Greetings, From The Star Online today, Tuesday 18-December-2007. ====== ====== start article ====== ====== Female badminton winners to get same purse as the men By RAJES PAUL PETALING JAYA: Women shuttlers received a tremendous boost when the Badminton World Federation (BWF) decided to award equal prize money for the men and women winners in next year’s Super Series circuit. The decision to give the men and women equal treatment was agreed during the BWF’s council meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday. Datuk Punch Gunalan BWF deputy president Datuk Punch Gunalan said that benefits for the badminton players were the main issue in several decisions made by the council in the one-week meeting. “It was high time that the women were given due recognition. We have a lot of women participation and we want to put them on an equal footing with the men,” said Gunalan. “We are looking at doing this as soon as possible next year. “There will be a slight change in the distribution of the prize money to ensure that men and women get the same amount.” Gunalan said that BWF had already given emphasis for the women by separating the Uber Cup and Thomas Cup in 2010. “We want the women to have their own tournament. In 2010, the Uber Cup will be held at a different place to give it prominence.” The council also agreed to establish an athletes’ commission with one of their members given the right to vote for the very first time. “The council have agreed on this. Now, this proposal has to be endorsed during the annual general meeting because it involves changes in our constitution,” he said. At the council meeting, the BWF also agreed to name London as the hosts for the 2011 World Championships. In a bid to strengthen their administration arm, BWF will recruit three key senior persons for the post of secretary general, commercial director and director of development. The council have also agreed to call for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) in early 2008. ====== ====== end article ====== ====== Isn't this GREAT for our women Badminton players ? Cheers... chris@ccc ***
But not so great for the MS and MD players, who will get less money because of that. In the long run I think it will hurt the sport, by actually creating less incentives for the most popular events (MS/MD).. The most fair way to solve this would be different tours for MS,MD and WS,WD,XD.. Tennis is a succesful example with ATP, WTA etc. WS could even be higher prices! if it is more popular and more commercial than MS! But I beleive that today MS and MD have much higher commercial value than WS,WD, so to me it seems totaly sexist to not let the prize money be proportional to the commercial value of the event!! If we want badminton to grow we need prizemoney to go up.. and the best way as i see it to get better price money in both Women event and Mens event would be to have separate tours! /twobeer
Commercial value = Entertainment value ? Agree with you when we are talking about Tennis Tournaments... as we can see that the MS and MD events held on different days from the WS and WD events. But for Badminton in 2008, we will still be seeing all events, MS, MD, WS, WD and XD, all playing on the same day. And yes... WS could even be higher prices! if it is more popular and more commercial than MS! It would be interesting to see how our Badminton Tournaments/Events will evolve in years to come. When you are talking about the commercial value, you are talking about the entertainment value of a particular event...Am I correct ??? Cheers... chris@ccc ***
Commercial value for me is the value for ticket-sales, media-rights and sponsorship deals.. In most cases, I guess, that will be proportionally correlated to the entertainment value for the fans, players and viewers for a given event Cheers, Twobeer
Equal Prize Money for Men and Women in SS tournaments? Equal Prize Money for Men and Women in SS tournaments has been mooted. Discuss.
I support the equal prize money in terms of encouraging more women to take up professional badminton. Yes, WS and WD may have less appeal commercially but the players work/train just as hard as the their male counterparts. In Asian countries, it's already difficult enough for young women to take up sports professionally(parental disapproval and all). One BJSS WS player said in an intv earlier this year that she wouldnt take up prof Badminton after BJSS, she would concentrate on studies. Reason : Msia women's dept dont get as much support as the men's dept. She didnt go into details of course, not in the media. And that's Msia, where badminton is one of the elit/core sports. That's also why Msia WD coach Cheah Soon Kit couldnt get 2nd WD pair anywhere near WPT/CEH standard. Every now & then a WS/WD will quit the sport to focus on "academic excellence". Who knows how many talented girls we have lost over the years. Boys do quit but less often than the girls. So, at least there is some motivation for the good female badminton players to remain in the sport and not quit, with or without parental pressure. Many parents still hold the view badminton is a man's sport, not suitable for girls to go into professionally (Dance sport, Gymnastics are 'girly' sports)
Well, you can't really expect the prize money to reflect "how hard youve worked/trained"... I am sure there are lots of players who work even harder but lacks the talent to make it to the top.. Would anyone argue that a player never reaching the final rounds should be payed equal, because he/she put in as much or more effort as the winners ????? Don't get me wrong here! It's GOOD with more prize money to women badminton pro's BUT i feel it bad to take those from the mens prize money. I think the commercial success of Women badminton first have to be established (by separate tour etc), before we lower mens price sums and increase womens in pro badminton! Look what the success of Kournikova, Sharapova etc. did for russain female Tennis... This thinking of equal money and "sharing the small cake", is frustrating in my view.. The important thing would be to focus to GROW the CAKE (Ie get bigger price money overall!!) And the best way to start raising the bar would be to separate the tour so for example the MS Malaysian open would be a $200.000 event just for MS!!! And maybe $100.000 for WS..(or $300.000 if it is better sponsorship, more spectators etc) That would be more for the men and more for he women would get by splitting $200.000 on five torunaments in one MS,MD,XD,WS,WD... /Twobeer
I have to agree that it is unfair for the MS, MD and MXD. While the WS and WD games are exciting sometimes, I think more fans come to see the MS, MD and MXD more because there's more exciting rallies going on. Audience are more in ohhhh and awwws about the mens smashing power, trick shots and etc. But I'm wondering how are they going to make the payout of the women the same as the men. For example: If the World Championship currently pays out 20K to MS and 15K for WS, are they going to raise the womens winning to 20K which increase the overall tournament payout. Or reduce the MS pay to 17.5K and raise the WS payout to 17.5K. This way the tournament payout stays the same but the payout to Mens and Womens equal. If that's the case then I think it's really unfair to the mens.
Review of the Super Series Prize Money Distribution for 2007 . Just 1 day short of 1 year ago, Loh did a review/study of the Super Series Prize Money Distribution for 2007. The thread is located at: http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39211 And in that thread, I was commenting that if female players are good enough to challenge men players, should they be allowed to play in the Mens events, if these female players want to earn bigger purse money ??? .
I don't know what's the more interesting bit of the story - the bit about equal prize money to both genders or that about guys in badminton carrying purses.
I think women are entitled to participate in mens event in Olympics, if I remember correctly (but men are not allowed in the womens event though.. Highly discriminating ) If we are serious about "true" equality between sexes then most tournament would be "unlimited" just one class Singels... period . But just as there is paraolympics etc, it makes sense to have Women WC etc, as the geenes give them a physiological big disadvantage against men. But equal prizer money... naaah /Twobeer
The price money in mens singles is a joke!!!! It must add one or two zeroes at the end before badminton can get really big!!! Reaching the semis, probably not even covers the travel cost for a player and a coach!!! /Twobeer
Money definitely not there, even if male and female players get same prize money. I thought LD would be very rich after winning paycheck after paycheck. Just realize they're drops in a bucket comparing to stars of other sports, like tennis. This may explain why players are always on SS tour to earn a little more. Prize money may not be much incentive for either women or men to be professional players, but they may join for the pride to represent his/her country. Besides prizes money, do we know how much stipend players receive from their respective countries to support their activity, especially someone who may have potential, but not good enough to earn any prizes yet?
What Badminton is going through now is what Tennis was going through in the 1960's . Yes... The prize money for Badminton is really nothing at the present moment. This is why National Associations are still required to help pay for their players' expenses. And, it is always the pride for players to represent his/her country. But we should not be that disappointed for Badminton. Badminton is just some years behind Tennis. What Badminton is going through now is what Tennis was going through in the 1960's. .
I support to have equal prize money for men and women. But just for the sake of argument, I'm not sure differential prize money discouraged female from becoming professionals since only the top few players will ever receive prizes. I think the problem may have more to do with whether they receive financial support on a regular basis, that's their bread and butter. I doubt most professional badminton players have additional source of income, like commercial endorsement or sponsorship to live on.
Commercial endorsement or sponsorship for Badminton players . I believe that, for Badminton, the commercial endorsements or sponsorships actually go to the players' National Associations. Perhaps, this has been changed lately. .
I honestly think that female badminton players should recieve the same amount of money as the male players. I am male just to make that clear just now. 1. They play in the same tournaments against their own gender 2. They play the same amount of games and points I'd say it's only fair Liam
With that logic women should actually be payed MORE, as their games usually drag on much longer in WD and WS... (if its kind of a pay per workinghour model we should use... as you suggest would be a fair model ) My assumption is that most of the ticket revenues and sponsorship money comes from fans interested in watching the mens event, therefore I think it logical that the price money should reflect this.. Not reflecting this is unfair, as I see it /Twobeer
