**I'm just posting this here for more exposure... I have nothing to do with organizing or promoting this event. "Sign up now for the experience of a lifetime! This unique "two events-in-one" event brings three of the world's best Badminton players (and Table Tennis) in the world to Vancouver to compete for $20,000 in prize money PLUS the opportunity, for you, to play in the first tournament in the Richmond Olympic Oval!" MORE INFO: http://www.badmintonbc.com/news_item.aspx?id=19668
Taufik & Gade to play in Richmond, BC - Apr/09 Chance of a lifetime for badminton fans in our part of the world to witness two of the greats of badminton: Taufik Hidayat & Peter Gade. See them duke it out at the Richmond Olympic Oval in April/09. I wish this was promoted better. I'm getting no personal gain from this but hope to generate more interest for the sake of badminton. Here is a direct link: www.racketrally.net
Jo Novita and TH's hitting partner, also ex-INA player, Wimpie will be joining too... Jo may move to Canada by next year...apparently Badminton Canada is very aware of it...the players will arrive on April 1 (April's fool day)...
This friendly tourney with great players are great, but it's a bit too expensive. It's over $100 to sit at court sides, and $33 to sit at who knows how far from the game...It's hard to promote the game when the tickets are so expensive...It'll be the only people who are die-hard badminton players to purchase instead of people who are getting started or have semi-interest in the sport...If they are trying to promote the sport in America or even in BC, they are not doing a good job. I can bet that the people who will be watching the tourney, it will be those familiar faces around the city of Vancouver, instead some raw faces.
Also, they better GUARANTEE that those players play their heart out during the tourney, when the people are paying $$$ to watch...there will be no refund or exchange!....
The Badminton Exhibition in Toronto which was suppose to feature Taufik, but he dropped out creating controversy http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61730
Agreed that this event can be better promoted but now that TH is independent, he gets to decide where he will play. There are prize money for the event and each player (from what I heard) is also guaranteed appearance fees. The event is sponsored by Fairchild Media so would have expected them to probably promote the event on the various media channels that they controlled. One of the problem with purchasing tickets is that Ticketmaster is involved and you know how much they add to the cost of the tickets in terms of service charges. BUT this is a very good opportunity to see two of the greatest singles players in badminton play live!
All of them get appearance money....the winner will get another CAN $ 6000, RUnner up will get Can $ 3000 and the winner of 3rd place will get another CAN $ 1000... AEva Air is also sponsors for this exhibtion...TH and Andre will arrive on April 1 ( April's fool day...)
HKH, Any special deals from Eva Air for tickets? Too bad, Winex didn't sponsor the event otherwise i would be able to score some VIP tickets!
EVA Air gives them free tickets but I am not sure what airlines Gade will be flying..I hope he will not withdraw from exhibition ( he has taken 3 weeks off ) and on time to participate....