Table tennis needs to evolve: ITTF CEO

The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the sporting landscape but the chaos has also presented opportunities for reinvention and new ideas, a point International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) chief executive officer Steve Dainton hopes to capitalise on.

The Australian had on Sunday suggested the sport's biennial individual World Championships be scrapped, with world champions possibly decided by the winners of the new "Grand Smash" mega tournaments instead.

These will be three to four events with up to US$3 million (S$4.3 million) in prize money, and form part of the new World Table Tennis (WTT) initiative aimed at making the sport more successful commercially.

There are no plans to drop the team championships and Olympic tournaments.

The WTT is expected to start next year and could see a total purse of US$13 million a year, more than double the current amount.

In an exclusive phone interview with The Straits Times on Tuesday, Dainton stressed his goal was not to neglect the sport's heritage - the biennial individual championships started in 1926 - but to help it evolve.

He said: "The issue is, we don't think we are highlighted as a sport enough times per year. Once every two years is too little, so we want to look at how to solve that."

Singaporean world No. 9 Feng Tianwei backed the proposal. The 33-year-old said: "With the understanding that the ITTF is trying to promote table tennis and make it more popular and marketable on a global stage, I support its initiatives. After all, the sport must keep progressing."

Compatriot Yu Mengyu, who won three women's doubles bronzes with Feng at the 2013, 2015 and 2017 individual championships, was less keen though.

The world No. 55 said: "It will be really sad to do away with the tournament because many paddlers and our younger generation will lose the opportunity to participate and play against the world's best in such a prestigious competition."

No decision has been made yet, noted Dainton, adding that the ITTF will canvass stakeholder opinions before its executive committee makes up its mind.

One issue is the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics to next year, which will cause congestion in the international calendar.

Athletes may skip tournaments too close to the Games for fear of risking injury and potential Grand Smash host cities are currently occupied with the Covid-19 pandemic, Dainton acknowledged.

"It's inevitable the brakes are put on WTT," he said, adding his team is trying to finalise the host cities for a soft launch of the inaugural WTT season.

"We have to scale back on the number of events and the overall projections we had in terms of prize money and general enthusiasm."

Another scenario the ITTF faces is a significant loss of revenue from postponed and cancelled events should the coronavirus stretch to 2021.

He revealed the organisation has instituted salary cuts - 10 to 15 per cent - for all staff and the president, and the savings would be around US$500,000 based on its current decision to cancel activities until the end of June.

Dainton said the ITTF has benefited from commercialising its properties 20 years ago and its reliance on International Olympic Committee (IOC) funding has gone from 80 per cent to less than 20 per cent.

Depending on their category, the 28 international federations of Olympic sports were supposed to receive substantial funds from the IOC after Tokyo 2020.

Table tennis is in the third of five tiers and was expecting US$17 million.

Meanwhile, more than 60 per cent of the ITTF's income comes from its commercial properties such as the World Championships, World Cups and World Tour events.

Dainton added: "Even if there is some small reduction because of the postponement of the Olympics, it won't have a major impact on our overall financial situation. But if the Olympics is cancelled, then there will be a relatively bigger impact.

"We are hopeful the virus is contained soon. If we can have our events towards the end of the year, then we don't see a very significant impact.

"But if we can't have events in 2020, then we really have to look to cut back a lot more on our costs."