Pita, pay to play is in reference to fees distributors can charge as a premium to gain access to their retailers. The $1MM spent to date is of course non-cash and $1MM bucks cash is still a lot of money right now to this company. The work around for this is the wdr program. its a low cost way to get product on the ground early. Like I mentioned, eventually they will get a sales team together. I agree with what you are saying though about the show work. You need to put in the leg work.
Talking about this reminds of the movie Tommy Boy. A hilarious example about getting out there and making deals to save a small company.