The Australian Open, which is receiving great attention, is in full swing. Chinese Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen won a thrilling victory over the 18-year-old Todoni in the first round of the competition. For Zheng Qinwen, this not only earned her 70 points but also a prize of 900,000 yuan. With just one match played, Zheng Qinwen has already earned 900,000 yuan. Many fans are amazed that Zheng Qinwen's income from winning one game is equivalent to what Sun Yingsha earns in half a year.
Indeed, last year, Sun Yingsha, ranked first in the world in women's singles and mixed doubles in table tennis, only earned 1.71 million yuan in prize money. Let's take a look at the events Sun Yingsha participated in last year. From the beginning of last year until the Chongqing Championship before the Olympics, Sun Yingsha was almost fully present. Including the Busan Team World Table Tennis Championships, Singapore Grand Slam, Macau World Cup, Saudi Arabia Grand Slam, and Chongqing Championship, Sun Yingsha did not miss any of them. At the Paris Olympics, Sun Yingsha even competed in three events. After the Olympics, Sun Yingsha also participated in the Macau Championship, China Grand Slam, and Asian Championships. After the Asian Championships, due to injury, Sun Yingsha missed the European Frankfurt and French Championships. These were the only few events she missed. At the end of the year, Sun Yingsha also competed in the year-end finals and the Chengdu Mixed Team World Cup! However, throughout the year, Sun Yingsha only earned 1.71 million yuan in prize money.
In contrast, Zheng Qinwen, who participated in the Australian Open and successfully won the first round, received a prize of 900,000 yuan. This amount is already more than half a year's worth of prize money for Sun Yingsha. The gap in prize money is too big! Are the gaps between these two sports really that big? Not necessarily! Coach Liu Guoliang needs to reform!
According to media reports, there is a set of data. Last year's China Grand Slam event had ticket sales and sponsorship revenue, with WTT earning nearly 100 million yuan. However, the athletes' prize money portion was only more than 10 million yuan. In other words, the athletes' prize money accounts for only a small part of the total event revenue. This situation is definitely unreasonable!
The broadcast copyright fee for this year's Australian Open is 35 million Australian dollars. However, the total prize money given to the athletes has reached 96 million Australian dollars, nearly three times the copyright fee. The copyright fee for the China Open table tennis tournament is close to 30 million yuan, while the prize money the athletes receive is only about half of the copyright fee. Comparing the two, the gap is indeed quite large!
As the chairman of WTT, Coach Liu Guoliang bears the responsibility of creating more income for the athletes. However, under the current circumstances, it seems that this is not the case. And Olympic champions Fan Zhendong, Chen Meng, and Ma Long have even withdrawn from the world rankings due to this, which is detrimental to the development of table tennis! It's time for Coach Liu Guoliang to take action!