Major League TT

[TensorBackhand]

What is this new event? It seems pretty interesting with some interesting names in there. How does it work? Does each team get a draft pick?

If so, why would Kou Lei and MA Jinbao be so low?

 

[kingkimchi]

What is this new event? It seems pretty interesting with some interesting names in there. How does it work? Does each team get a draft pick?

If so, why would Kou Lei and MA Jinbao be so low?

who are these people playing in american tt? are they all american?

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

easy - go read up on its website, all answers on how the team/draft works is there

Major League Table Tennis

The first professional table tennis league in the United States, featuring world class players and a pulse-pounding format.

mltt.com

and no, if you watch the draft pick, you can see all those players and which countries they are from. over a dozen countries, maybe close to 20 countries

However this isn't like the NBA draft, as the money isn't with so many zeroes.
The players did make themselves available to "east" or "west" teams.
So it isn't a clear best player goes first.
There is also a salary cap to worry about, so you can't just keep buying the best or expensive players


This is likely the biggest news coming out of USATT and if it succeed, it could change the USA table tennis landscape
Now it is to see if it can get sell out stadiums

 

[TensorBackhand]

Ok, so people dont just draft the best player, but maybe the player with best value. But how do they decide which teams go first

 

[JJ Ng]

easy - go read up on its website, all answers on how the team/draft works is there

Major League Table Tennis

The first professional table tennis league in the United States, featuring world class players and a pulse-pounding format.

mltt.com

and no, if you watch the draft pick, you can see all those players and which countries they are from. over a dozen countries, maybe close to 20 countries

However this isn't like the NBA draft, as the money isn't with so many zeroes.
The players did make themselves available to "east" or "west" teams.
So it isn't a clear best player goes first.
There is also a salary cap to worry about, so you can't just keep buying the best or expensive players


This is likely the biggest news coming out of USATT and if it succeed, it could change the USA table tennis landscape
Now it is to see if it can get sell out stadiums

Looks good. I am surprised to see Amy Wang drafted before Lily Zhang. I mean Amy Wang has owned Lily Zhang lately but Lily is still a better "international" player with more experience on the big stage. But maybe that has to do with the salary cap.

I have always thought that ping pong has some of the wealthiest participants. After all, many nerdy engineers in silicon valley play table tennis. I am always wondering someone with the money or fun would come along and make the sport famous.

Kudos to Flint Lane, and his wife, Kathy for making it happen. I am sure they will lose a lot of money in the beginning but I am also sure they know that already. It is about how to launch the sport into a new high of popularity.

There have been some interesting concepts for table tennis in the past decade or so.

It started with SPIN where it combines table tennis and bar/social atmosphere. But that concept seems to have lost steam lately. SPIN Los angeles close a few years ago and SPIN is not in the news lately. I am see how the SPIN concept works. After all, the money is not in ping pong. The money is in food and expensive alcohol. Everyone knows that in the hospiality industry, the money is in the drinks, not the $100 steak.

Now PingPod came out. It is settling into the Northeast corner of united states and now entering UK. I can see how PingPod can succeed but I can also see how it cannot succeed. Running a business myself, I just know that customers are picky and difficult to please. If you look at PingPod's website, you can see all these rules about sharing a table, contactless check-in, if there is one member there, the non-member guest can stay for an hour for free (or something like that). All these rules can be and will be abused. There is only so much you can rely on technology to keep customers in check and make sure the business is profitable. At the end, you still need to hire people to reinforce the rules and that cost money.

Hope for the best for all these new concepts.

 

[SofaChamp]

Amy Wang probably isn't the third best player on that list; was she picked so early because of her relative high profile, popularity and marketability? Or is there a connection between her and the team that picked her? Or, maybe she's that good?

 

[NextLevel]

The draft is more ceremonial than objective. Seeing Kou Lei picked in the second round convinced me of that. Just think of it as a made for TV spectacle, something other than how you usually think of as a draft actually created the teams.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Ok, so people dont just draft the best player, but maybe the player with best value. But how do they decide which teams go first

if you clicked on the link, you would see the answer

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

The draft is more ceremonial than objective. Seeing Kou Lei picked in the second round convinced me of that. Just think of it as a made for TV spectacle, something other than how you usually think of as a draft actually created the teams.

well, he could of been number 8, since 8 and 9 went to the same team.
Only he can answer what happened.

 

[OvrChkn]

These logos are like early-MLS level lol.

If the Florida Crocs don't have a Crocs footwear deal by the end of this, then I'll be highly disappointed.

Might be interested in checking out the Houston event. If there was a side tournament to enter, I'd 100% go.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Looks good. I am surprised to see Amy Wang drafted before Lily Zhang. I mean Amy Wang has owned Lily Zhang lately but Lily is still a better "international" player with more experience on the big stage. But maybe that has to do with the salary cap.

I have always thought that ping pong has some of the wealthiest participants. After all, many nerdy engineers in silicon valley play table tennis. I am always wondering someone with the money or fun would come along and make the sport famous.

Kudos to Flint Lane, and his wife, Kathy for making it happen. I am sure they will lose a lot of money in the beginning but I am also sure they know that already. It is about how to launch the sport into a new high of popularity.

There have been some interesting concepts for table tennis in the past decade or so.

It started with SPIN where it combines table tennis and bar/social atmosphere. But that concept seems to have lost steam lately. SPIN Los angeles close a few years ago and SPIN is not in the news lately. I am see how the SPIN concept works. After all, the money is not in ping pong. The money is in food and expensive alcohol. Everyone knows that in the hospiality industry, the money is in the drinks, not the $100 steak.

Now PingPod came out. It is settling into the Northeast corner of united states and now entering UK. I can see how PingPod can succeed but I can also see how it cannot succeed. Running a business myself, I just know that customers are picky and difficult to please. If you look at PingPod's website, you can see all these rules about sharing a table, contactless check-in, if there is one member there, the non-member guest can stay for an hour for free (or something like that). All these rules can be and will be abused. There is only so much you can rely on technology to keep customers in check and make sure the business is profitable. At the end, you still need to hire people to reinforce the rules and that cost money.

Hope for the best for all these new concepts.

TT tournaments don't get spectators, other than China, Japan and Germany.
In recent years (decade), China had to get in its army to full in the crowd.

For TT to succeed in USA, it will need both full stadium and good tv audience base. We talking about a million + people.

Maybe in year 3 or 5, they could have money to bring in proper tier 1 players and really get an international reach.
For now, the USA audience really need to all set up.

But how I understand things, the average club player don't care, as long as they have their social pong to play, they won't care on the progress on the national team or national league. They probably didn't even go to watch the world championships or WTT events.
And the problem is, there are tons of such social player. We need TT fans, not only active players.

For other sports, Fans are making things work and many of those fans, are not active players.
TT is total opposite, only have active players, very little fans.

 

[OvrChkn]

TT tournaments don't get spectators, other than China, Japan and Germany.
In recent years (decade), China had to get in its army to full in the crowd.

For TT to succeed in USA, it will need both full stadium and good tv audience base. We talking about a million + people.

Maybe in year 3 or 5, they could have money to bring in proper tier 1 players and really get an international reach.
For now, the USA audience really need to all set up.

But how I understand things, the average club player don't care, as long as they have their social pong to play, they won't care on the progress on the national team or national league. They probably didn't even go to watch the world championships or WTT events.
And the problem is, there are tons of such social player. We need TT fans, not only active players.

For other sports, Fans are making things work and many of those fans, are not active players.
TT is total opposite, only have active players, very little fans.

I think that they should embrace the grassroots social scene and have like an amateur event at the times they aren't having matches. Or have Fan Expos at the very least.

The World Championships were special to have in the US, so the event itself was a draw. For an event trying to gain traction here, there just needs to be a secondary event that can convince a lot of locals to come out.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

I think that they should embrace the grassroots social scene and have like an amateur event at the times they aren't having matches. Or have Fan Expos at the very least.

The World Championships were special to have in the US, so the event itself was a draw. For an event trying to gain traction here, there just needs to be a secondary event that can convince a lot of locals to come out.

You are right

Look at Japan T league having league matches in shopping malls.
Japanese clubs are still striving to gain traction

 

[Metaxa]

What we are seeing in the last two years is no longer an evolution but rather becoming a revolution in table tennis.
I wonder if this is for the benefit of players, organisers and audiences. The TT calendar is already overcrowded. I see players playing in 5-6 different national leagues.
Is this still justifiable?

 

[DukeGaGa]

I have high hopes for MLTT

 

[Tiz]

This could be a game changer for the pro scene in the US.

 

[TensorBackhand]

I have high hopes for MLTT

Looks like a fun and exciting format.

I know they might not be on the same level, but I feel this event would be pretty exciting if Dan, Ayano, and Adam Bobrow were in it! lol. Maybe throw in Gan as well. and of course we need ERT to show his true ability.

 

[TensorBackhand]

How come Seth Pech isnt in it?

 

[JJ Ng]

I have high hopes for MLTT

I don't have high hope for MLTT.

I think we need grassroot movement. Growing the sport from the grounds up.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

What we are seeing in the last two years is no longer an evolution but rather becoming a revolution in table tennis.
I wonder if this is for the benefit of players, organisers and audiences. The TT calendar is already overcrowded. I see players playing in 5-6 different national leagues.
Is this still justifiable?

The players in MLTT don't play in 5-6 national league
Many of them don't even play in 1