Table Tennis and How to Make it Popular

Why is table tennis not popular in the United States?

Not Because It's Too Difficult To Play

Table tennis is not very physically taxing until you get to a high competitive level. Even then, not all matches are exhausting. It requires no athletic ability to pick up a paddle and start hitting around with someone. You improve as you play more and against better people. There are also very few rules in table tennis compared to other sports. Even little kids can easily understand the concept of the sport. Why is table tennis not more popular?

Not Because Equipment Costs Too Much

Tournament quality paddles cost from $15 to $250, but cheap paddles can be purchased for just a couple dollars. Tables are easy to build too for those that don't have the money to purchase a premade table that could range in cost from $100 to $2500. Almost anybody could make a tabletop out of wood and put it on a couple benches. Really, as long as you have a net, you can set that up on any table around the house. Why is table tennis not popular?

Not Because It's An Individual Sport

Table tennis may not be much of a team sport, but that doesn't mean it can't be popular. Tennis and golf are both individual sports, yet they are very popular. They have their own huge clubs and their own professional tours.

Because It Has No Roots

In order to make this sport popular, we need to start with the roots. Racquet clubs need to expand from tennis and put some tables in their club. Racquet clubs and local table tennis clubs need to start having lessons, leagues, and teams for young children. If table tennis was popular with the youth, schools would start teams to have competitions with nearby schools. Now this could take years and years for table tennis to become a varsity sport at schools all over the country, there are plenty of other ways to increase it's popularity in a much shorter period of time...

And It's Too Expensive

First of all, the USATT (USA Table Tennis) needs to change some things. They need to do one of two things. Either reduce membership costs reduce the price of entering tournaments. For example, the price for an adult to join the USATT for one year is $40. That is way too much to pay with the little you receive back as member benefits. Since there are so few tournaments in much of the country, that $40 goes on top of the price to drive to every event that you go to. And worse, you're going to have to pay extra for food and maybe a hotel since the high majority of the tournaments require a good amount of travel time. The yearly membership price isn't even as bad as the tournamnent entry fees. Most tournament entry fees cost around $25. Some of those tournaments are single and double elimination. Are you telling me it's worth the long drive, gas money, food money, and $25 just to play as little as one or two matches and go home? Round robins are much better tournaments to enter since you might play everyone in a group of 3-9 people. When there is 5 or less people though, you get screwed out of your money. The only problem with round robins is that they are usually more expensive. There is a tournament coming up in a couple weeks in Dayton. It looks as if they have a good system. All entrants will likely play at least seven matches against people near their skill level, there is pizza at the event, and there is some prize money. The problem is that the tournament costs $45. By the way, prize money isn't given to new players that don't have ratings either.

Scenario: I'm from Cleveland. I'm looking to enter my first competitive table tennis event. I go to usatt.org to see if I can find a nearby tournament. There is one coming up in Dayton, Ohio in a couple weeks. I see on the site that it'll cost me $45 to enter the tournament. Then, I see that I have to fork over another $40 for the minimal one year adult membership. On top of that, I wouldn't even have a chance to win any prize money because I don't have an established rating with the USATT. Even though it's a long drve, I'm going to try not to eat except for the pizza that is provided at this particular tournament to keep my costs to a minimum. Even then, gas would cost a ton. It's over 200 miles from Cleveland to Dayton. Assuming I average 25 miles per gallon over the length of the trip, then I use up a total of 16 gallons. With the cost of gas being about $2.60 a gallon, that would add another $40 to the trip, AT LEAST!.....

I just don't think someone just starting to play competitively would really want to pay over $125 just to participate. That's way more than I want to pay and I'm all but obsessed with the sport. These new players don't even know what the events are going to be like before they go for the first time. In my mind, that's a lot of money to ask from them.

There should be some kind of deal in place for first time participants so that they don't need to pay so much right off the bat. Maybe first-time players should get 50% off their initial tournament entries. Even then, the costs are extremey expensive. Is it just me that thinks this???

USATT.org