Right, the Category Level 1 tournaments from 2018 onwards, namely, CHN, England and Indonesia, have to be at least USD1.5 million in prize money each.
Some odd decisions in this new tournament structure. How is the China Masters now a higher tier tournament than the India, Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore Open's. Also what's happened to the Australian Open, I thought the BWF were big on bringing badminton to new parts of the globe, it's been demoted to a nothing tournament. I'm sure the tournament organisers must be hugely disappointed as they've managed to attract some big names in recent years, very little chance of that now. Just looks like this tournament structure has been devised to appease the big names, China, Malaysia and Indonesia, who now all have two SS level tournaments.
I think it's all part of the bidding process based on the host's proposal, prize money and other criteria such as what the bidder could bring to the table, eg, the venue, the TV and other coverage, promotional activities offered, the interest it can generate to raise the sport's profile, the entertainment value and the crowd it can draw, I suppose.
It's not about the decision toward the current status of tournament (eg. China Masters, India SS, S'pore SS, Australia SS) and then BWF change their level BUT based on bidding process offered by each host country. What will the host give and what kind of stadium they had or will have toward 2018 will make the dream come true in hosting higher tournament level. Bonus: Source: BWF Launches New Event Structure
Details Venues for BWF Major Events 2018-2019 TOTAL BWF Thomas & Uber Cup Finals 2018 Host City: Bangkok, Thailand Venue: Impact Arena Muang Thong Thani Seating Capacity: 12,000 TOTAL BWF World Championships 2018 Host City: Nanjing, China Venue: Nanjing Youth Olympic Park Indoor Arena Seating Capacity: 20,000 TOTAL BWF Sudirman Cup 2019 Host City: Nanning, China Venue: Guangxi Sports Centre Gymnasium Seating Capacity: 8,700 TOTAL BWF World Championships 2019 Host City: Basel, Switzerland Venue: St. Jakobshalle Seating Capacity: 9,000
we now have a 'grand slam': all england (as long as they can afford to keep going) china open indonesia open worlds/olympics
If I am correct, the word superseries will not be used to refer them. BWF will come up with alternate naming convention.
China Masters for a long long time was a higher rated tournament than many others. It was a superseries until few years back. Also, what you need to keep in mind is that decision was taken by BWF, which is governed by a diverse set of people, which incidentally includes BAI (Badminton Association of India) President in its board. I know from reliable sources that as far as India is concerned, it was about money. Right now, India shells around 300k dollars for a superseries. If it wanted a Level 3 tournament, it would have easily got it, but India didn't want to shell out 700k dollars. (More than double) Not only that even this prize money listed here is for 2018, which will be raised in subsequent years leading up to 2021. So, I would say, that BWF wanted to retain India, but India couldn't keep up with the prize money. What you must understand here is that BWF is really interested and determined in raising prize money. As for your point about tournament organizers, they have to live with the fact that they didn't have the money to keep up. So, in the end I would say, I hope that Badminton gets popular enough in India, that India can organize a very good tournament from 2022 onwards, when it may need to shell around 2 million for a top tier tournament.
I think the brand superseries will remain, with the different is superseries isn't not Level 3 anymore (become Level 4). Lower level of SS doesn't mean lower prize since the minimum prize of SS will be $350 in 2018 The new tournament Level 2's name is Premier of Premier Superseries (PoPSS)
A mouthful and not inventive of BWF to come out with such a name, Premier of Premier Superseries. Even the acronym - POPSS - doesn't sound right. Why not call it Super Grandmasters Series, Grandmasters Series for the top two levels 1 and 2 ? The Olympics and the World Championships remaining the same for obvious reasons.
As far as I know this name premier of premier has not even once been mentioned in any official communication. In fact the BWF secretary general himself said that they will discontinue the name superseries. http://redirect.viglink.com/?format...m-event-singapore-host-tier-4-tournament-8572
http://www.ibtimes.sg/new-badminton...m-event-singapore-host-tier-4-tournament-8572 This is the link.
Obviously, BWF not interested in generic terms, what Level 1,2,3, Star 1,2,3. They want fanciful, great sounding names,I gathered.
