'Traditionally', the All England is held in March. apparently, the All England is shown less and less on public TV. There are numerous clashes with other sports such as rugby. March is also a time when the weather can be bad. Is there an argument for trying to move the All England to a summer date? Perhaps a time where it is less busy on the sporting calendar. Certainly a time outside of the football season would make a good start. The present period of tennis' French Open, Queens' club tournament and Wimbledon is not a good time either. Thus, perhaps a rethink of the whole idea of badminton having a 'season' can be reconsidered. Maybe the club matches continue in their present time frame. In the available, time of May Jun Jul Aug, schedule relatively more county tournaments. Junior players would benefit by not having to travel to so many tournaments during important school time(after exams). Why should badminton be played as a season? One present scenario is that the singles players get to rest over summer, they rest so much, they can't get fit again!! I read a lot about English badminton going downhill and how there isn't the interest. Definately badminton cannot compete against football or rubgy in March. Maybe it can do against cricket in the summer. A move of the AE date would entail IBF approval, but not the internal calendar. (just throwing around a couple of ideas )
The Oz experience: Our national Basketball league tried the move from winter to summer to avoid competition with our Aussie Football league, which we are nearly as rabid about as Pommes are about soccer. Our summer sports are traditionally tennis and cricket. Has it worked? Can't really say it has, I'm not a big follower of bball but given that the games are no longer broadcast every week, they were lacking a major sponsor for a while and there's always talk of a couple of teams folding, I'd say they aren't doing that well. However ... I've never understood why badminton is a winter sport in the UK? I mean it hardly ever gets really hot or humid (by Aussie/asian standards) and I quite like playing in warmish halls rather than freezing cold ones. I think baddy would be much more pleasant in an English summer than winter. PS we have both summer and winter seasons here, though the summer season is much less popular, but that's understandable given the heat and humidity.
I am constantly frustrated at this badminton is a winter sport attitude. Many club players view the end of March as the season end and won't pick up a racket again until Sept. A secondary problem is that many badminton players, where I am at least, also play tennis and so as soon as the weather is better they are off to tennis. I don't think moving badminton to summer would particularly help for TV and media pruposes, on terrestrial TV there is little football or rugby now, badminton still won't get a look in past the AE or worlds. For tournament purposes I agree the season should be spread more. There are often clashes between domestic events. For istance these are pnly 2 grand slams in a year, the last clashed with the Korean open, the european juniors and a domestic event, resulting in a very weak field. Moving that event outside the "season" would be better surely, since all the top players train year round. Last couple years the All England was shown on terrestrial tv , a highlights package a week later, the satellite TV coverage has been reduced year on year.
Any possibility that the Premier League moving into the end season had anything to do with this? I only heard of Hafiz winning the All England this year from the papers, while I was engrossed in the Arsenal-Man Utd tussle on the EPL. It's a pity we don't get live telecasts of badminton matches in Malaysia anymore, more so, the All-England. *sigh*
Football comes first second and third regardless of the actual game! Even now the top news items are football injuries, speculation on transfers and haircuts! Even on weekend when there was no other sport you will see showjumping, cycling, swimming, gymnastics but no badminton. Even curling seems to have secured increased TV coverage due to olympic medals, and thats about as exciting as watching someone mop the floor! Even in England you will find a token article in the broadsheet newspapers (upmarket) detailing our chances or interviewing Archer etc. Then a couple of lines reporting on English progress and maybe the final results. Even when we won the mixed title there was no coverage. "All England" doesn't mean anything to UK people outside the real fans.
Give it a try I think it's not a bad idea to move around the date of All England if the current one clashes with some major sport events which preceed badminton popularity. Do whatever to prolong or enhence the popularity of this sport as it has been steadily going downhill in TV coverage point of view. Lets just hope badminton can stay in future Olympics!
It does annoy me that the badminton season is so short in England. Having a break for "summer" is pointless - this goes from about March to September, as has been said already. This is a joke, because the two seasons in England are Winter and July (also been said before). I play a bit of tennis, and this can really help build the arm up for a really powerful smash in badminton next season. Other than that, tennis is nowhere near as fast . As for badminton on TV in England, try never!
My implication is that if the AE was moved to a "summer" period, would the potential coverage be improved. After all, being in competition with football and rugby and and having been so for 5, 10, 15 plus years has not improved the situation. So now is it time for a more radical rethink of tactics? Pecheur thinks that it may not help. Then again, with the history of a tournament running back more than 100 years being treated as it is, why not try? At least, it seems there is little to lose on the surface!
Typical grandstand (terrestrial bbc weekend sports programme all afternoon at weekends) conatins no football coverage (satellite hold the rights, no cricket (on rival channel) limited rugby, basically most of the prestige sports events are on sky. As I said they show minority sports like cross country running, mountain biking , climbing, etc and yet badminton still only gets 1-2 hours highlight, and in some recent years not even that! They could try moving but the bbc will show anything before badminton.
dlp is right. You hardly see badminton on TV over here, even though we have some top juniors coming through and really could do with the media attention. I still dont think people can understand the abilities and skills needed for badminton. Like dlp says, Grandstand which usually runs over the weekends, shows everything apart from badminton. I dont think moving it will be any good, there are many sports they show first and concider badminton will be a sport that will not make them money, when i feel it could be a new market for them to persue. If only Grandstand show it, then how many UK badminton players would switch on to BBC and watch it? Thousands! Matt
