Jordan Schlachter has been named the chief business officer of Major League Table Tennis (MLTT).
The former XFL CBO has been hired to oversee all commercial and marketing activities for the nation’s first pro table tennis league. Schlachter, who is the league’s first chief business officer, will be responsible for driving business development and expanding the league’s presence both domestically and internationally. MLTT recently wrapped up its inaugural season and has begun filling out its leadership team by hiring veteran sports execs like Schlachter to build on its first year in market.
“This isn’t a two to three-year mission for us,” Schlachter said in an interview. “This is a long-term goal in which we’re going to reach new milestones every year.”
Schlachter, the founder and former president of THINK450—the for-profit licensing arm for the National Basketball Players Association—spent four years at the NBPA before going to the XFL in 2019. The longtime sports marketing executive steps into the role as MLTT looks to leverage the excitement of its inaugural season, which ended with table tennis championships in Chicago in April.
A former senior executive at the United States Olympic Committee, Schlachter believes the nimbleness of MLTT will help it reach its potential as it can make alterations to its business model quickly. The upstart league, which plans to expand from its eight-team structure, looks to draw more attendance with a goal of reaching more than 10,000 fans, which would be comparable to turnouts at table tennis events in countries in Europe and Asia.
“The truth is most of the general population in the U.S. don’t know much about our players,” he said. “We want to introduce our players to the general population, get them vested and interested and have them learn.”
Led by YouTube, MLTT reports it drew over 1 million highlight streams during its first season from more than 100 countries while gaining a list of sponsors that includes Manscaped, Flywire and Paddle Palace.
Schlachter, who also serves as an advisor for FansView and Branded Hospitality, says the league is having ongoing talks with media partners and distributors as it wrangles for a stronger broadcast deal. In the meantime, MLTT is set to be featured prominently on ESPN’s Ocho Day in early August before the second season officially starts in September.
With the help of Schlachter, MLTT looks to leverage excitement around the sport from the upcoming Paris Olympics to draw more attention to the pro league. MLTT, a single-entity league which has already sold multiple franchises, wants to continue to showcase its top stars and grow viewership and sponsorship revenue ahead of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, which will be the first Summer Games in the U.S. since 1996.
“Our priorities are partnerships, ticket sales, attendance and distribution,” Schlachter said. “But for a league that just started a year ago from scratch, I think we have accomplished some extraordinary milestones and have set ourselves up.”
