U know the sad thing about badminton is, no matter how good the ideas we badminton fans are thinking, they always stay as wishful thinking only....No sponsor, no country / national body are interested... ...except at the end, some Chinese cities come out (as they really do a good job in promoting badminton there and able to have support from many business leaders) and BWF will be happy to get a savour... And non-Chinese fans will be moaning why not having it in other part of the world for better promotion of the sports... Who's to blame?
The thing I see is strong corporate/government support from Chinese cities but like in many countries, the spectators just don't show up. Unless you play or are a hardcore fan, badminton just doesn't attract the casual crowd. There needs to be a radical shift in marketing in order to attract these fans.
So now we blame the support from Chinese local govt? The thing I see is that this is better than zero support from neither government nor private sectors in many countries, leaving the badminton sports to deteriorate or fans moaning... Even I could just read limited Chinese, I also read badminton news from China or ask my Chinese friends to translate as there seems to have more interesting badminton news. Check out this one: "http://sports.sina.com.cn/o/2012-05-25/04376074471.shtml" With national support like these, talented athletics would of course turn their back to badminton, how more other countries could produce more good players? Talk about audience and marketing, see from tv that the crowd is back when china team (esp LD) is in action. But scattered when no CHN team. Apart from patriotism, some reporters say the Chinese fans reckon that even their national inter-city/province competitions are better than most competitions amongst non-china teams...
I suggested Australia because the last AUS GPG 2012 was quite successful with good spectator turnout and player participation, maybe chris might like to confirm that. Raising the AUS GPG to Superseries status will have more top class players participating,hence higher publicity,bigger crowd and more and richer sponsors, the last being very important for obvious reason. Besides, Australia is near Asia so,I believe, many crazy badminton fans and supporters from countries such as Indonesia,Malaysia and China will be interested to fly there and watch as part of their holiday plans, thereby helping to boost Aussie tourism to the delight of the local authorities and businesses. As a result, getting sponsors and bidding to host the TUC should be much easier, I hope. Conversely,the conditions for hosting in EU or North America may be less attractive or ideal as compared with Australia. Ultimately, I still think China is the best choice for reasons I need not elaborate. Take snooker,for example,thanks to China and Ding Junhui in particular, the game is surging in popularity with bigger sponsorships and prizemoney.
http://sports.sina.com.cn/o/2012-05-27/19436077851.shtml 刘凤岩：国外办羽毛球赛积极性下降 国内抢着申请 **2012年05月27日19:43**新浪体育微博 新浪体育讯 在武汉汤尤杯比赛结束，中国男女队夺冠后，国家体育总局乒乓球(微博)羽毛球(微博)管理中心主任刘凤岩单独举办了一个发布会，对汤尤杯的比赛组织工作进行了总结。在总结中，刘凤岩给予了武汉当地举办赛事以很高的评价，不过也透露说，“国际羽联出于推广羽毛球考虑，不愿意把羽毛球赛事老给中国办，但是国际上其他国家目前对举办羽毛球赛事的积极性都在下降，只有中国在越来越苛刻的条件下，还在抢着申请。” ....... “此外，这次羽毛球汤尤杯的商业运作非常成功，中国承办过很多顶级羽毛球赛事，几乎现在年年都有，从经费讲，世锦赛、汤尤杯、苏迪曼杯，都是给国际羽联50、60万美元的申办费就够了，这次涨到了100多万美元的申办费。等于涨了一倍多，我们担心举办的城市和政府压力大，不过武汉市政府决心很大，一律给予支持。在开发区和市体育局的精心组织和宣传下，开发了市场。近10年来，单项比赛，不论是汤尤杯还是苏迪曼杯，这次是售票最好的，超过1000万以上，体现了武汉市民的热情，为比赛营造了很好的气氛。电视央视给予了支持，每天都在转播，超过以往。有这些就可以对赛事充分地肯定，积累了办高水平比赛的经验。今后不仅仅是羽毛球，其他项目也会有热情到武汉来举办高级的比赛。” 在记者提问中，一名记者问，据说在后面，中国还要办世锦赛和苏迪曼杯的比赛，为什么会在中国不断集中举办羽毛球赛事？ 刘凤岩说，“各地申请办高级赛事的县市体育局太多了，08年奥运会后，各个地方城市由于经济发展，都盖了漂亮的体育馆，不仅仅满足群众健身需求，也需要顶级赛事推动比赛发展，到我们这里申请。申请的单位很多，我们也不易从世界羽联拿到顶级比赛。世界羽联一共就世锦赛、汤尤杯和苏迪曼杯三个顶级赛事。这些年我们基本上年年都有，就这么几个资源，年年都是在中国搞，而世界上其他国家的热情不像中国这么高。” “从世界羽联这个角度讲，他也是很不情愿给中国，他们想用这些赛事拉动其他落后国家和地区羽毛球的发展。有些国家，像美国、美洲、澳洲、非洲、拉丁美洲这些地方都没有这个积极性；欧洲的积极性也在下降，不像前些年了，一个是他们水平下降，再一个经济也不景气，唯有中国的积极性在上涨，因此我们年年在申办，申办下来再看哪个地方更合适。地理条件，硬件等，综合平衡放在哪里搞好。广州热情非常高，把羽毛球作为城市市球，已经尝到甜头。他们通过举办羽毛球赛事，推动城市羽毛球运动的开展，两者结合得非常好，希望不断举办这样的比赛。尽管国际羽联的条件很苛刻，代价条件很高，也争取了，2013年世界羽毛球赛的5个单项落户在广州，后面我们还会申办，尽量满足中国广大球迷的要求。”(周超)
above article by google's translate: "...China hosted many top badminton tournament almost every year now, speaking from the funds, the World Championship, Thomas-Uber Cup, Sudirman Cup, are to the international BWF 50 to 60 million U.S. dollars bid fee is enough, this rose to more than 100 million U.S. dollars bid fee. equal more than doubled, we are worried that organized by the city and government pressure, but the determination of the Wuhan municipal government , all support the development of the market in the Development Zone and the careful organization of the Municipal Sports Bureau and publicity in the past 10 years, the individual competition, whether it is the Thomas-Uber or Sudirman Cup, this is the best ticket, more than more than 10 million, reflecting the enthusiasm of the people in Wuhan, create a good atmosphere for the game. television CCTV gave support every day in the broadcast, more than ever. can fully affirmed the race, the accumulation of the High Level the game experience. not just badminton, other projects will have the enthusiasm to Wuhan to host high-level game..." Is it correct that now the BIDDING FEE to BWF to host any major (team) event reaches 100 MILLION USD (almost double the previous fees)? If so, no wonder less and less countries are willing to host such major event due to the immense financial burden, esp. amid the worsening economic downturns in the many parts of the world!!! At such fee, I don't think Europe is enthusiastic to host such financially demanding major badminton events, Germany is of no exception even though its economy is still considered as relatively good, for them it's simply a losing biz bet from the onset Let's follow up closely the AFTER event news about the hosting of the 2012 LOG & 2012 Euro in Ukraine & Poland, whether the host countries are making money or not, or they just depleted the already-strained limited budgets (in fact, deficit budgets) and failed to stimulate their declining economies in any significant count. PILING UP DEBT IS JUST DEVASTATING for economy. The world economy is worsening sharply, and the sports, any sport, do not live in their own fantasy universe!
i don't read simplified chinese too well, but if i understand it correctly, Liu says China pays BWF US$1 million for hosting the Thomas/Uber Cup this year. But the ticket sale is RMB10 million. Is that right?
SORRY all, bad google translator, without checking further, i just took their wrong figures the CORRECT numbers should be 500,000 ; 600,000 ; 1,000,000 usd respectively need to always consult with http://fanyi.youdao.com/ and http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php instead of just relying solely to the unreliable google translator!!! with this correct figure, well, it should pose no much financial burden to many countries to host the events. so lets just see how many countries are enthusiastic to submit the next host bidding... and how well they're organizing such events
I think Australia is a good choice.......we've chris-ccc there hehehhe. Why not Denmark? I think the Danish would love to play at the homeground.
Well, the sponsor says it all. Citroen would never sponsor such an event in Europe...but in China.... I think I'm resigned to seeing major team events either in China, or in China. Malaysia and Indonesia won't be able to attract the sponsorship as their national teams are too weak at present.
The point is, would there be any non-Chinese countries enthusiastic enough to beat the hyper-enthusiastic Chinese candidates... There are tens or hundreds numbers of cities in China like this WuHan... As a fan, I really don't care which country host it, as long as there is someone hosting it and really pay effort to respect the badminton tournament, and make it a good one.
In fact,I'd go so far as to say,Citroen wouldn't have survived if not for the growing potentially huge China market,same goes for many other Western corporations,they all want to do business in and with China. Australia as a market pales in comparison but if people are insistent they want a place outside of Asia to host the TUC,well...consider Australia. Europe is nice,problem is no sponsor means no money so nothing goes. The Superseries is a bit different I think,say OSIM is one of the sponsors because they could be thinking of expanding their health lifestyle products into EU and North America 12 times a year in various cities, just one time in two years is insufficient exposure for them. China,to me,is still the natural choice,fulfilling all the requisite conditions,the successfully just-concluded event is one more proof of it (other trivial issues like scheduling,seating arrangements,etc,can be easily resolved beforehand). In Asia,my next choice would be South Korea,they held the most expensive SS last year and they were in both T and U Cup Finals and may and will want to repeat that feat two years later. Third choice,Japan.
Korea is a natural choice as well, provided they are willing to. But I'll avoid Japan due to Fukushima Daiichi NPP radiation exposure, just read thru http://fukushima-diary.com/ as a starter, the risk is just imminent. Australia is an expensive place, and they also lack of the enthusiast viewers.
I will object if countries like South Korea and India bid to host the event. India is a waste of time and South Korea is full of cheating linesmen. I dont buy it. A campaign should be setup to support Australia to host the Thomas Cup. Let an Oceanian country host it for the first time.
