Do you know which of the SS countries gives the highest prize money (in US$)? Korea - $300K! (Despite the forthcoming attempt to throw out the Korean President of BWF) And which European country with a strong badminton background in the past dishes out only $5K as prize money? Sweden! :crying: It is just like a first-world country paying third-world wages. Here is the pecking order: Super Series $300K - Korea $250K - Indonesia and Hong Kong $200K - Malaysia, England, Switzerland, Singapore, Japan, China (SS & Masters), Denmark & France. GP Gold $170K - Chinese Taipei $120K - India, Philippines, Thailand & Macau GP $80K - Germany $50K - Bulgaria, USA, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Vietnam & Netherlands International Challenge $35K - Canada (Quebec) $15K - Brazil, Poland, Finland, Netherlands, Spain, France, Vietnam, Canada (Saskatchewan), Belgium, Bulgaria, Korea, Norway, Scotland & Pakistan $ 6K - Slovenia International Series $5K - Sweden, Uganda, Iran, Austria, Croatia, Portugal, Romania, Thailand, Singapore, Nepal, Czech Republic, Jordan, Cyprus, Syria, Hungary, Iceland, Malaysia, Brunei & Wales. As you can see from the above, some countries host two tournaments with prize monies. It would appear that BWF was able to interest hitherto unknown countries to hold international tournaments as the numbers have increased (I think). One very glaring finding is that Asia continues to dominate in terms of both prize monies and the number of tournaments as a great majority belong to the SS and GP Gold categories. Western Europe and the Americas do not seem to make much headway, with the exception of 'newcomers' Portugal and Brazil (?). Similarly with Africa, which can only boast of Uganda. South Africa, which should be the strongest and perhaps the most prosperous, was not in the picture. Eastern European countries seem to show greater interest with names like Bulgaria, Slovenia, Poland, Croatia, Romania, Hungary and Czech Republic. Unfortunately, a strong badminton country like Russia was unable to obtain support. Maybe they still have not quite sorted out some internal problems. To me names like Vietnam (especially), Pakistan, Iran, Nepal, Jordan, Cyprus, Syria, Iceland, Brunei and the Eastesrn European countries are a welcome sight. And to see the Philippines catapulting to the GP Gold level is a sight to behold! From the BWF information, the following highlights were revealed: 1. November is the busiest month with 10 tournaments with prize monies ranging from $5K to $250K. 2. September is the most lucrative with prize monies totalling $760K (2 SS and 3 GP), followed closely by June ($745K comprising 2 SS and 2 GP). 3. May 11-18 will see the top qualified countries fighting for the Thomas and Uber Cups in Jakarta. After that the professionals may be able to win some money sponsored by KLRC for the Bulgaria Open Grand Prix. 4. August will be the most depressing month for badminton professionals with only $15K in the offing in the Indonesian Challenge at Surabaya during the last week. However, it is also the most important for the Beijing Olympics will be held from 8 - 24 and whoever wins the gold medal will be the happiest badminton player and will be richly rewarded by their respective countries. Of course we should expect some dramatic changes to the BWF management and hopefully goodness and progress will result from them. They must try to obtain multi-million contracts for the professionals instead of wasting time, money and effort with in-fighting!
woh!!! thanks for the analysis and summary mr loh. very eye opening. yeah, this year, the one tournament with no apparent cash prize (though i agree their country will gladly give them bonus for winning) will be the one everyone is after. and i am very happy to see all the other non asian country joining the fray and making badminton more popular and making it a feasible career for all badminton players.
Another glaring deficiency is the absence of Australia? Quite unlike a big continent which had hosted the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006! I hope Australia is still interested in badminton. New Zealand, by staging the NZ Open Grand Prix in October with a prize money of $50K seems to be miles ahead for now! Really, lots more has to be done for the Americas, particularly South America. I thought Chile, at least, was in contention! And with so many of our BC friends in the US and Canada, we could only wish more action from those very rich first-world countries. Our friends there deserve more. But we still open our arms always to Mr Rudy Huang, Chris, TwoBeers and company to our Asian shores where action is aplenty!
yeah, australia's lack of a tournament is surprising considering there's some interest in the sport over there.
cheers for the summary Thomas Cup - Uber Cup & especially Olympic are the priority for this year, every athletes dream to win Olympic Gold Medal.
Super Power China! And true to her superpower status, China actually surpassed them all by contributing a total of $770K to the kitty. That is if you include Hong Kong ($250K) and Macau ($120K, maybe the casinoes are really generous) to China's two very own SS of $200K each (the SS and the Masters)! So is it deserving if China wins most of the top badminton honours?
Prize monies come mainly from International TV rights . Australian administrators have this type of thinking... If only we we can produce a world champion, then Badminton will take off. So, our Badminton administrators here are spending quite a big proportion of our government funds to train/support elite players (so I have been told). However, I believe that our funds should be spent on getting more people to play Badminton, like building more facilities, promoting Badminton in schools, giving more financial support to clubs, etc... I believe that if we can get more people playing, a talented player will surely appear. Going back to our topic...... In Australia, tournament prize monies mainly come from commercial sponsorships(smaller %) and from television rights(larger %). Look at our Australian Tennis Open. It is one of the 4 Grand Slam events televised around the world. And the prize monies come mainly from International TV rights. This is because Tennis has become a great sport entertainment now. Even our BWF realises this... therefore introducing the 21 Rally Point Scoring System, just to be more television friendly. Look at our Olympic Games...... monies are pouring in via television rights throughout the world. .
Seems Russian Open tournament will be absent this year?! I think both Asian Continental Championship and European Championship also included in GP Gold level.
Yes, both will be held in April at about the same time. The ACC has a prize money of $125K to be held in Johor Baru, Malaysia and the EC to be held in Herning, Denmark, is put down as GP Gold level which should not be less than $120K. However, it seems both do not carry WR Points as they are not open to everybody as in the SS and other tournaments.
I think they Olympics points also...thats why both are held in April......INA will send full force to Asian Champiosnhip as last event to get more Olympics points...
oh good, lately it seems that most of the top asian players are skipping the ABC, but as this is an olympic year, there's a mad rush for points. why is it always held in malaysia though?
The problem in those very huge, very rich countries is that even if they have the biggest tournaments you can think of, for each lowly badminton player - apart from a few lucky locals - it costs sooo much to get there. I loved badminton in '85 but even if we'd even had the Internet or some other miracle by which one could actually be informed of such a bizarre event happening 2600km away, I wouldn't have been able to dream of flying there for the World Championships. All the same, I join you in wishing. Perhaps the reason BC seems to have so many more members from North America than from the other English-speaking countries is that so many of them feel like they're badminton islands. I know I do when I spend a summer in a county where every club has shut down since May and no one around will even think of badminton until September. To get back on topic, Korea has its reasons for offering the most money. Prospective spectators aside, you have the combination of big, rich, local companies, high hopes for the strong local team, and a short tournament history giving rise to the incentive to prove itself and grow.
yup, but my question is, why is it always held in malaysia and not some other asian country for a change?
ok thanks, i was just curious as to why malaysia seemed to have a monopoly on the event. it seems fairer for the venue to be rotated every year between say, MAS, SIN, JAP, KOR, CHN, THA, INA etc ....
I agree with you, Dreamzz! I would even give priority to up and coming badminton countries like: Phillipines, Vietnam, India, Iran, etc... I was about to list Pakistan, but... errr... Anyway, the point is... better to spread some more badminton excitement out there in the badminton-developing countries... rather than the badminton powerhouses [like Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Korea etc.]... People in the powerhouses won't love badminton much much more by seeing an Asian Championship in their neighbourhood... They already love badminton so much...
Hey Chris, I agree w/ your point enthusiastically. Recently in Canada they increased the funding significantly for elite athlete's very much as a reaction to the success of the Australian model. I can't help feel though that they missed the boat in some ways to develop the infrastructure and feeder system for these elite athletes. The xtra $$ did little to fix organizational and grass roots limitations. Specifically, Badminton Canada reliance on the same training methods and approaches haven't changed. Not suprisinly neither has our countries badminton performance. I have a feeling loading all the resouces onto the top is just going to create a vaccuum of new talent 5-10 yrs down the line. We may have sacrificed the future for the present. *sigh
