Killerspins' Robert Blackwell Jr. topples Board.

Sure.  The USATT does a poor job of promoting table tennis.  IMO, it is the nature of the beast.  The USATT is almost entirely a non-profit, volunteer organization.  Serious promotion of the sport in the normal commercial sense pretty much has to happen outside the USATT IMO.  The USATT simply has too many other tasks and responsibilities and too little money. The yearly budget is a bit over $1M.  And that's pretty much about equal to zero in terms of a budget for promotion - as though they could justify spending even a large fraction of their annual budget on national promotion. Name one other national organizing sport body that does a great job of promoting their sport and my bet is that for the few that you might be able to point to, all have lots more resources due to already higher participation levels for other reasons.

I'm inclined to think that table tennis is best promoted by leagues and independent ventures like SpinNY, Killerspin, ICC, Hardbat Classic, Table Tennis Nation and International Classic Ping Pong. 
Killerspin supposedly has annual revenues on the order of $2.5-5M a year.  The ICC has sunk millions into their community center.  I don't know how much of that is for table tennis though.  But considering all the international coaches that we see being brought in and the size of the program, it doesn't seem unreasonable to assume $1M - and that program is local.  I can only guess what it cost to open and operate SpinNY.  But it seems likely that they must bring in something north or $1M a year to keep their doors open.  And again, they are local.  The Hardbat Classic took much more than $1M to put on.  I'd bet the same is true of the International Classic Ping Pong tournament. 

All of those organizations have larger budgets than the USATT and none have all the responsibilities. 

So if the USATT could just begin to show real progress in the formation of a national league system, I'd be pretty happy.

I think doing stuff like selling USATT branded water bottles and so forth is just a distraction.  I don't see how it can have any significant effect.

The problem with paying folks like Blackwell to promote table tennis is one of the inherent conflict of interest.  After all, didn't Blackwell/Killerspin sue the USATT?  If so, he's not my first choice as an employee.  Also, his company did a crap job, IMO, of creating and supplying hardbats for the Hardbat Classic, he is reported to be on record saying that he hates hardbat, but there he is - right in the middle of it.  Seems like a bad mix to me. 

IMO, Killerspin should keep doing what they do.  I love the fact that they have sponsored players and that they get table tennis on ESPN from time to time.  The USATT should work with Killerspin and visa-versa.  But I'm not at all convinced that there should be more to the relationship than that.  The same goes for the other organizations.  The USATT should be there to grease the skids and help see that projects can proceed by supporting the various endeavors.  But trying to turn what is essentially a volunteer organization into a business seems fraught with problems to me.

You might want to go online and look at the USATT budget and their performance plan.  Digest it for a while.  Look at things like the total salaries paid and where they get income.  Talk to a few people and discover how much is done through volunteer or the grossly underpaid efforts of people who love the sport.  Understand that many table tennis players are - quite frankly - cheap.









Edited by wturber - 02/13/2011 at 1:13am

wtuber,

I didnt mean to imply that USTTA needed to hire Robert. I was just trying to say they need people (like Robert) that have a strong back ground in marketing and sales working for them. Maybe the USATT could reach out to sponsors beyond TT companies for funding of the organization.

As far as the water bottles, shirts, shorts, etc that could even be farmed out to a fulfillment company to handle the logistics of the orders. Something could be worked out so it is a source of revenue for the USATT.

I guess maybe I sound to critical of the USATT and that is not my intent. My intent is to discuss some things that the USATT could do and implement to grow the sport of TT. If my delivery sounded critical it was not meant to be. I guess more of constructive criticism.

 

Edited by RJTT - 02/13/2011 at 12:23pm

hmmm

Is Killerspin still around ?

Killerspin had a tournament this weekend for charity I think.  My friend went to watch and got to play a match with Lupi for $20.  The cost to play in the tournament was > $200 I think, but as I said I think it was for charity.  Here is the link: http://www.topspincharity.com/the-cities/chicago/