Can we tell how popular TT is

Loopadoop · Feb 3, 2019

Can we tell how popular TT is from a spectator perspective by the number of live people in the seats from YouTube videos ?

High school football in the USA, depending on the location has from a few hundred to a few thousand to watch a Friday night game live.

TT events, like the monthly Westchester Pro entries with good prize money doesn't seem to interest the local New Yorkers, even out of curiosity.

Lula · Feb 3, 2019

Do they know these TT events exist? Every year my club have one of the worlds biggest tournaments for youth and juniors with players from over 40 countries But not many spectators come and watch. I think that could be that non tabletennis people Do No really know about the tournament.

Loopadoop · Feb 3, 2019

That is part of the problem, the organizers for table tennis events do limited if any advertising, since it can be expensive.

I doubt most local TT tournament organizers even notify the local newspaper who will post the times and details of the events for free.

If a fan from the general public goes to watch amateur TT tournament events, how do you know who is playing, where from, etc. there is no announcement before a match with details of the
players. How do you relate ?

Most live amateur spectator sports in the USA are tied to organized sports through a school system. Spectators relate to the participants or the school town their team represents.

....

yogi_bear · Feb 3, 2019

I think people still think of tt as basement pingpong.

dominus7 · Feb 3, 2019

In the country where I live now, average people think TT is ping pong, mostly are not much interested because here is most popular football soccer and now tennis temporary... Who knows in the future...

Enviado desde mi Moto G (4) mediante Tapatalk

GusShnaps · Feb 3, 2019

In my opinion, most people from the Americas think of Table tennis as ping pong, where you play just for fun. So they probably don't take it seriously, and assume that the events won't be that big of a thing.
That's pretty sad, since TT is such a great sport!
It's more popular in Europe and Asia though.

Loopadoop · Feb 3, 2019

Another reason, go to an amateur TT event, there are no scorekeepers unless it is a semi or final, how does a general public fan relate ?

FruitLoop · Feb 3, 2019

GusShnaps said:
In my opinion, most people from the Americas think of Table tennis as ping pong, where you play just for fun. So they probably don't take it seriously, and assume that the events won't be that big of a thing.
That's pretty sad, since TT is such a great sport!
It's more popular in Europe and Asia though.

Depends where in Europe. Much the same as South America outside Sweden, Germany, France.

FruitLoop · Feb 3, 2019

Loopadoop said:
Another reason, go to an amateur TT event, there are no scorekeepers unless it is a semi or final, how does a general public fan relate ?

This seems to only be true in the US and I am not sure why. Here there are scorekeepers for every competition, even local league or an internal club tournament nevermind bigger ones.

Loopadoop · Feb 3, 2019

Presently at the Pan America Cup Semifinals, not many fans in the seats.

Tinykin · Feb 3, 2019

organising a tournament and promoting a tournament are 2 different things

Table tennis in its present form is a sport for its participants.
To get spectators and TV spot, many influential participants won't want the changes that would be necessary.
Eg. Snooker and Darts before Barry Hearne were dying. It's similar to TT today. It can be argued that when he stepped in, the sports were 'saved'.
Barry has had a look at TT. He runs the Ping Pong world championship which has a large 'ish' following. But would we want to go down the route that he has taken.
Here he talks about his 'saving' of snooker.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/25108165

pgpg · Feb 3, 2019

Tinykin said:
Table tennis in its present form is a sport for its participants.
To get spectators and TV spot, many influential participants won't want the changes that would be necessary.
Eg. Snooker and Darts before Barry Hearne were dying. It's similar to TT today. It can be argued that when he stepped in, the sports were 'saved'.
Barry has had a look at TT. He runs the Ping Pong world championship which has a large 'ish' following. But would we want to go down the route that he has taken.
Here he talks about his 'saving' of snooker.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/25108165

Here is the thing - I've read the linked article and still have no idea what did he actually do to re-energize snooker, what were the obvious opportunities, and how he went about to fix it. Are these things kind of obvious to folks who followed snooker for a bit?

Tinykin · Feb 3, 2019

The snooker experts would fill in the details. But I became a fan when it started being broadcast on TV. Little did I know that Barry Hearne was behind its promotion.

mart1nandersson · Feb 3, 2019

Tinykin said:
Table tennis in its present form is a sport for its participants.
To get spectators and TV spot, many influential participants won't want the changes that would be necessary.
Eg. Snooker and Darts before Barry Hearne were dying. It's similar to TT today. It can be argued that when he stepped in, the sports were 'saved'.
Barry has had a look at TT. He runs the Ping Pong world championship which has a large 'ish' following. But would we want to go down the route that he has taken.
Here he talks about his 'saving' of snooker.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/25108165

It's different in each country but my club saw a quite big surge of new (old as in 30+) players after Swedish TV (SVT) decided to broadcast the WTTC earlier this year. In Sweden it simply seems that people needs to be nudged a little bit to remember the glory days of the 80ies and 90ies to start thinking "wouldn't it be fun to pick up TT again?". I started in the same way when they for some unknown reason decided to air the Swedish Open at prime time in 2017.

It's a pity that SVT doesn't buy more TT rights as they must be almost for free considering that the ITTF is allowing free streaming in most of the world.

Loopadoop · Feb 3, 2019

TT is not very live viewer friendly, at the facility, at the amateur or even professional level, say compared to basketball or volleyball.

Too many courts going on at the same time, until the later rounds.

FruitLoop · Feb 3, 2019

With good commentary, high quality footage, good camera angles I think a lot more can be done. Look at opening day of Japan's T league as well. Spectacular.

Loopadoop · Feb 4, 2019

TT can be successful for TV viewing using 2 cameras with side angles a little higher than the table.

For live in person viewing it is limited by the size of ball. It could be like a golf gallery at one hole.

bircham boi · Feb 4, 2019

Tell me again: why are we having this conversation? Haven't we already done this to death? Time and time again we pick over the bones of old arguments, offering a whole lot of nothing to the transformation of the game.

Can't we just agree that table tennis is not popular and never will be popular, and that trying to popularise it is a complete and utter waste of time?

ttfunfan · Feb 4, 2019

The TV viewing seems to be very popular in China.

Tony's Table Tennis · Feb 5, 2019

bircham boi said:
Tell me again: why are we having this conversation? Haven't we already done this to death? Time and time again we pick over the bones of old arguments, offering a whole lot of nothing to the transformation of the game.

Can't we just agree that table tennis is not popular and never will be popular, and that trying to popularise it is a complete and utter waste of time?

so how does table tennis became popular in some countries?

If some countries can do it, why not the others?

I don't think it is so much the problem of table tennis, but rather a man made problem

Can we tell how popular TT is

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