OOAK Table Tennis Forum

National Associations charge every member a fee for being a member of their association. The four options above are all you've got to choose from. There is no "sometimes" option.

Please post why you've voted the way you have and feel free to add what you think they do well, or could do better.

I'd be struggling to say what my national association uses my membership fee for so I'd have to say don't know.

I vote no.

$15 of my annual membership goes to the national association. I haven't seen any tangible and non-tangible benefits back from the national association. As far as I can determine, all the national association does is

- 1 open, 1 closed, 1 veterans, 1 junior, 1 schools and 1 youths championship per year.
- Import a foreign coach who resigned in about 1 year.
- Provide coaching to maybe two dozen players maybe half a dozen times a year.
- Only visits a few major southern clubs.
- Leaves the national tournament rating system for a state association to run and only has national championship events on it.
- Does not provide a universal rating system for all state associations to use.
- Little or no sport promotion.

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Chasse Patate

I voted yes. There are only 7,000 some players in the United States and the only serious tt available for many of us is USATT sanctioned tournaments. For $40 we can play in tournaments, get an official rating, and get a magazine every other month. Entry fee for tournaments usually costs something like $35 plus an extra $5 "USATT rating fee" each time.

One big problem with the USATT is it has been plagued by scandal after scandal in recent years. But that aside, they operate on such a tight budget they can't get much done. The USATT doesn't get any meaningful government support (where's the bailout money?), so what little income can be derived from the puny base of U.S. players goes into membership services, tournaments, coaching for elite players and a few employees.

If the USATT were to establish some type of league system, like there is in most other countries, it would go a long way toward increasing the popularity of the sport here. Unfortunately I don't see tt developing much beyond what it is now. And I wonder how long it will be until the next USATT scandal erupts?

Mynamenotbob,
You have it right. The question is, what can be done differently?
If you raise the USATT fees, there will be even less members. The trick is to expose more people to table tennis. I have done it on a "city wide" scale. Done it with demos at schools, art shows, etc. For a nation wide effort, you would need a plan and a person dedicated to the task.
We discussed before the possibility of USATT making a DVD and Giving it away free to schools all over the U.S. You need someone very good at finding sponsors. Maybe even going to the government to try for help. He could notify TV stations everyplace there is a tournement coming up and BEG them to do a short vid during the news. I have done this at Every Senior Games tourney and the TV stations Always showed up. I gave contact info on these one minute clips and got calls from people interested in knowing more.
I think USATT does not think big. They look at how much money they have and then do what they can. I am guessing about this but have not heard or seen any national effort to make a major expansion in membership.
Don't know if there is an answer.

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Shakehand, left handed.
Blade, Yinhe, W-1
Forhand, H-3 National
Backhand, Sriver FX Max

I pretty much agree with what you have said about the national body but no so for the state body. Luckily down here in Victoria our state body does seem to try a few things;
- to promote TT and have developed & promoted the superleague concept,
- centralized the top level of league to bring everyone to 1 metro venue every week so we get to mix, discuss equip & socialize under 1 roof.
- they have also provided injury insurance for us even coming & going to venues.

of course I would love them both to help develop the game more.

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Blade Stiga Hybrid Wood FH Butterfly Dignics 05 BH Butterfly Tenergy 05 FX

I'd pretty much agree with Silver... here in SA we see next to nothing of what happens with the money...

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Teentitan posted this in another forum. Any comment USATT?

Topic: Beer company embarasses USATT organization
Posted: Today at 9:57pm

To: Michael Cavanaugh, CEO of USATT

To: Steve Hopkins-Editor of USATT magazine



I found an article in the Wall street journal stating that Anheuser Busch is the lead sponsor in a $100,000 hard bat tournament in Las Vegas. The regional competition is being held at 4,600 bars and K-Swiss is the clothing sponsor. The IOC was mentioned in a very brief sentence but USATT was not mentioned in this article. The largest brewer of beer in the world is spending its considerable money and brand name to publicize our sport and give the USA Table Tennis Sport national and world wide TV exposure and USATT was not mentioned at all? Did someone forget to publicize our involvement in this spectacular event or are we waiting for Anheuser Busch to set up the tournament, publicize the event, pay the prize money, and call USATT headquarters begging us to market our own sport? Perhaps they will ask for USATT to consult them on how to showcase a professional table tennis atmosphere? USATT is the experts in table tennis and they are the experts in beer yet I have not heard anything from USATT? If we are not involved it is not surprising because the IOC treats us like a joke and basically eliminates table tennis funding, to the USA team, because they know we do not have the audience to sustain a fan base to build a decent, young, and competitive national team.

USATT has stopped all marketing efforts to the general public. It is easier to deal with the available members and not worry about trying to spread our membership to the outside world. We are known as basement ping pong players and USATT has done absolutely nothing to change this image. We cannot prevent our best national coach from leaving but I can understand hiring a part time coach because who wants to spend money and time with a full time coach teaching part time players. I can understand why Mr. Seemiller would quit because without promotion and major sponsors this sport will die a very slow death. The problem is that we are waiting for a sponsor to call us and save our sport from a death of “zero corporate sponsors” and “zero USA table tennis TV exposure”. The last TV sponsor was Killerspin and the last administration chased them from USATT. I give them high praise for trying to expose our sport to the public. What has this administration accomplished as far as exposing our sport to the USA? We announced the 2009 state games on our website…..WOW!!! I give my thanks because that effort must have taken 10 minutes out of a very busy schedule from this administration’s time. I am sorry….what administration….



http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124078190514657141.html

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Shakehand, left handed.
Blade, Yinhe, W-1
Forhand, H-3 National
Backhand, Sriver FX Max

It would be interesting to know what they spend their funds on... They musg get a fair bit from players fees and advertising on their website...

_________________
OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

About $300,000 from membership fees alone.

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Shakehand, left handed.
Blade, Yinhe, W-1
Forhand, H-3 National
Backhand, Sriver FX Max

Seems like USATT missed a golden opportunity. If they had a flyer made up and sent to all the bars participating and maybe a poster or two, they could have reached many people.

I agree with the part of the letter that says they have ceased all efforts to contact the general public. If they are, it is failing.

Somebody in USATT is sure to say they don't want to be associated with beer or bars. Yea, that would be terrible, go down to the level of other sports. Sports that get their message out. Sports that make money. Sports that give more than a trophy. Sports that are on TV.

I have not seen a big cry to slow down the hockey puck for TV.

_________________
Shakehand, left handed.
Blade, Yinhe, W-1
Forhand, H-3 National
Backhand, Sriver FX Max