Ariel Hsing eventually went into management consulting?
I just don't think table tennis players' salaries will be that attractive.
Table tennis will always be a niche sport in the US, whether you have heroes to look up to or not.
US women's soccer team has won the world cup but it is still hard to make soccer popular on TV.
many sports salary is not enough.
Some will move on, some will stay
Ariel and Erica didn't stay, Lily did.
For Ariel and Erica, 1 olympics was enough.
For many players (around the world), 1 olympics is enough.
I would agree if MLTT was around earlier, maybe, just maybe, there is something for the young 20 years old to aim for.
Back then, it was only coaching, and obviously Ariel chose another path. She actually spent a season in the super league in China and then came back to the USA and "retired" without retiring. She just went to university and that was it.
TT is a niche sport in 95% of the countries of the 200 member ITTF member list.
You from Canada, it is worse there right? can't even fill a 10 man senior team. and they don't even have internationals.
In USA, it is still a pretty strong club model, and I think that is how the club can make money.
The moment you go into schools, then maybe, that model becomes a lot more complicated.
In Taiwan, it is both a school model and after school model (where players seek 1 on 1s - and that is where coaches earn they money). In the recent completed Elite Youth TT Tournament (Where singapore cadet team took part and all loss around in the round of 32), there was 4500 entries for the qualifications, of which 460 qualified for the finals. Of the 4500 that entered, maybe 10 fold more didn't enter and of the 45k kids playing, i'm sure 33% do 1 on 1 coaching. Taiwan is obivously a first world tt market, and which has a strong school structure and is really up there and actually better than the likes of China who is only focused on sports school.
So you need someone who can go into schools and look at short term loss, for long term gains.
Some times, I feel, you don't anything fancy to start. If a TT Fan is serious, he/she can do it and get in a coach to run the show.
Each person contributes, then the community will be healthy.
Each person buys a ticket to watch MLTT, MLTT could survive. It requires TT Fans, not just TT players.