$49 fee for USATT membership

How does this compare to other sports?  What does it cost these days to enter a sanctioned tennis tournament for example?  I sometimes think TT players are the cheapest people on earth.

fatt wrote: hookumsnivy wrote: fatt wrote: When I arrived in the States for the 1st time I was surprised about the sales tax not included in the listed prices in stores; I understand that businesses act as tax collectors for states were sales tax apply; my question is why as a buyer should I care about that relationship between the business and the state? If I am going to pay an item $11 then just write down $11 on the sticker and give the state his dollar tax; I do not need to see a $10 price tag and calculate in my head if I can afford it given the fact the 10% tax has not applied yet. OH yes; the businesses want me to know $11 is not what they charge...what they really charge is $10...give me a break! I've lived in the US my entire life and I hate that too.  I can do the math pretty quickly in my head, but I shouldn't need to.  I find it refreshing when places include tax in the price, but it's very rare. Same thing goes for prices that end in .99 or even worse the gas stations that have 9 10ths of a cent in the price.  Sadly market research was done and it was found that not rounding up led to more purchases.   I'll stop before I go into an even longer rant on stuff unrelated to the topic at hand. What you quoted was just an introductory note leading the point I tried to make and that was very much related to the topic at hand; not quoting that introduction and quoting to comment the rest of my post instead would have indeed been more constructive on your part and relevant to topic as well.  Thanks for trying anyway; no hard feelings; we all happen to miss the relevant stuff sometimes.

Seriously are we complaining about $49 a year?  I used to play tennis and it would cost almost that much for one hour of indoor court time.  And let's not compare to golf, even on public courses.  Table tennis is a relative bargain.  

puppy412 wrote: jt99sf wrote: berkeleydoctor wrote: <span style="line-height: 1.4;">what club are you at?</span> SF Lawton TT Club. I find it peculiar that tt clubs in US seem to have so many oriental players among their members. it seems as though tt did not really get to the local crowd and people playing are mainly those who came from east and probably knew and liked tt before.

We prefer to be called Asians AND we are the locals here in San Francisco.

hookumsnivy wrote: BRS wrote: Seriously are we complaining about $49 a year?  I used to play tennis and it would cost almost that much for one hour of indoor court time.  And let's not compare to golf, even on public courses.  Table tennis is a relative bargain.   USATT may not do anything worthwhile with the money.  I'm not saying they are well-run or market the sport well.  But I love playing tournaments, it's about the only time I get to play new people.  I will have played 12 tournaments when my (first) year's membership is up, so that works out to $4 each.  I could have had a Starbucks coffee with the money I gave USATT for each tournament.  Seems like a fine deal to me. Maybe a $25 membership would bring more people in, but I don't believe it.  I think the same people would balk at paying $25.   It's not the money (though in your case it's an average of $11 per tournament when you include the tournament processing fee), because I think we can all agree that $49 isn't significant.  It's the principal.  Other than a rating (which can be replaced with ratings central), what does the USATT do for that money?  Have they grown the sport significantly?   I can understand your love of playing tournaments, but do we need the USATT for there to be tournaments?  What's the advantage of having a tournament sanctioned by the USATT?

Wow...apparently I started a topic that's bothering a lot of people.  The point is that most of us players that are serious about TT and enjoy playing tournaments will pay the $49, but I have many newbies at our club that have never played a tournament before and will only play at our local tournament maybe once or twice a year at most. These people don't view that $49 very favorably and the USATT needs to have a better option for these people to help encourage more people to become members.  Some people have had good suggestions here and maybe we should send the best suggestions to one of the USATT staff. As far as the magazine goes...I don't really think it offers much value for the players I'm talking about. I have about 20 players at our club that have never been in a tournament and have a playing level of between 1000 - 1500, but when they have to pay $49 + the entry fees and the $7 rating fee then it really starts to add up and many are simply not willing to pay that much. I would also like to see the costs of the membership just hidden in the event fees, or lower the fee to $15 per tournament. Every time you play a tournament there is a $15 USATT fee or something like that. Many people only play 1-2 tournaments a year, but many more play 3 or more a year which would help offset the lower fee. As far as the magazines go I don't even read much of them...I can read articles online. I just don't think the current membership really offers that much value, and I think it discourages many recreational players that might want to play in a USATT tournament.

I understand why newbies don't want to pay the fee to enter a usatt tourney. They will pay $60 to play a few matches and go home.

I see no compelling reason to be a usatt member. I don't care about getting an "official" rating.

In LA, I am within a 30-40 min drive of at least 6 places to play. No need to enter sanctioned events to play new people. I can pay around $8 and have a better experience.

The best tourneys I have played in were unsanctioned. One of the local clubs used to have an all day round robin tourney for an entry fee of about $35 every 3 months or so. All the $$$ went to the prize fund or the club.

I had no problem with the entry fee. The event was well run. The winners of the A group were usually 2400-2500+ level, so I got to see great competition and I supported my local club.

Most parts of the country don't have the same options as LA, but value versus entry fee still applies. The barriers to entry for new players must be low and there must be a clear benefit for joining usatt.

puppy412 wrote: jt99sf wrote: berkeleydoctor wrote: what club are you at? SF Lawton TT Club. I find it peculiar that tt clubs in US seem to have so many oriental players among their members. it seems as though tt did not really get to the local crowd and people playing are mainly those who came from east and probably knew and liked tt before.

btw jt99sf, your club looks amazing! i've played quite a bit of TT in the east bay, but i've never heard of your club before. i tried to google it, but i couldn't find a website, do you guys have one?

Sorry I was wrong. UsATT magazine is not 12 times a year. It is every 2 months. You get training & technique tips, news, history, and intersting features as well. Maybe it should have equipment reviews and then it will be worth $49 a year.

Pushdeep wrote: Sorry I was wrong. UsATT magazine is not 12 times a year. It is every 2 months. You get training & technique tips, news, history, and intersting features as well. Maybe it should have equipment reviews and then it will be worth $49 a year.

It's fair in that sense, but it's still a deterrent.

berkeleydoctor wrote: puppy412 wrote: jt99sf wrote: berkeleydoctor wrote: what club are you at? SF Lawton TT Club. I find it peculiar that tt clubs in US seem to have so many oriental players among their members. it seems as though tt did not really get to the local crowd and people playing are mainly those who came from east and probably knew and liked tt before. getting past all the racial microaggressions.... i agree with jt99sf, i was born raised, and have never lived anywhere else except the united states, and i'm asian. and i was introduced to competitive table tennis randomly just like many other people. it's not because im asian that i like table tennis. i like table tennis because table tennis is awesome

sorry if anyone felt offended, it was not the intention.
where I live the rate of asian players is much lower (maybe 1 every 10), that's why it sort of called my attention.

AcudaDave wrote:   Another problem for newbies forking over all that money for the membership and event fees is the fact they can't advance in their event! I did manage to talk 1 guy into purchasing a membership to sign up for the U1250. I gave him an estimated rating of 1200 and had him signup for the U1250. There were 3 people in his 1st stage RR, he won 1 match and lost to the top player. 2 people advanced, but not him because you can't advance if you've never played in a tournament before. So he paid $76 to play 2 matches! He was a good sport about it and plans to play in another tournament in the near future, but come on. If they receive an estimated rating from an experienced player they should be able to advance. I know some players will say it's not fair...they're much better...but it's also not fair if you don't get to advance out of your group after you've paid all that money.

puppy412 wrote: sorry if anyone felt offended, it was not the intention. where I live the rate of asian players is much lower (maybe 1 every 10), that's why it sort of called my attention.