I was about the future series and international challenge tournaments and it occurred to me for tournaments, is it really necessary to have all 5 disciplines in a tournament? Can just a men's singles and ladies singles be held? Can a men's doubles/ladies doubles/mixed event be held as a competition with no singles? It is common at amateur level, but what about tournaments where you can get ranking points? Can it be done? Would it free up space on the international calendar. Can we get more events in? Can we have bigger entry draws as a result?
Think it is necessary. At the end of the day, the lower the tournament level, the more likely players will play more than one event (ie playing singles and doubles) I think that by reducing categories especially at Futures and International Series events, you'd actually get less entrants.
is it possible to have an event like that? For example, if there is a prize money of total $30 000. The organizers want to focus on a singles tournament. Would it be possible?
yes, i believe it is possible to have fewer than 5 events. This is implied under regulation 27.4.2. http://www.bwfbadminton.org/file.aspx?id=558275&dl=1
Well, I only speak as a observer and I like having all 5 categories. About the only one I don't watch is XD but I'm sure there are enough fans of it to warrant having it included. The other four, I follow majority if not all the time.
For Superseries, however, all five events must be played, see regulation 6.4. http://www.bwfbadminton.org/file.aspx?id=550414&dl=1
This sounds like a good idea, but I don't think more space will be freed up from the calendar. This is on the assumption that such events will still take one week to finish (from qualification to final). Where I think the reduction of categories would be useful might be in places where certain categories (e.g. singles) aren't popular and don't attract a lot of players to participate. In such cases, it could be more sensible to remove these categories. Or if the audience prefers to watch certain categories, then it might also make sense to reduce the number of categories to attract them to watch and ensure that they won't leave halfway when some other categories are being played. One other good thing that may come out from the reduction of categories could be better prize money, assuming the prize money remains the same. That may attract more players to participate and we could get to see exciting draws. A con of bigger draw - the matches may really drag on till late into the night, especially in the early stages of the competition. Not really ideal for everyone.
