OOAK Table Tennis Forum

The following is about the area, state, etc that I live.

At the lowest level we have clubs with a small number of tables. The concerns of those (unpaid) who run such is:
Have somewhere to play
To cover costs
Run club programs
Enter teams in the local competition

The next level up is the local association. The concerns of those (unpaid) who run such is:
Organize and run the pennant competitions in conjunction with the clubs
Organize and run association championship tournament
To cover costs
To run their clubs

The next level up is the local state organization. The concerns of those (unpaid) who run such is:
Organize and run state level tournaments
Organize state representative teams for the various national tournaments - junior, senior & veterans
To cover costs

Under the local state organization is the state Umpires & Referees Association. The concerns of those (unpaid) who run such is:
Provision of referee and umpires to state level tournaments
Education of new and upgrading of existing umpires & referees
To cover costs

As you can see, the majority (totality) of work is done in an honorary, unpaid capacity.

Players begrudge paying money, at least partly because historically TT clubs were sub clubs of licensed clubs and so were heavily subsidised by the poker machine playing and alcohol consumption largely of others. What, they cry, we have to pay money every week to play socially or in competition? Also, what, they grumble, does our state affiliation fee give us?

As a result there is no money available to market the game. Get sponsors. There are sponsors for balls, so balls are supplied a little more cheaply. The state vice president circulates such ideas as utilizing older people to run stuff because ("community service") can be used by the older people while they get unemployment benefits so free labour. Last year we were inflicted with a rewards scheme under the auspices of the state, which, while giving instant rewards either in price reductions or kind were really just another spending tracker. I am not sure how much the state was going to make out of the scheme.

I am on the committee that runs the local association. At the association we have discussed World Table Tennis day on the 6th April, and encouraged each other to do something, but nothing will get done. I am one of 2 people that run table tennis at a community centre for 2 hours on a Saturday afternoon. We rely on a sign on the main road outside that is only there for the time we are open, and a free listing in our local newspaper that is not in there when we are on and in there when we are not there more often than not. We charge $5 for the 2 hours (and pay it ourselves as we are concerned with covering our costs). To the new people who turn up we are able to offer loan bats, a flyer on the clubs in the local association, free advice on buying a reasonable bat and some pointers on both how to play and the rules. To people that want to be more serious we put them in touch with a nearby local club.

I am a semi-active state level umpire. I have umpired at local tournaments, state level tournaments, the junior, senior and veterans national championships, the Australian Open a couple of times that it has been in Sydney, the Australian and Oceania Olympic Qualification tournaments for the 2012 London Olympics again in Sydney.

I see how poorly things are organized from both the inside and the outside. The main constraint that I see is money. As a result, people organizing table tennis events are used to being, in the words of my children, "povo". This means that if sponsorship is received, it is requested to cover the barest bones of what is happening. In the case of the upcoming Australian Open, there will apparently be $US384,000 on prize money for the players. I have no idea how much will go towards mainstream advertising, more than just a page or two on the TTA web site (when?) and linked to by the various state web sites. I also have no idea whether set up and tear down, ushering, emceeing etc will be professionally done or whether it will be done by volunteers as has been the case in the past in Sydney.

I and many in TT circles hold down a full time job and have a family. I spend 2.5 hours a week volunteering to provide a table tennis facility to the public and the same again per month to help run the local association. I umpire at the Bennelong Cup for a few meals. Other umpiring is either at the usual stipend (which is nowhere near what my day job pays) and meals or for meals only or only for the love of it. I really do it for the love of it, but if I as a lowly state umpire am accepted to officiate at national and effectively international level, that says something about the availability of umpires.

Next week on behalf of the local association I will be taking a half a day leave to check out a PCYC that is about to be completed in our area and talk to the manager there about table tennis usage of its facilities.

Unfortunately, I am not in marketing, nor do I play a marketer on daytime TV, and in any case there is no money for it.

I am a retriever.

I notice there was no mention of coaching - formal coaching, or connections with schools, or local council / government sports bodies, or grants or partnerships with other sports bodies or eductational establishments.

The only person I know who has a vision for table tennis in my area is my coach, although he is finding it a struggle to get funding to fulfil that vision. But in general, I feel that coaching from a professional, almost none of whom are getting rich out of table tennis, is the best way to improve your game very quickly. And that hopefully leads to an improvement in the game's image in the wider world.

I suspect chicken and egg metaphors apply when discussing table tennis, money, public interest and TV rights.

Promotion is the big x-factor. I used to work in marketing, for audio-visual industry companies, and I found that the best way to promote my company was to build relationships with the press that concentrated on that industry. That and advertising of course, but the relationships were more important and much less expensive.