I'm actually interested in the economics here. First of all, how do the clubs generate revenue when the WTT doesn't/can't?
clubs have a budget they need to raise every season/year.
and for the amount of teams they have (ie a team gets x amount, b team gets x amount).
and they have an expense budget and from there knowing how much they can pay players and other costs (traveling, hotel, venue etc).
Its a business, income and expense.
They sell tickets and merchandise and have sponsors.
The problem is that playing WTT events alone isn't enough to sustain a singles career outside of the top 50ish players, and playing for clubs to pay the bills takes a lot of time, wear on the body, travel and associated expenses, etc. At the same time, all of the club/league events don't give any rankings points. The end result is that all of the players outside the top 50ish are spread too thin.
WTT isn't about players income, it is about world ranking.
with all due respect to WTT, ITTF world championships, world cup and olympic games is the "grand slam". WTT is just for ranking points and ranking position - seeding. WTT replaced the ITTF World Tour series, but with that, they spent so much on branding and have more than double the events now.
One seeming (partial?) solution to me is to have some consolidation/merger between the WTT and several of the big leagues/clubs, where the WTT can now take the club/league income, organize some centralized and consolidated events, and create a singles ranking system which rewards the new "league" results. The resulting format could basically replace or supplement the current Feeder system.
why the heck should clubs pay money to WTT?
this is like asking NBA basketball teams to give some money to FIBA. So should all basketball leagues in the world require to pay money? is this like a tax? This is very wrong, what does clubs get in return from ITTF/FIBA? nothing?
The problem is WTT is trying to do too many things.
why have 100 events a year, when they can have 50 events with more quality? they are spreading too thin themselves.
any business who has too many products, will struggle with quality on all of them.
Apple comes out with 1 product and focus on it.
Asus comes out with a gazillion and confuses its own resellers.
Perhaps this isn't possible, because the club revenue relies on something that would be destroyed by merging with the WTT. On the other hand, this is roughly the same thing that happened in professional tennis over the course of the 1970s and 80s. There were a number of competing circuits (analogous to "leagues") which gradually merged and consolidated to form a single professional tour.
club finance is to look after the clubs.
if each club does the same, then you can have a league
of course richer clubs can have stronger teams.
clubs and international is too different things. one is domestic, one is international.
I feel, the international body needs to realize, you don't need 15 major events a year to "promote the sport".
I see no reason why we need so many events, other than forcing participation.
I think they are trying too hard to force players to do the one and not the other.
I would want a balance life, where we can have the best of both worlds.
