Steve Dainton: "We want our athletes to earn what they deserve, but..."

[zeio]

TL;DR
Dainton is calling for more player/fan engagement, solidarity and unity to attract investment, something they are in dire need.

---

https://www.instagram.com/daintonsteve/p/DOnp6dqgQB6/
daintonsteve
19h

Wow.
What an event.

WTT Champions Macao 2025 was pure energy. “Shatou” brought the house down. Watching Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin claim the title together, two of the sport’s biggest stars lighting up the stage, was a powerful moment for table tennis and for WTT.

It’s moments like this that remind us why we do what we do.

At WTT, we’ve been working hard to evolve the game. From WTT Champions Chongqing, Montpellier, Frankfurt, Incheon and Yokohama from Singapore Smash, US Smash, Europe Smash – Sweden to next week the China Smash and. finals in Hong Kong we continue to show what our sport can be at its best: electric, inspiring, global.

But I also know this: growth invites debate.

Not everyone views change through the same lens, and healthy debate is part of any sport that’s evolving. But the bigger picture is clear: this cannot be about internal divisions, it’s about positioning table tennis in a global arena where every sport is competing for audience, investment, and cultural relevance.

If we want table tennis to sit alongside UFC, F1, ATP, WTA, PGA, then we need to work together. We need to believe in the product, elevate our stars, and give our fans the experience they deserve.

Our events are bold.
Our athletes are world-class.
Our fanbase is growing.
Our ambitions are real.

We want our athletes to earn what they deserve: bigger prize money, greater opportunities. But that only happens when the sport captures the backing of broadcasters and sponsors.

At WTT we know we have a huge amount of work to do still in these areas. We also need to see the sport more united than divided in all aspects.

So here’s my challenge to the table tennis community — and especially to our fans:
What else would make broadcasters and sponsors see the same magic in this sport that you do, and fuel the future our players deserve?

Let me know here. We would love to hear from you.

---

https://weibo.com/3648824413/Q4I75cb3Z
SteveDainton
昨天 19:54 来自 iPhone客户端
WTT澳门冠军赛2025激情四射，太精彩了！孙颖莎和王楚钦携手夺冠，两位乒坛巨星在赛场绽放光芒，这对乒乓球运动和WTT而言都是激动人心的时刻。

正是这样的时刻让我们始终坚信自己的使命。

WTT世界乒联一直致力于推动这项运动的发展。从在重庆、蒙彼利埃、法兰克福、仁川、横滨举办的WTT冠军赛，到WTT新加坡大满贯、美国大满贯、欧洲大满贯瑞典站，再到下周即将开赛的WTT中国大满贯以及WTT香港总决赛，我们持续展现着这项运动的巅峰魅力：热血沸腾、激励人心、连接世界。

但我也深知：发展总会伴随争议。

并非所有人都以相同视角看待变革，健康的讨论本就是推进运动项目发展的一部分。但宏观图景清晰可见：这不应是内部分歧，而是要将乒乓球定位在全球竞技舞台，所有体育项目都在这里争夺观众、投资和文化影响力。

若想让乒乓球与UFC（终极格斗冠军赛）、F1（一级方程式赛车）、ATP（职业网球联合会）、WTA（国际女子网球协会）、PGA（美国职业高尔夫球协会）等顶级赛事并肩，我们必须同心协力。相信我们的产品，打造明星运动员，为球迷呈现应有的精彩体验。

我们的赛事敢为人先。

我们的运动员世界顶尖。

我们的球迷群体持续壮大。

我们的雄心坚定不移。

我们希望运动员获得应有回报，更高奖金、更多机遇。但这唯有在项目赢得转播商和赞助商支持时才能实现。

WTT深知在这些领域任重道远，也更需要这项运动在所有层面团结而非分裂。

现在向乒乓球界尤其是广大球迷征集建议——除了现有举措，如何让转播方与赞助商也能感受到你们所见这项运动的魔力？如何为运动员赢得应有的未来？

期待大家畅所欲言，我们渴望聆听你们的声音。

 

[\_Kairos_/]

...
So here’s my challenge to the table tennis community — and especially to our fans:
What else would make broadcasters and sponsors see the same magic in this sport that you do, and fuel the future our players deserve?
...

Dear Schteeevee,

I guess I can give you at least one answer to that:

GET RID OF THAT STUPID / FUKKING (MAIN) CAMERA ANGLE AT THE MAIN TABLES OF AN EVENT AND ACCEPT THAT THE VAST MAJORITY OF US ABSOLUTELY FUKKING HATE IT! TT IS NOT A VIDEO GAME! JUST BECAUSE YOU AND YOUR MINIONS LIKE IT DOESN'T MEAN THAT WE TRUE FANS HAVE TO TAKE YOUR SHYTT AND FURTHER ENDURE THIS TORTURE.

Thanks for listening/reading, Schteeevee.

 

[mihalichtheone]

If we want table tennis to sit alongside UFC, F1, ATP, WTA, PGA, then we need to work together. We need to believe in the product, elevate our stars, and give our fans the experience they deserve.

give our fans the experience they deserve.

Yep, that's the camera angle..

 

[zeio]

wtt首席执行官丹顿希望更多的转播商与赞助商加入，大家怎么看 (WTT CEO Dainton hopes more broadcasters and sponsors will join. What do you think?)
https://tieba.baidu.com/p/10043110677
Tier - Yearly Royalty
CT - 700k USD, WTT CT Taiyun 2023
SCT - 2 mil, WTT SCT Lanzhou 2023
CS - 3 mil, WTT CS Macao 2023
GS - 7.4 mil, SGP GS 2023

 

[jar]

Since I started following table tennis closely, the main problem I have is that tournaments are very underwhelming for a lot of players and these players' fans.

Players will fly halfway around the planet, lose 3-0 in 28 minutes and then go home (maybe for some events, they play doubles, but I dont have the time to watch all singles and doubles play).

You dont get to spend a lot of time with some players, and if for whatever reason they dont perform perfectly from the start then it's over for them. I think that aside from the UFC comparison, in other sports like tennis, F1 or golf, you spend more time watching each player, and they have more chances to prove themselves.

In F1, you see racers for at least 3 days, with practice, qualifying, and race. In tennis, they even make the best players skip the first round so that it's more fair to lesser ranked players. You can hope for your favorite lesser ranked player to play for at least 1 hour, and maybe make it to next round. Golf lasts a long time too, i dont know how long but more than 30 minutes for the weaker players for sure.

This way, fans can build more relationship with players, see them more often.

Now I'm not saying table tennis matches should be 1 hour long minimum, and I also am not expert in tournaments formats (group stage and such). But maybe it would be nice to have less tournaments overall, but have them last longer, or like F1, have them play more regularly but have a summer and winter break. (This would also be good for sponsorship of lesser ranked players, because what company want to sponsor a player that you only see 30 minutes every month/2months?)

 

[zeio]

Since I started following table tennis closely, the main problem I have is that tournaments are very underwhelming for a lot of players and these players' fans.

Players will fly halfway around the planet, lose 3-0 in 28 minutes and then go home (maybe for some events, they play doubles, but I dont have the time to watch all singles and doubles play).

You dont get to spend a lot of time with some players, and if for whatever reason they dont perform perfectly from the start then it's over for them. I think that aside from the UFC comparison, in other sports like tennis, F1 or golf, you spend more time watching each player, and they have more chances to prove themselves.

In F1, you see racers for at least 3 days, with practice, qualifying, and race. In tennis, they even make the best players skip the first round so that it's more fair to lesser ranked players. You can hope for your favorite lesser ranked player to play for at least 1 hour, and maybe make it to next round. Golf lasts a long time too, i dont know how long but more than 30 minutes for the weaker players for sure.

This way, fans can build more relationship with players, see them more often.

Now I'm not saying table tennis matches should be 1 hour long minimum, and I also am not expert in tournaments formats (group stage and such). But maybe it would be nice to have less tournaments overall, but have them last longer, or like F1, have them play more regularly but have a summer and winter break. (This would also be good for sponsorship of lesser ranked players, because what company want to sponsor a player that you only see 30 minutes every month/2months?)

That "problem" is the nature of many racket sports and for table tennis it's been that way since the ITTF era. A professional pickleball match can end in a similar time. A professional badminton match can be finished in 30 some minutes. Your suggestion is more or less how the ITTF calendar was designed in the past, especially after some tweaking in the late years of ITTF era. That format didn't work for commercialization.

https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/fo...orld-cup-macao-2025-4-14-20.35712/post-513307

By tradition in the past, WTTC was held at the start of summer (between May and June), Olympics at the end of summer (between July and August) and World Cup at the start of fall (between September and October).

Now it's World Cup then WTTC then Olympics. To be honest, it makes more sense in terms of hierarchy as it raises the prestige of World Cup, which is commonly referred to as 水盃/Water Cup [Water = Weak] in mainland China because of the timing and competition format.

2019 ITTF World Tour/World Tour Platinum
Mid Jan
WT Hungarian Open
End of Mar
WTP Qatar Open
End of May to early June
WTP China Open
WT Hong Kong Open
WTP Japan Open
Early to mid Jul
WT Korea Open
WTP Australian Open
Mid to late Aug
WT Bulgaria Open
WT Czech Open
Early to mid Oct
WT Swedish Open
WTP German Open
Mid Nov
WTP Austrian Open
Mid Dec
WT Grand Finals

2019 ITTF Challenge/Challenge Plus
Mid Feb
CP Portugal Open
Mid-late Mar
CP Oman Open
C Spanish Open
Early to late May
C Serbia Open
C Slovenia Open
C Croatia Open
C Thailand Open
Late Jul
CP Pyongyang Open
Early Aug
CP Nigeria Open
Mid Sep
CP Paraguay Open
Mid Oct
C Mexico Open (cancelled)
C Polish Open
Late Oct to early Nov
C Belarus Open
C Morocco Open (cancelled)
Mid Nov
C Indonesia Open
Mid-late Nov
C Turkish Open (cancelled)
Early Dec
CP North American Open

Tournament Calendar
https://www.ittf.com/tournaments/
2019 Event Calendar
https://www.ittf.com/2019-event-calendar/
2018 Event Calendar
https://www.ittf.com/2018-event-calendar/

 

[RefereeNumber2]

Since I started following table tennis closely, the main problem I have is that tournaments are very underwhelming for a lot of players and these players' fans.

Players will fly halfway around the planet, lose 3-0 in 28 minutes and then go home (maybe for some events, they play doubles, but I dont have the time to watch all singles and doubles play).

You dont get to spend a lot of time with some players, and if for whatever reason they dont perform perfectly from the start then it's over for them. I think that aside from the UFC comparison, in other sports like tennis, F1 or golf, you spend more time watching each player, and they have more chances to prove themselves.

In F1, you see racers for at least 3 days, with practice, qualifying, and race. In tennis, they even make the best players skip the first round so that it's more fair to lesser ranked players. You can hope for your favorite lesser ranked player to play for at least 1 hour, and maybe make it to next round. Golf lasts a long time too, i dont know how long but more than 30 minutes for the weaker players for sure.

This way, fans can build more relationship with players, see them more often.

Now I'm not saying table tennis matches should be 1 hour long minimum, and I also am not expert in tournaments formats (group stage and such). But maybe it would be nice to have less tournaments overall, but have them last longer, or like F1, have them play more regularly but have a summer and winter break. (This would also be good for sponsorship of lesser ranked players, because what company want to sponsor a player that you only see 30 minutes every month/2months?)

This is simply the nature of single-elimination tournaments. Despite what you say about tennis, it's exactly the same. In a single-elimination format, one out of every two players lose and are gone after each match; that's indisputable mathematics.

I'd argue the shorter matches in table tennis make it easier, not harder, to follow doubles in addition to singles. As a bonus, far more top singles TT players participate in doubles compared to tennis. In tennis, it is rare for top singles players to participate in doubles at all, even at the very top tournaments, with only a few exceptions.

Table tennis has a tradition of having many non-single-elimination events, especially leagues. The big problem for table tennis is that these are disjoint from the singles tour, placing greater scheduling and travel burdens on players, and are separate entities with their own need to raise revenue. The end result is that they end up competing with each other and the WTT for sponsors and viewership.

My view has been for a while that the WTT and various top leagues should form a partnership to have a smaller number of higher-profile events (including league-style team-based events) which can be broadly promoted under a unified pro table tennis umbrella. This would allow them to attract more viewers, demand higher payments from sponsors, and place less burden on players. There are many challenges which will need to be overcome in order to get to that point, but the history of other pro sports (especially tennis) are proof that it's possible.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

This is simply the nature of single-elimination tournaments. Despite what you say about tennis, it's exactly the same. In a single-elimination format, one out of every two players lose and are gone after each match; that's indisputable mathematics.

I'd argue the shorter matches in table tennis make it easier, not harder, to follow doubles in addition to singles. As a bonus, far more top singles TT players participate in doubles compared to tennis. In tennis, it is rare for top singles players to participate in doubles at all, even at the very top tournaments, with only a few exceptions.

table tennis is a shorter match
tennis and table tennis players pay similar cost to travel and stay in hotels.
maybe similar amount of time arriving early, staying there and getting ready etc
in return a quick 15 to 25 mins, and you can pack your bags.
I'm not sure what time is the shortest tennis match.

I don't think table tennis will ever catch up with tennis in terms of prize money for these 1st round looser.
table tennis, the looser is loosing a lot of money for basically not much table tennis, not much prize money, not much ranking point.

Now even if you win, the next day, its costing you another 150 to 200 euros staying there. Your prize money for staying the extra day, won't even cover your extra hotel bill.

Its easy for WTT to list what the top earners earn.
We also need to look at what the 1st rounders earn....

Table tennis has a tradition of having many non-single-elimination events, especially leagues. The big problem for table tennis is that these are disjoint from the singles tour, placing greater scheduling and travel burdens on players, and are separate entities with their own need to raise revenue. The end result is that they end up competing with each other and the WTT for sponsors and viewership.

on the contrary, playing for clubs/leagues has no expense (other than MLTT, where players do self fund portions, but other proper leagues cover everything - or pay you enough to include everything).

so you rock up with all cost covered, knowing you will have match fee for just showing up and win bonuses for winning.

In terms of financial stability and players mind - what do you think is better?
The loss making money of what WTT has (even if you double or triple 1st rounders money, it still not going to help) created a lot of concerns and unhealthy problems for players. Many are using incomes from leagues to cover WTT participation... that is so wrong.

My view has been for a while that the WTT and various top leagues should form a partnership to have a smaller number of higher-profile events (including league-style team-based events) which can be broadly promoted under a unified pro table tennis umbrella. This would allow them to attract more viewers, demand higher payments from sponsors, and place less burden on players. There are many challenges which will need to be overcome in order to get to that point, but the history of other pro sports (especially tennis) are proof that it's possible.

I agree, less WTT events, more quality events.

Right now, I feel, there is just way too much WTT events going on, and sponsors are probably confused too.
Just look at all these events with different sponsors (they do change event per event).
there is so much events that it feels table tennis is just so diluted.
so what if you are a winner of this event.... you have 100 winners a year lol

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Feeder Turkey
everyone is loosing
even if you get 1000 + half of 500, 1250 USD, for 7 days stay/work, you can't even cover your flights + entry fees.

even if you double that or triple that amount to 3000 usd
its still peanuts, as you net maybe 1000 usd only.... and that is presuming you don't have a coach and other costs to cover.

now how about Round of 32?
even the QF or SF aren't getting enough money to cover the entry fees....

Feeder is like this,
you give me your entry fee, and I will take my commission and pay you back some money as "prize money"

Star Contender London

fancy amount on the top.
R16 downwards - you not making money too.

again, we must not only look at the top earners, but 80% of the participants are loosing big money competing and these includes top 50 players too....

The players are saying - its too tiring traveling to all parts of the world.
its too expensive to take part
the financial reward is too little if any.
we only doing it for ranking points, and we will go crazy before olympic seeding, and will sit out participation until its necessary to stay in top 100.

 

[RefereeNumber2]

on the contrary, playing for clubs/leagues has no expense (other than MLTT, where players do self fund portions, but other proper leagues cover everything - or pay you enough to include everything).

so you rock up with all cost covered, knowing you will have match fee for just showing up and win bonuses for winning.

In terms of financial stability and players mind - what do you think is better?
The loss making money of what WTT has (even if you double or triple 1st rounders money, it still not going to help) created a lot of concerns and unhealthy problems for players. Many are using incomes from leagues to cover WTT participation... that is so wrong.

Ok, we've discussed this before but I haven't been able to get an answer that is clear to me. My question is: how can the leagues afford to provide this much money to the players?

Do they have better sponsorship deals than WTT -- and if so, why? Do they have much lower expenses than WTT -- and if so, how? Do they have much better attendance and sell way more tickets? Are they just constantly losing money on events and/or subsidized by various governments?

Other than getting subsidized by state governments, I haven't yet seen a good reason why the WTT can't already do what the leagues do in terms of generating revenue and distributing it to players in some form or other.

Even better would be if they could partner up in some way so they could all make even more money while having the same number -- and likely even fewer -- events.

You talk about how WTT events feel so diluted...I have to say, as TT watcher in the US, the leagues are way more diluted, confusing and hard to access. At least WTT provides a single coherent product which is straightforward to access. There is no central place where I can even look up the league schedules, and many matches are geographically limited in who can watch them, or require you to navigate a sea of various VPNs and streaming platforms. Just go look at the thread about FZD in the Bundesliga and all of the confusion about how to watch his matches. This is incredibly inefficient and results in table tennis organizers leaving potentially large sums of money on the table, all of which could be used to increase the prize money or salaries for players. I'm sure there are some reasons why the leagues are organized this way, but the sport as a whole is absolutely not taking full economic advantage of the possibilities for raising revenue from professional events. And at the end of the day, the losers include the players who have to run all around the world to get from WTT to various league events, and the fans who don't get to watch all of their favorite players' matches.

 

[TTTT]

Feeder is like this,
you give me your entry fee, and I will take my commission and pay you back some money as "prize money"

Isn't that why it's called Feeder - athletes' fees feeding the organizers who give them an opportunity to compete and win rating points? Or did some players think they were the ones getting fed?! (Then they should probably be fed up by now.)

 

[pongguy69]

this is a very interesting question - the west is so ingrained in their traditional sports mostly because it's been around longer. sports fans now are fans because they grew up watching. any new pro sport will be hard to break into mainstream (even with pickleball's popularity, still hard to get people to watch). my first suggestion was to hire some undercover social media editors to make hype edits, fancams and stuff lol, but that is a bit unconventional.

F1 got big because of a netflix documentary (drive to survive), among other things. there are so many cool stories that we can highlight in TT. one thing i like about F1 (that the documentary revealed to me) was that the competition was very tight in the middle (and not the top places of Ferrari Mercedes RB). an angle like that could really work. Another cool thing was that there are teams of hundreds if not more working on getting these cars to go fast, the drivers trained for competition, and logistics.

 

[pongguy69]

another example is ultimate frisbee. it struggled for a while but they put together a pro league (UFA fka AUDL). it still struggles. though, i remember getting excited when a frisbee play would be featured on ESPN top 10. can WTT send in a clip when kanak scores a hype point? lol. same feeling when i see a TT point in a jomboy video

 

[golden_son]

It sounds to me like, from a  player perspective, prize structure/incentivization is part of the problem. How many fans really care what the top prize is in $? I care about who wins, not about how much money they win. If the goal of advertising that is to say "Look how well we reward our best players!" then why not simply pay out a salary to the top X00 players in the sport and make the tournaments about sport, competition, fun, and glory, the way team sports do? I'd even support higher salaries or prize money for big results, but start from the foundation of paying players just for participating the way sports like football (soccer), American football, and basketball do.

Of course the problem with this--and with the existing system too--is that the money has to be there first. You want invested players and exciting matches in order to grow viewership, but you need money to incentivize player investment, but you need viewers for money...

 

[pong99]

table tennis is a shorter match
tennis and table tennis players pay similar cost to travel and stay in hotels.
maybe similar amount of time arriving early, staying there and getting ready etc
in return a quick 15 to 25 mins, and you can pack your bags.
I'm not sure what time is the shortest tennis match.

2025 Womens Wimbledon Final - double bagel 6-0, 6-0, 57 minutes, it was 57 minutes long only because of all the TV commercials

If this happened in a qualifier round the match would be over in 30 minutes more or less. Lose in the qualifier round and you get a bagel for prize money.

 

[OvrChkn]

Give me a WTT Club World Cup (or Champions/Europa League) tournament series for clubs all over the world. Split off some of the tournaments and focus more on a group event. If they don't want to do the series, then have the domestic teams go up against each other, then top X teams from each region meet up in the finals. The infrastructure is there with domestic leagues existing, just piggyback and have more visibility on the world stage. League of Legends Esports is a really good model in this aspect.

For current events, do pre-recorded interviews with different players hyping up the next match instead of commercial-free EDM between matches. It feels like the bare minimum is done outside of the blinding speed of the in-match video editors. They're getting it right with the post-match interviews recently, just need to build it up more.

There's no storytelling at all for casual viewers until the warmups and that's way too late.

Their YouTube subscriber and view count is very good, but I don't know how much that translates to cash.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Ok, we've discussed this before but I haven't been able to get an answer that is clear to me. My question is: how can the leagues afford to provide this much money to the players?

Do they have better sponsorship deals than WTT -- and if so, why? Do they have much lower expenses than WTT -- and if so, how? Do they have much better attendance and sell way more tickets? Are they just constantly losing money on events and/or subsidized by various governments?

Other than getting subsidized by state governments, I haven't yet seen a good reason why the WTT can't already do what the leagues do in terms of generating revenue and distributing it to players in some form or other.

I'm not sure why you want to know this answer and how it will be relevant to WTT.
The fact and truth is that the clubs/leagues has been going on for decades and feeding countless amount of families.

It could be private or public money, end of the day, it is a system that is working and sustainable in a way (if not, it would have collapses decades ago).

and why should all these state gov subsidize WTT? is there a return?

Champions in Germany was subsidized by the local gov at around 100 000 euros.
was that a good or bad investment?
Finals in Japan the first edition was subsidized by CTTA (yes, China) by I think 2 million USD.
Japan refused to host and was bullied by CTTA to host (even till this day, CTTA players in T-League is very sensitive topic where players are at the mercy of CTTA agreeing/bargaining chip)

people talk about return on investment and I don't have the financial statements on all of them, but I can say:

League majority cost is the players salary.
WTT, I think players get a mere 10% of WTT total budget, or maybe up to 15%. There was an article talking about this.

These 2 organization has totally different systems and treatment of players.

Even better would be if they could partner up in some way so they could all make even more money while having the same number -- and likely even fewer -- events.

Why should someone making money help WTT who is failing on the players?
Clubs listens to players.
When there is a problem, the players can change clubs.
There is an employment contract and mutual respect.
Clubs have fan culture that follows the clubs. The clubs can change players, the fans stay at the club. This is no different to how other sports clubs are and there is a long history of fans and these sport clubs.

WTT and players - there is only signing of rights away to WTT, but there is nothing in return.
again, you are looking at a system that is working for the players to partner with a system that is failing the players.
you need to first have two organization that are fit for each other to "partner", else, the failing one will destroy the working one, and both will end up failing.

You talk about how WTT events feel so diluted...I have to say, as TT watcher in the US, the leagues are way more diluted, confusing and hard to access. At least WTT provides a single coherent product which is straightforward to access.

they provide a "single coherent product"?
please go and read WTT product offering again, haha.
and I will be very shocked if you even follow half of what WTT has to offer.

and btw, Leagues (plural) is way bigger than all the WTT added together.
I'm sure you would also struggle to follow all the Basketball leagues in this world and would also say it is confusing and hard to access.
would you take FIBA basketball matches over any or all of the basketball leagues around the world?

WTT got forced upon the member associations and players. They probably started off on the wrong foot already and are playing catct up.
we got what, 9 years left of WTT?

There is no central place where I can even look up the league schedules, and many matches are geographically limited in who can watch them, or require you to navigate a sea of various VPNs and streaming platforms.

I'm sure many people are having issues with VPN and WTT access too.
you make it sound like no one has this issue.

Just go look at the thread about FZD in the Bundesliga and all of the confusion about how to watch his matches. This is incredibly inefficient and results in table tennis organizers leaving potentially large sums of money on the table, all of which could be used to increase the prize money or salaries for players. I'm sure there are some reasons why the leagues are organized this way, but the sport as a whole is absolutely not taking full economic advantage of the possibilities for raising revenue from professional events. And at the end of the day, the losers include the players who have to run all around the world to get from WTT to various league events, and the fans who don't get to watch all of their favorite players' matches.

again, the Bundesliga is feeding a lot of players and families
It might not be perfect, and if Bundesliga is failing then WTT is what?

I think the first thing you need to ask yourself is, the way table tennis is, it is a team match with good money, or individual match with no money.
some of the individual sports that works are tennis and golf.
some of the team sports that works are soccer, basketball, baseball, american football etc.
no matter how each works, my question to you is - why break something when it is working and why destroy it by merging with something that is failing?

Just imagine - the first thing WTT will do to leagues is the camera angle lol
second thing is reduce players salary to 10 or 15% of its budget.
and you might be happy - but how about the actual people putting the show together? the players....

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Give me a WTT Club World Cup (or Champions/Europa League) tournament series for clubs all over the world. Split off some of the tournaments and focus more on a group event. If they don't want to do the series, then have the domestic teams go up against each other, then top X teams from each region meet up in the finals. The infrastructure is there with domestic leagues existing, just piggyback and have more visibility on the world stage. League of Legends Esports is a really good model in this aspect.

For current events, do pre-recorded interviews with different players hyping up the next match instead of commercial-free EDM between matches. It feels like the bare minimum is done outside of the blinding speed of the in-match video editors. They're getting it right with the post-match interviews recently, just need to build it up more.

There's no storytelling at all for casual viewers until the warmups and that's way too late.

WTT should hire your services

Their YouTube subscriber and view count is very good, but I don't know how much that translates to cash.

imo there is way too much content and its the same thing.
Like champions, it is the same players playing each other.

I agree, you need something fresh, something different.
But where will the money come from to hire more staff to make these "stories"?

The way WTT works is, hire minimal amount of staff, and get them to do 3 to 4 times the work (as WTT has grown in events over the years, but didn't really increase its staff count) and then you expect quality results for staff that are worn off.
Players worn off, staff worn off. I see a pattern

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

2025 Womens Wimbledon Final - double bagel 6-0, 6-0, 57 minutes, it was 57 minutes long only because of all the TV commercials

If this happened in a qualifier round the match would be over in 30 minutes more or less. Lose in the qualifier round and you get a bagel for prize money.

I don't understand.

so with TV commercials, it is 57 mins
without it is 30 mins?

so what happens when there is tv commercials, does the players stop playing and wait for the sign that the video feed is back

and wow. First round qualifying round exit is 15500 pounds.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

It sounds to me like, from a  player perspective, prize structure/incentivization is part of the problem. How many fans really care what the top prize is in $? I care about who wins, not about how much money they win. If the goal of advertising that is to say "Look how well we reward our best players!" then why not simply pay out a salary to the top X00 players in the sport and make the tournaments about sport, competition, fun, and glory, the way team sports do? I'd even support higher salaries or prize money for big results, but start from the foundation of paying players just for participating the way sports like football (soccer), American football, and basketball do.

Of course the problem with this--and with the existing system too--is that the money has to be there first. You want invested players and exciting matches in order to grow viewership, but you need money to incentivize player investment, but you need viewers for money...

WTT has been using the "world ranking" points strategy to hook players to participate.
1st, they changed the way world ranking points work to by participation - so they hook you up there.
2nd, they expire the points, so you in a constant circle to take part. The moment you rest or get injured, you will struggle to catch up. This is like a never ending cycle.
3rd, the mandatory system upset a lot of players. while this has changed, the way expiring points works - it becomes another type of mandatory system

Players tried to play this system, and they are facing challenges that WTT is so much more costly to attend compared to when ITTF was managing it and this is where we at today.

since you are from the USA (as per your flag) and so is @RefereeNumber2 too.
how about we force USATT rating points to expire after 12 months of gaining it. By doing so, it forces USATT members to take part in more regular tournaments, and same time, rise the entry fees and reward you with little to nothing or end up with less and less USATT rating points and you become under valued.

A USATT 2500 or 2000 player will become 1500 and 1000 if they don't play and follow the system.

imo, this is the number 1 problem for the players.
so many of them require to maintain certain world ranking position for various reasons, and just keeping afloat is a problem.

and with so many WTT events, your "win" for one events, is just the same as a "win" that another player at another event. And you both are ranked the same, and for you to outdo them is to have the best 8 and that forces players to find ways to gain points, and fast forward today, many are tired for trying.
and once they got to that world ranking position, they now looking at a list of expiring points, and require to match or better the expire point or risk falling in the world ranking.
so table tennis has all become a mathematical calculation.

I have yet to speak to a player that is fond of how this current system works. The reward doesn't match how the players contributed and many are tired. I speak to a lot of players.