April 16, 2015

U.S. Training Center Economy

At the recent USATT Board meeting I was asked by Carl Danner, chair of the USATT High Performance Committee, if I'd ever considered just how large the table tennis training center economy is in the U.S. It's a good question.

We're talking about full-time training centers. As recently as 2006 there were only 8-10 in the whole country. Now there are almost 80. A full-time club is very different from a typical club, especially in terms of budget. Your average part-time club gets most of its revenue from membership and perhaps a few tournaments. These numbers are probably dwarfed by the revenue (and expenses) of a full-time club.

I started the Maryland Table Tennis Center (along with Cheng Yinghua and Jack Huang) in 1992. For the first ten years or so I knew everything about the budget. In fact, for most of those years I was the sole owner. But for the last dozen or more years I've stayed out of the finances, and really haven't seen a budget. (I only coach, including a number of group sessions, and do the newsletter, promotional work, and other miscellaneous stuff.) But anyone who observes the activities can make an estimate of the budget of MDTTC or any other training center. So let's do that, and see just how big the table tennis training center economy is in the U.S. I'm only going to look at revenue here and not worry about expenses.

Let's say the average, generic training center has ten tables and four full-time coaches. (MDTTC normally has 16 tables - can go to 18 - with eight full-time coaches plus several part-time ones, but it's one of the larger ones, though by no means the largest.) Below are some rough estimates for a typical full-time training center. We could spend all day trying to get the numbers just right, but I'm at least in the ballpark with these numbers. (I'm probably a little on the rosy side, since I'm thinking about a typical successful full-time training center.) For perspective, USATT has annual income of about $1,700,000 - roughly the budget of one of the larger training centers.

Typical Full-time Training Center Revenue

Memberships
150 adult members at $300 each = $45,000
50 junior members at $200 each = $10,000
12 family memberships at $500 each = $6,000
TOTAL Membership: $61,000

Daily Fees (for non-members)
2 per night, $10 each, 350 nights/year = $7000

Private Coaching Fees
4 coaches, 40 hours/week at $40/hour, 50 weeks = $320,000

Group Coaching
4 classes/week, 50 weeks, 15 people, at $20 each = $60,000

Training Camps
6 one-week camps per year, 20 players at $200 each = $24,000

Tournaments
4 tournaments/year, 70 entries, $60/entry = $17,000

Leagues (free to members - a membership incentive)
2 leagues/week, 10 non-members at $10 each, 50 weeks = $10,000

Parties
10 per year, $200 each = $2000

Equipment
$100/night, 350 nights per year = $35,000

Refreshments (snacks and drinks)
$40/day, 350 days = $14,000
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TOTAL: $550,000/year
80 Training Centers x $550,000 = $44,000,000 in Revenue
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