Yeah, question was somewhat rhetorical, of course professional sport must "make money".
If I understand you correctly there would be like 5 countries that do well on the business level. I guess you mean China, Japan, Germany, Korea and ... ?
So the only problem with other countries is that they don't implement the business model well?
I like the current tt and I love playing it, but I really think, it is not understandable to the "regular" people. TT falls a little into the category of say fencing I believe. It looks nice, but sometimes the light goes on and you have no idea why. It is discouraging .. unless you have some familiarity or you practice the sport yourself.
I think Rain just helped me save a lot of time to answer how to make TT welcome by the masses
Same with me - I watch international football/soccer some times (basically fifa world cup). I know some players, I know some rules, but I don't follow it as a true heart fan.
Same with Cricket and Rugby in South Africa
Some times I will follow tennis
Some times I will watch NBA, volleyball, badminton
Yes, i'm a sports person, my understanding of sport is better than the average, but I still don't know the details like a true fan.
Basically if one person has basic knowledge, then one can become a spectator.
now back to the 5 countries - it is more:
1) China - club
2) Taiwan - club
3) Japan - Club (and now a big portion olympic budget)
4) Korea - Club/national (here I am not too clued up)
5) Germany - club
6) France - club
7) Russia - club
8) India - not much knowledge but with the club in 2017 i'm impressed
9) Singapore - more T2, but i'm sure the national team also gets funding some how
I named 3 European countries that I know have good club TT structure which I know the players get paid.
I'm sure they are other countries that can be added on
Now where did these 9 countries get they money from (other than government), now why can't another 11 to 15 countries do the same?
I think 20 is a magic number - the moment you get 10% of the countries in the world to have it become a proper career option.
then with help of media,
Then another 10% of countries to become half a career
Then TT would be where it should be.
TT is over 100 years old, and played in most countries for over 50 years already.
heck most people has once in they life played TT (in basement, garage etc) when as a kid or at a party.
I doubt fencing is even 1% of that to TT
now back to understanding TT
this is where schools are so important - any knowledge of sports come from schools
there is where media is important - with ITTF locking up ITTV to your wider audience and national broadcasting not airing it, is it helping your average joe?
I think the focus is to first get more countries become proper TT Career orientated, and in my view, these countries must be on the list:
1) USA (all sports that is big in USA is popular in the world)
2) Brazil - I believe the club structure is strong there with lots of corporate branding on club, so maybe this is there already
3) Australia - they have a strong club coverage and membership, but I think if they can make it a players career down under, then it will increase the image further
Now, why I say this is the best
with each of the 20 countries having 50-100 players that is full time TT
that is up to 2000 players
then you have your part time TT - maybe 20000 players or more
with that, you have more job openings for coaches (school, club, personal etc) - aim for 200 coaches per country as a start - 200 schools?
with that, you will have more job openings for marketing, manager, agents, media etc
This is a business approach with money to make money and with any sport - get fans/followers/spectator to build brand power and that would give ROI
Making world tours 100 times the prize money value to me is not the criteria and making pros play too many world tours is not the criteria too (this is only ITTF method of making it big, but whats the point of ITTF being big when 99% of the players end up homeless?
They should help more countries having career structures and we need the top players to help there too