Tables in public spaces

Active environments

Placing ping pong tables in public locations not only gives Ping! a public profile, but through the creation of active environments attracts people who didn’t know they wanted to play, making the game totally accessible to all. Tables in public spaces such as parks, open spaces and high streets can also spark new partnerships and activation opportunities locally.

Tables in public spaces significantly help engage large numbers of people into playing and supports specific locations/communities, particularly inner city or rural communities with limited access to spaces to play or other sport/physical activity facilities. In summary, tables can:

• Create visible and accessible places to play
• Choose high profile locations or places of strategic importance
• Integrate with existing attractions and street furniture
• Link into existing community networks
• Give the project a public presence

How to create great locations

We’ve helped to create hundreds of public tables since Ping! began. We haven’t always got it right, but following steps outlined in our How to Ping your City Guide will certainly help you create the public locations that align with your project goals.

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How to pitch the value of Ping! to landowners

To be able to place tables in your preferred locations you’ll need to get permission from the landowner and other nearby organisations.

To be able to place tables in your preferred locations you’ll need to get permission from the landowner and other nearby organisations.

Public tables are often located in town squares, shopping streets or shopping centres, train stations or bus terminals, in parks and public gardens, outside arts and cultural institutions. For each location there will be different decision-makers that you need to get on board before you have the permission you need. It’s important you’re able to present a compelling reason for them to say yes, overcome some of the reservations they may have, and show them how the table will help them achieve their goals too.

Needless to say, different organisations have different perspectives, so you’ll need to be nimble in the way you approach these conversations. Using our experience, you can find tips to help you get a positive response within our How to Ping your City guide.

Table Kit & Equipment

Ping! is a large national project which means we’re able to negotiate significant discounts on all the equipment that’s ordered for it. Each year we have an agreement with a preferred equipment supplier for Ping!, and a range of quality equipment for the project is available to order.

The type of tables you choose will wholly depend upon where they’re going. The static tables (semi permanent/permanent) are designed to remain out all day and night, whereas the rollaway tables will need to be stored at night or locked in a secure area. All our Ping! tables are Ping! branded, wheelchair accesible and disability friendly.

The number of tables you need depends entirely on the size of your project and your budget. We suggest that if you want to make a real impact you’ll need to have a good table presence and a good split between static and rollaway tables.

The bats and balls supplied for Ping! are suitable for indoor and outdoor use. Bats are robust, able to withstand elements and offer a good playing experience for social players. This is important because we always recommend that bats and balls are left out on tables so people can simply pick them up and play.

Table Minders, Hosts and Adoptions

The lead partner is responsible for all aspects of delivery including making sure everything is safe and has suitable Public Liability Insurance in place and tables are stocked up. for the latter, useful to consider recruiting volunteers to act as table ‘minders’ who visit tables and manage welfare of tables.

We recommend you formally donate tables to other partners who then take on the responsibility for the upkeep and insurance of the tables. If adoption is not possible then you can ask for other organisations to ‘host’ the tables for you. It is important that you have an agreement in place with these hosts that they will undertake the necessary health and safety checks and notify you of any issues. There are some template forms for download below.

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Delivery and installation

We will work with you to provide the supplier with full and detailed information of where tables need to be delivered. You will be asked to complete a table delivery form and to return this to us so we can confirm your table and equipment delivery with the supplier.

We strongly advise you get your tables delivered to their final location to avoid having to relocate these tables yourselves. Once assembled, Ping! tables are time consuming and bulky to move so try to keep this to a minimum. Please note, Table Tennis England do not carry out groundworks or installation.