It's great to have ppl like your family willing to invest in badminton. However, it takes more than 1 company to promote a sport. The problem is the lackness of "root", and the government don't really support it. Therefore, it lacks talent from the younger generation (most players are 1st or 2nd generation immigrants), and the media treated it as a joke. I wish your business to have a great success, but it definitely takes more than a few gyms / shops to promote a sport.
of course,... so thats why its got to be a majority movement! i do my job, you do yours, other people around the world get interested and they do their thing to promote badminton. i have to applaud to the creators and moderators of BadmintonCentral... its been such a great contribution to our community.
Your average player Promote this! I'm your potential sponsor, he is your average player around the gym. Your mission: sell me your plan. Good luck! ... you'll need it. This = badminton.
I organized a doubles tournament last November. I had 180 participants in Men's and Ladies' Doubles, from levels B (experts) through F (beginners). I went around and got some funding from corporate sponsors. I charged a modest registration fee from each player. With help from a couple of friends I took care of Registration, Scheduling, Levelling and the Logistics. I think I did my part in promoting our sport.
There are many minor channels on digital TV, surely there's room for a Badminton Channel. If all the Country Associations got together with some of the major sponsors then surely something could be done. Livecast over the internet isn't worth the investment at the moment. The Super Series ought to have been attractive to some TV Channels but alas it seems not. I wish I had the answers and wish I understood more of the TV Rights. There are little pockets of brilliance here and there but not Global, surely someone in Badminton can pull all these little strings together and make an attractive global package.
Take a lesson from Cricket for instance. The 20/20 game has boosted attendance and interest with short sharp innings, day and night games etc etc. We could have matches played between TV personalities. Lets say Billy Connolly against Lee Evans. I think Lee would win the sweating competition!!
Maybe if I ran into a wall, cut of one leg and split the remaining one to get broomsticks like that AND bleached my skin . Just take a look around your gym and tell me that is not your average badminton player. If you say that isn't you're lying . He's got the works, plain t-shirt tucked into his Urkel shorts with color-matched shoes to finish it of. I ran into that pic through a link in the Swiss Open picture thread to the Swiss Badminton Federation homepage etc,. There's only a couple of lucky people on the board who know what I look like . Oh yeah I forgot, I'd need to add about 20 years haha
how should we approach the BWF? saying that if they want to promote this sport then maybe they should upgrade some lower level tournaments into a superseries. and require that those tournaments must broadcast their matches on a national sports channel? cmon! canada and usa is a multicultural country and we can't find badminton?
oh ok, i guess not. lol the average badminton player in our clubs are usually chinese people... haha... and our shorts are shorter and our shirts are more colourful.... and if you look around the average badminton player... 70% of them are wearing yonex shoes. as for this long hair white guy, we need to upgrade his style for him to be more marketable. maybe cut the hair, untuck the shirt, have beggier shorts, lose the mustach, and... a lot of other things. haha
I think the European and Asian countries are doing a great job at promoting Badminton... On youtube I saw a Fedex commerical with all the top Chinese players "delivering" the promotion of badminton or the service itself. Also, Peter Gade made commericals... the English badminton has been holding charity events... where they would play an exhibition game at a mall or something and raise money for children or something. We need something like that... in Canada... we endorse hockey so much... and basketball as well... ... i know i know.. businesses' ideas are only eyes for profits.. but we need some kind of organization that is willing to promote sports like badminton. or CBC needs to show more badminton on TV.. NBC or ABC should have badminton matches broadcast too... like seriously... in my opinion baseball and golf are sort of a dull sport to me... (my opinion) so they should show a fast sport like badminton! Televised North American badminton matches. if you put something in the hands of Americans... they will use their money and invest their time to promote it. it's possible!... like how many rediculous realty shows we have... put that millions into badminton!!!!!!!!!!!!! for crying out loud.
Badminton exposure With increasing international economic interdependence, demographics are rapidly changing in N. America, with more people coming to the States and Canada from Asia and Europe to live and work. The tv networks will eventually recognize the growing demand for coverage of other sports than just baseball, basketball, football, tennis and golf. I think the key is tv exposure. We need to kick the networks and advertisers more. How is it that Gatorade or Pepsi doesn't realize that badminton in many of the Asian countries it markets in? It would also help to have more interesting, strong personalities in Badminton. Even bad is good, sometimes.
You've hit the nail on the head. This thread dwells a lot on what could be the case in North America....if only [Nike/the networks/governments/schools/your aunt Ethel] would do their part. But you can't blame them. Change is something that these entities reflect, not initiate. They react to demand. That's as it should be. In North America the changing demographics will slowly make badminton more popular. The only way to speed up the process is, as you said, to have a couple really flashy players with looks and personality that will grab headlines. You can't underestimate the power of a pretty face...just ask the Trojans.
if you ask me I think badminton has made lots of progress in the past few years. It's just not getting the funding it needs to get big in the Americas. We need a big company to sponsor the sport, like Mercedes and Toyota sponsors Tennis. Then maybe Americans will see it in advertisements on tv and such and eventually one day Americans will overcome their stereotype of badminton, and they will learn to appreciate it.
yeah this has been a subject of many many professional badminton players as well. I've read in an interview how Peter Gade is helping promoting the sport spending his time with kids and doing badminton camps... also he has a website so fans can track his progress. That is why Peter Gade is my favourite player, besides being a former number one... he has worked really hard at contributing to the community. I am not saying that other's done, but Gade seems to stand out more. I know we should bring the world's top shuttles like Lin Dan, Bao, Gade, Jonassen, Lee, ... just all the big names to North America... and do tours of promotions. This should ok... because Americans have no problem spending too much or too little on anything that is profitable. haha. Canada too!
