T2 and ITTF join forces!

[TableTennisDaily]

News just in! T2 and ITTF join forces to grow both properties for the betterment of global table tennis.

Key points from article:

- T2 and Seamaster chairman Mr Frank JI wants T2 to be adored and loved by millions worldwide
- An environment that attracts more media attention, TV broadcasters, fans and more money.
- To have our players rich and famous!
- T2 and ITTF to work closely together
- T2 will be a ITTF competition laboratory
- ITTF to bring in some of the T2 innovative features into ITTF World Tours

Read more on the ITTF Website here: https://www.ittf.com/2018/01/11/ittf-world-tour-t2-sign-collaboration-agreement/

What do you think of this collaboration?

 

[Lightzy]

Looks to be great news. Other sports are so much more advanced in terms of on-the-spot analytics and broadcast technology.. It's about time things changed

 

[Atas Newton]

I firmly believe this is going to be beneficial for both parties and, more importantly, us spectators of the sport. We know T2 are already capable of producing top level product, all they needed is more publicity. This bit

ITTF to bring in some of the T2 innovative features into ITTF World Tours

I'm slightly cautious about.

 

[TTHopeful]

Hopefully ittf don't take away the t2 uniqueness...

 

[Suga D]

That sounds like good news to me. Especially this part

The biggest aspect of the collaboration is that T2 will become the ITTF competition laboratory, whereby the ITTF can test new innovations such as ball tracking spin and speed, as well as the challenge system where players can challenge an umpire’s decision. This could work for edge ball and even fault serves. T2 is a perfect environment for testing to see if concepts are fit for official ITTF competitions.

ITTF President Thomas WEIKERT stated during the signing ceremony: “We are very happy to have people like Frank Ji in our sport, we need more passion, more ideas and more energy. With Mr Frank JI on board, we have been able to innovate and develop the 2017 ITTF World Tour, which resulted in record prize money, record TV viewership and record TV interest.”

 

[zeio]

My goal is to create an environment where our table tennis players are adored and loved by millions across the world and not just by table tennis fans...and have our players become rich and famous!

Take Mizutani and Ovtcharov for example. They formed a rivalry between 2014 and 2016 on the World Tour. ITTF could have built on the marketing value if they had the accumulative rating system. The drama, the gossip, the whatnot.


Table tennis experienced a resurgence in China after Rio. Take the table tennis sub on Hupu, for instance. Most of the patrons are girls, not your average Janes, they're some of the most dedicated I've seen. Different from typical table tennis fans, they rarely focus on the usual topics like equipment and technique, instead discussions are more player- and competition-oriented. They have threads dedicated for many players where they follow their social lives. The atmosphere is mild, organized and disciplined. They are like human web crawlers, sifting through the data and turning them into charts and tables, which they use to keep track of players' progress. Because of that, bickering is hard to come by. OTOH, bantering about their players' mishaps is a daily routine.


Same for Japan, where table tennis has been booming after Rio. Media attention further exploded after Hirano's triple-kill at the ATTC 2017. You see comments on Yahoo news where people state they did't care about table tennis but started following after table tennis made the headlines. Koji Matsushita has been working his butt off to get the T League started in late 2018. They planned to start small with 4 teams each for men and women, but applications were overwhelming. Now that JTTA have gotten the sponsor interest, they have the chips to talk about improving the livelihood of professional players. Mizutani was quoted saying there would be no meaning unless the world's best attended. They listened. Despite China's cold shoulder, they are thinking of inviting their top players with a higher wage than they earn in CTTSL(~US$360,000-450,000).


That is the kind of audience the ITTF want to capture. People who don't play but may otherwise be interested in watching or following. Those girls remind me of how I got drawn to table tennis - Olympics coverage on TV. The school also happened to have two concrete tables. I dived right in with a shakehand hardbat in penhold grip. Got trashed by the inverted-yielding tyrants. Couldn't be noober, but I persevered. Didn't even know they were called hardbat and inverted until much later, much less about shakehand and penhold. There is this "nerdy" aura around table tennis that puts it in a bad light in mainstream media. T2APAC is a commendable initiative to introduce the laymen to the competitive nature of table tennis. They may not play it in the end, but the least you could hope for is get them to follow the sport.

 

[zzzuppp]

This ought to be a good thing...I'm sure ITTF have been jealous of T2's success, especially by comparison to the lame TTX (does anyone actually play that?).

 

[TTHopeful]

TTX is a crazy idea. T2 incentives are the way forward. We can see that from the online responses.

 

[WorkerBee]

TTX is a joke. I figured it was just some shipping billionaire trying to get Lily Z into a bikini at the beach house.

 

[rainneverever]

Isn't TTX also Frank Ji's idea?

 

[NextLevel]

This ought to be a good thing...I'm sure ITTF have been jealous of T2's success, especially by comparison to the lame TTX (does anyone actually play that?).

How so? And how is T2's success being measured? What are the stats that show it was a success?

 

[TTFrenzy]

How so? And how is T2's success being measured? What are the stats that show it was a success?

Well I dont think youtube views are a measure but we have to define success for sure. Lots of money in t2apac and great organisation of the event, good commentary and interesting tweaks on matchplay. I would like to find how the asian fans responded to it (was it televised there? anyone knows?), in my eyes it was a success if we consider it was their first tour and the youtube views were pretty good comparing them with a platinum world tour event

Anyway it seems like a good move and so far I think the new ITTF president is doing a better job than shararah

 

[rainneverever]

Take a look at the discussion threads of T2 (full season) and 2017 ITTF Grand Finals, on TTD and on Chinese forum Hupu mentioned above by zeio. People in both forums did discuss T2, but to much less extent compared to ITTF World Tour events.

T2APAC discussion threads:
https://bbs.hupu.com/18598484.html
2017-02-28 ~ 2017-12-10, 7,677 posts/323,692 views


https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/forum/showthread.php?14667-T2-Asia-Pacific-Table-Tennis-League-2017!
2017-1-13 ~ 2017-11-6, 352 posts/43,127 views
https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/forum/showthread.php?16467-T2-APAC-League-2017-Grand-Finals
2017-11-10 ~ 4 weeks ago, 65 posts/10,142 views


2017 ITTF Grand Finals threads:
https://bbs.hupu.com/20936821.html
2017-12-11 ~ 2017-12-18, 12,973 posts/580,421 views
https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/forum/showthread.php?16666-World-Tour-Grand-Finals-2017
4 weeks ago ~ 3 weeks ago, 229 posts/18,697 views

 

[TTFrenzy]

300.000 views to 580.000 views is not much less extent in my book. a bit more than half the "interest" compared to grand finals but the views in total are definitely disappointing. lets not forget it was the 1st tour of t2apac and maybe brining top chinese will shift the interest there and make it international since in the CSTTL the top players are not giving their best

 

[rainneverever]

300.000 views to 580.000 views is not much less extent in my book. a bit more than half the "interest" compared to grand finals but the views in total are definitely disappointing. lets not forget it was the 1st tour of t2apac and maybe brining top chinese will shift the interest there and make it international since in the CSTTL the top players are not giving their best

Did you notice the duration of those threads? 10 months for T2 vs 1 week for Grand Finals.

 

[WorkerBee]

There is a fundamental and fatal flaw in T2, that is the lack of any T2 team loyalty that can ever be possible. All these players are the result of decades of national team tournaments. If the team members were shuffled, would anybody care? No. If the coaches were replaced, would anybody care? No. It's like running 10 all-star games in 10 weeks in any sport. There would be no loyalty built up other than loyalty to individuals built up over years of season games. Even the addition of supermodel announcers will not save T2. If Frank wants to help table tennis, he should put his millions into basic national and local programs. We could ask the Chinese Soccer Super League founders how their commercial sports venture went in their first stages. Oh wait, they're all in jail, now they're trying to build it based on betting. All these sports are based on what children do in school and citywide. There's no shortcut through money infusion and TV. The money infusion and TV is needed for building the basics and popularising the superstars, both together.

(edit: I loved watching all the T2 games because the players are phenomenal superstars, the format changes and camerawork were good, and the announcer was gorgeous, but that doesn't create any team loyalty.)

 

[TTFrenzy]

Did you notice the duration of those threads? 10 months for T2 vs 1 week for Grand Finals.

u didnt mention it sorry. and the page is in chinese, so im kinda bound to take your word for it cheers