NEWS : SUPER SERIES : Malaysia among Super Series hosts

**seven** · 10-21-2003, 03:04 AM

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia have been earmarked to host one of the legs of the International Badminton Federation's (IBF) new Super Series elite tournaments.

The IBF vice-president, Datuk Punch Gunalan, said yesterday that on-going discussions with sponsors were expected to end in December and the Super Series could start in 2005.

Besides Malaysia, the other countries listed as hosts for the circuit, modelled after the ATP's tennis Masters series, are Indonesia, China, South Korea, Denmark and England.

“The hosts are subject to the approval by the sponsors. There will be a Grand Slam Finals, just like in tennis,” said Gunalan.

The Super Series is among the moves drawn up by the IBF to ensure that the sport can attract a bigger following.

“We are upgrading our tournaments and we want to offer better prize money and see better participations in the Super Series,” said Gunalan.

“The tournaments are aimed at getting better television coverage. If everything goes well with our sponsors, we will introduce the Super Series in 2005.”

**Tezta.com** · 10-21-2003, 03:07 AM

Now THIS is good news

***Cheung*** · 10-21-2003, 04:31 AM

grand slam

wrong guesses for tournaments

Badmintoncentral grand slam

**david14700** · 10-21-2003, 04:36 AM

Look at golf and tennis and see how much more coverage they get because of the Major tournaments. I'm sure on the main networks, the majors get more coverage than all the other tournaments combined.

I would love to see in my own lifetime, a badminton player get a winner's prize cheque for $500,000 like in tennis or golf. These days the big tournament winners in tennis and golf can get $1 million (Ernie Els won this much last week).

The only thing that worries me is that the Super Series so far planned are all in countries where badminton is already big. How will that help develop badminton in countries like the US?

**seven** · 10-21-2003, 06:18 AM

I think these Super Series could be good, there are too many equivalent events (5* or 6*) at the moment and none of them is really important enough to get a really big media coverage...

***Cheung*** · 10-21-2003, 07:52 AM

Originally posted by david14700
The only thing that worries me is that the Super Series so far planned are all in countries where badminton is already big. How will that help develop badminton in countries like the US?

Theoretically, it would be easier to get sponsorship of appropriate amounts of money for the mentioned countries.

Thus generate more interest first and see if the concept works, before trying to export an unworkable idea to places like US or Canada.

I wonder if six tournaments are too many for a superseries?

A big step forward is making the world championships a yearly event. That gives greater flexibility in sharing out which countries can host a wrold championships.