USATT Magazine

Many table tennis enthusiasts from across the country find it hard to understand why the sport does not seem to “catch on” with the general public. College athletics is a big focus for sports in this country. Many of those sports that thrive on college campuses also thrive as Olympic sports. It seems that getting table tennis onto college campuses and accepted as a competitive sport along side of football, basketball, and baseball is a key factor in reaching the public consciousness. So, how can we promote table tennis on college campuses?

Colleges campuses are little cities within cities. They provide hotels, restaurants, movies, plays, musicals, and sports activities to their students. Sports activities on college campuses may seem to be all fun and games but there is a very real business side to offering those activities to students that may have little to do with gate receipts. Colleges make their living by attracting quality students and keeping them in school until they graduate. Students who are involved in activities of one kind or another are twice as likely to graduate as those who aren’t involved. Thus, activities are not just fun and games, they are necessary to the success of the business enterprise.

One can use the sum of the cost of tuition, room, and board to see how much income is derived from each student who comes to a particular college. Economists have also determined that each student who comes to a community spends an additional $7500 per year in local gas stations, grocery stores, and malls. In approaching the Administration at your local college, it is important to produce a plan for a table tennis program that will both attract students and generate money.

Every student who comes to college generates money for both the college and the community and in most private colleges that income is generally well over $150,000 for the four years on campus. Having a full campus of students is doubly important to private colleges since a higher percentage of their income comes from tuition. Public Colleges have tax money support from a variety of sources and tuition dollars are not as important. Thus, when you are looking for a college to approach the most likely possibility is a smaller private college with a four year degree program. If it also has business or computer graduate programs that is even better.

When I was active in the sport in the 1980s, many of our best players could not find collegiate programs that allow them to continue playing their favorite sport competitively. If they were football, basketball, baseball, tennis, golf, or lacrosse players they would have had numerous choices of where to go to college where they could continue competing. This just wasn’t so with table tennis. At my institution, Anderson College, we began to develop a plan that would include a coach, the allocation of space, scholarship monies, and regular competitions for players – while keeping in mind that our private college was a business that needed such a program to be financially self sufficient.

We appealed to the USTTA for some advice and got immediate help from then Executive Director Bob Treathway. Information on tables and other equipment was provided along with a list of possible coaches. We offered coaches free housing and tuition to attend the college, interviewed several potential coaches and named Jim Doney of Michigan as the first coach. Christian Lillieroos, Paul Normandin, Rong Li, and Richard McAfee all joined us as coaches over subsequent years.

Quality players from across the country were immediately attracted to the college including Americans Scott Butler, Derrick May and Julian Milan. International players included some future Olympians and at least two (Michael Hyatt and Nigel Christopher) finished our program and were able to stay in the US. The college program received great coverage and recognition within USATT circles as Texas Wesleyan has in more recent years.

How did it all work out financially for the college? At that time tuition was approximately $12,000 per year and Room & Board totaled an additional $7,000. Thus, there was a total income per student of $19,000. Under our model, having about fifteen players enrolled to play on the team would generate just under $200,000 in annual income (after subtracting the cost of room and board for each student). Our expenditures averaged around $70,000 per year including the coach’s housing, travel for the team, and competitions. The program had one tuition scholarship from the school which we shared between several of the players. Thus, total net from the table tennis program was conservatively $100,000 for the year. The community also benefited as another $100,000 was spent in local business in and around the campus. By any standard we judged the program to be a financial success.

So, what is needed in order to introduce Table Tennis to a close-by college?

1. A college/university administrator in charge of Student Activities, Student Personnel Services, or the President who can help you through the process.

2. Support from the University Admissions department since they will be recruiting the players the first time through and helping the coach with future classes.

3. A coach. Information about potential coaches can be found through the USATT. Many top players would like to have a college education along with being able to work as a professional coach. You will get many applications.

4. Tables and equipment. Start with four tables and add more as you need them.

5. A space dedicated to Table Tennis. Top players are used to hitting balls and practicing at all hours. Having a dedicated space is imperative. (The request for start-up equipment and space is a small request for a program that promises to generate significant financial rewards.)

6. Among the first questions you will be asked is who the team will compete against. Show them the list of tournaments from across the country from your USATT magazine. Then share information on the Texas Wesleyan program and the various NCTTA programs that are competing in regional and national tournaments throughout the year.

Other items may be important to the institution you are working with but the above list is enough to get started with your process.