than with Adam. I like DYE, I like their products, it's something i want to be associated with. When i was talking to Adam, though, I thought that if this opportunity is for me, if he wants to give me that much money, than that opportunity should be on the table for Ryan, Alex, BC, for whoever wants to go out htere and get it. And those guys don't see it like that... "He was going to match the offer, why didn't you take it?" I wanted to tell them that it was their opportunity now as individuals to seek that smae kind of offer.

Now that's for Dynasty, how difficult was it for you to come in with that kind of money in a new team as the star player.
It's very difficult. There's a tremendous amount of pressure. But the stuff that I had to deal with in that transition is the toughest thing I've done in my life.

You're playing with Eric Roberts, Billy Wing... people who you used to play with on the old Ironmen. You haven't been that close the past five years, how strange is it to walk back into their life with a huge paycheck?
It's tough, but we always have maintained a relationship. The minute that this thing was happening , I called Billy Wing and told him, his answer was: "You know what, you've always looked better in red anyway." Those guys have chosen paintball as a career, but from a business standpoint. Those guys get well-taken care of at DYE, they have job security and they're doing a fantastic job there. Dave will continue to take car of them.

You referred to the Ironmen as 'your' team.
As of now, I'm coming on as a player. A player who has a good view of everything, who understands the game, and someone who can make a difference. I'm not coming in and stepping on anybody's toes, because if I can learn anything more in the sport, I can learn it from Wing, Ceranski, Adamson, Williams, and i will learn from them. The reality is that they've been around for a long time, and they're going to work really hard this year to win, just as I am and everyone else on the team. Essentially, at my age and in my stuation, it's still Billy Wing's team. And Billy understands what I can do for the team, and will give me as much room as I need.

It's pretty different for a new player to join a team this close to an event. What strategy did you go into Austin with?
I havent't had time to practice with these guys, or the guns as well. It's agreat gun, but it will take a bit of time to get the hang of it, I've been using the same gun for the past two years! We went out there practicing on Sunday, and Dynasty came out strong, and beat us, but by the end of the day we beat them more times in a row than the other way around. I know that the Ironmen is a great team, it's just going to take time.

The Ironmen, without being mean, hasn't been much of a 'performing team' in the past few years.
It's been tough for them, since we won in 2000. i left in 2002, it's been a rebuilding year. Telford left, Davey left, I left, they've always been rebuilding, Billy Wing has always been there. This last year they picked up Adamson and Ceranski. If you rebuild a team every year, you jump back that many years.

Playing for Dynasty this many years, your relationship on the field is probably psychic, you can anticipate so much.
Right, Dynasty is the best team in the whole world with the best group of individual players. There's no other team out there like that, and the best team that's been together this long. You can only beat it with the same thing.

They didn't perform well in Texas. How much of that do you attribute to you not being there, or the mood your departure created?
I don't know exactly what happened. If you are the best team out there, you learn that you have to make the best out of it. It sucks, but it's the next step and you have to take it. It's really up to them. Teams are getting better and better every year, because they're sick of watching Dynasty win everything all the time. Dynasty has got to be that much better prepared if they want to stay on top, because me not being there is a big part in the playing part and in the leadership. I find myself to be a leader in teams no matter what I do. They needed somebody like me, they might have taken it a bit for granted...

Lets finish on the human side. The reaction from you ex-teammates was mixed from very bad to very accepting. Is that pretty much what you expected?
They're hurt more than anything. There's a few guys that understand that in a few years, they're going to have to make something out of this sport, or step out and get a real job. My answer to that is "Hey. it's true that we're best friends, but in five years, when you're done playing paintball, you're going to go home and work for your dad, and you're going to do real-estate, have a successful life and live where you grew up, with a wife and kids. The reality of it is that if I don't do something with it, I'm going to have nothing but great memories, great time, great friends, but I will be working as a sales rep if I can even get that job. I'll be working at UPS or something."

Working at UPS is a great job, Oliver.
I absolutely agree.