you guys are tempting me If i do go it will be to watch the canadian open which had not been held in my hometown since 1992 and 1993. Hope i could get plane tickets this late.
Hello, Are there any good female players in Canada? I think most of badminton players are male players.
use to, last reign was denise julien but she is now in her mid 40's and might play mix double in this Cdn Open. I still couldn't find the teams and players in badminton canada website. On a side note, i saw lot of exposure about the Canadian Senior lawn bowling touranment in Courtney, Vancouver, in September but no Cdn badminton open. Yes, even lawn bowling get more exposure than badminton here. I blame this squarely on badminton canada. Look at this from their webpage. Prize Money: At present, Badminton Canada is unable to provide a prize purse for the 2003 Canadian International, but will apply sponsorship funds to a prize purse if possible. pathetic isn't it?
You can find the list of Canada Open participants in Badminton bc web page http://www.badmintonbc.com/. For a while I thought it was BC Open. Interesting isn't it?
thanks guys. maybe the reason why it is in BC badminton site, badminton canada can't afford it so BC might have chip in the bulk of the funding. No wonder some people here keep referring it as BC open, not cdn open.
At least they are upfront of the lack of prize money this year. In prior years, rumour has it that prize money owed was never paid out....
The comments above are spot on and reflect the apathy of badminton in Canada at the top level. Ever heard of the saying: “Money talks and bullshit walks”? Funding for badminton from the Canadian government is close to being ridiculous; and badminton is not alone. This sport is one of, if not the last, wheel in the cog….and it isn’t squeaking loud enough. Proper funding for professional sports has always come from private sources and in order to attract and secure adequate level of long term funding from sponsors, Badminton Canada, or for that matter anyone else, must have a solid business plan. A few years ago, Badminton Canada organized an exhibition in Toronto where some world class players from Denmark were invited to display their skills. I was shell-shocked to discover that the price of the tickets were a pittance ($5 to $10, maybe at $10, I am pushing it). I don’t know whether to feel sorry or angry for our national players who have put in so much time, effort and sacrifice to get to where they are…and find out that to watch them perform, it may well be less than $5 for a half day’s event. It’s a joke! For the information of those who are not from Canada, we have to pay up to and sometimes in excess of $500 for “front” row seats at an NBA game at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. Where is the motivation in badminton as a sport for our national and younger players? I think that this isolated but very critical example says it all. Badminton is the second most played sport in the world behind, you guessed it, soccer, which I have been told was at its grass roots level some twenty years ago in Canada. Look at where it is today. The population demographics in Canada have been for some time a microcosm of the world’s nations and we do have a good base of people from the countries where badminton is very popular. We are also fortunate to have attracted some ex-world and national champions to Canada; I am aware of three who are coaching in Ontario and Alberta. I am sure there are more. The question is whether we (and I do not know who the “we” is) sit and wait for the Federal Government or Badminton Canada to do something concrete and constructive (which is plenty wishful thinking) or private sources will take over and do the job, maybe in partnership with Badminton Canada for political reasons. Coming back to this year’s Canadian Open, I had a look at the list of participants and it does reflect the lack (or absence) of prize money. Hello! Why of course we are competing with the Malaysian Open for players. Yeah! The list is also devoid of some decent players from east Canada. Lack of prize money, sending a message or cheap tickets? For the volunteers (the ones without pay) at Badminton Canada, we all should thank you for your dedication and efforts, and for the ones who are on-the-payroll, you should be ashamed of yourselves. Point finale!