Major League Table Tennis announced Tuesday that it will add two teams for the 2025 season, expanding from eight to 10 clubs next September. MLTT has not yet revealed the locations of the new teams.
The expansion marks the first major initiative since the league secured $5.5 million in strategic investment from over 20 investors in October, including a cash influx from Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment principal David Blitzer and Philadelphia 76ers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey.
“We believe that many leagues expand simply because that’s their only source of capital,” Flint Lane, the league’s founder and commissioner, said in a video interview. “Sometimes they do not have their unit economics working really well, and they get in this loop of selling teams just to fund operations. We wanted to make sure that we had more working components of our league, and we’ve certainly done that.”
Lane said MLTT, the first professional league of its kind in the U.S., didn’t have that foundation ready after its first season in 2022-23. But YouTube viewership has spiked 537% since then, the commissioner added.
Lane and chief business officer Jordan Schlachter said the league is in negotiations for media distribution, potentially creating a presence on linear television in line with more established table tennis leagues across the world.
Team operations for the new franchises will be under the auspices of MLTT, the same as the eight active teams.
“We have the machine down, and right now we’re finding that there’s demand in other cities for these teams,” said Schlachter. “So rather than wait a year or two years, like you see with the WNBA, with NWSL, where the teams have to build their own infrastructures, we are able to provide the infrastructure for the operating of all teams, whether it be eight or whether it be 10.
“The fact that we, from an operations point of view, can out there be representing 10 teams instead of just eight, just makes us more valuable to the potential partners, distribution partners and sponsors.”
MLTT currently has eight teams representing different U.S. markets, with a rotating group of four teams competing against one another in a weekend series of matches around the country. The Florida Crocs, Princeton Revolution, Carolina Gold Rush and Chicago Wind play in the East Division, with the Texas Smash, Portland Paddlers, Seattle Spinners and Bay Area Blasters in the West Division.
Basketball Hall of Famer Manu Ginobili is a member of the Florida Crocs ownership group. Former world No. 1 table tennis player Dima Ovtcharov is part of the ownership group of the Princeton Revolution.
