OOAK Table Tennis Forum

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Great to see that the sport has some gains in popularity! I think it would be a blast to try SPIN NY.

Thanks for sharing that!!

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I still think it's a good thing too...the more people that get interested, the more are likely to want to try the real table tennis sport.

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I hear students at the college talk about the Spin clubs. Most do not even know what the ITTF or USATT is. At least Spin is reaching the non-players and basement players.

I thought ITTF conversations were going to be in the ITTF section. Did I get that wrong?

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"So long, and thanks for all the fish
So sad that it should come to this" Sung by the dolphins in The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy

Perhaps it will change your mind to know that Spin NY club owner Susan Saradon is the only famous person in the USA, who's been actively promoting table tennis to all public elementary schools in New York area.

I fail to see ANY negitive impact from the Spin Clubs.

While some people don't like the fact there is drinking there, most big sports get TV time from beer companies. Bowling, football tailgate parties, baseball, lots of sports depend on advertizing from beer companies. I hope Budwiser will see an opening with table tennis and support a table tennis show, maybe once a week or even once a month.

Anything that exposes table tennis to the non-playing public I see as a good thing. Susan is doing more than any other one person I know. I have always said, grade schools are the place to make a big difference in popularity of table tennis.

It has nothing to do with "playing the sport" with a beer in the hand, it has everything to do with "watching the sport" with beer in hand.
It has nothing to do with Susan making money from it, it has to do with "Others" being able to make money from it. People that might sponsor TV coverage from adds for thier products. (Beer)

Spin NY, Spin Milwaukee, Spin L.A. and Spin St. Pete are the real deal that are taking table tennis to the higher class of mainstream American social scenes. Many good players from all over the world are already making Spin NY a must stop. It has also been attracting many corporate executives on Wall Street to visit. I do not care a bit if you do not appreciate their efforts, as many here in the U.S. are responding very favorably to every Spin club opening.

My friend Adam Bobrow works for Spin L.A. as a coach, and even a complete newbie with beer in one hand at his club knows that table tennis is a serious sport and a cool social game at the same time.

Number 1, promoting the sport is a really, really good thing. If SPiN does that then I wish them well.

Number 2, on the other hand, I don't subscribe to the "ends justify the means" line of argument. I'm not a fan of promoting alcohol or tobacco products. It's not that I have a problem with alcohol per se - I enjoy a decent beer or a good glass of wine - but we're kidding ourselves if we think that there aren't serious problems associated with both tobacco and alcohol.

Number 3, I'm not a fan of alcohol at sporting venues: a. it sends mixed messages about the need for alcohol with sport (and way too many of our Australian sporting idols have serious alcohol problems) and, b. I've had too many beers poured down the back of my neck at the football to find it even remotely amusing.

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"So long, and thanks for all the fish
So sad that it should come to this" Sung by the dolphins in The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy

People are going to drink beer whether or not the beer companies support table tennis. If the sponsorship money is there, we might as well take it. Also, if the sport was so worried about vices as Adham says, why are they associating with the gambling industry?

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The MNNB Blog has had some pretty amazing stuff lately. Just click this text to check it out. | My OOAK Interview
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My whole set-up costs less than a sheet of Butterfly Dignics

Yep, and people are going to take drugs so we might as well take drug money too. And prostitution is legal in lots of places so we might as well set up a few tables in brothels. Who knows, some of the customers might discover table tennis while they're waiting their turn.

Something tells me that "we might as well take it" is hardly an ethical position to take. And for the record I don't approve of gambling sponsorship either - which pains me no end as my favourite football team has stooped to endorsing gambling.

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"So long, and thanks for all the fish
So sad that it should come to this" Sung by the dolphins in The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy

It's problematic as in some places, like the USA, there are now laws against tobacco companies sponsoring sports events. But theoretically if some tobacco company is pumping millions of dollars into the sport, why not? I don't think people are so weak-willed that they have to start smoking just because they see some logo. The race car below in no way makes me want to drink Budweiser (which I think is terrible beer, by the way).

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The MNNB Blog has had some pretty amazing stuff lately. Just click this text to check it out. | My OOAK Interview
Table Tennis Video Links: itTV | laola1.tv | ttbl | fftt | Challenger Series | mnnb-tv

My whole set-up costs less than a sheet of Butterfly Dignics

If advertising didn't work, advertisers wouldn't advertise.

Given that the bottom line for these companies is always money, they wouldn't spend squillions on sponsorship unless they expected something in return. And that something can only be more sales of their product: more tobacco or more alcohol or more gambling.

And before we get completely off topic, efforts to popularise TT through SPiN are worth supporting. When roundrobin said, "Spin NY club owner Susan Saradon is the only famous person in the USA, who's been actively promoting table tennis to all public elementary schools in New York area" I loudly proclaimed to everyone in my lounge room (me and the cat), "That's fantastic! Two thumbs up for that! " And the cat was suitably impressed.

Does anyone know what the elementary schools programme looks like? I've been wondering what more we can do in our local area.

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"So long, and thanks for all the fish
So sad that it should come to this" Sung by the dolphins in The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy