Badminton England Funding

That's what you get if you remove Lin Dan as a central figure from 2017 All England's promo cover and place Chris Adcock. They probably had a look on it and couldn't guess the sport.

 

After Brexit, the economy is basically in shambles, they don't have that much money left, and sports (something non essential) is obviously going to be cut. Eh, UK's doing pretty well compared to lets say India in terms of medal count, and India is doing great in terms of economy.

The bronze medal - okay I can see why you call it a fluke, and I am calling it 98%ish fluke, not completely sure, but close.
The silver medal is not fluke though. Goh has established herself as one of the best front court players with excellent reading, fast speed and difficult technical shots. They performed better than expectations, but it's not like the UK where they literally came out from nowhere. They are world no 6 currently. CPS is also a great player barring his serve at tense points, which people focus too much on.

I'm not sure coaching should be based heavily on a set standard or technique. Quite a few people at the very top play differently than most: e.g. CL, whose stiff technique shows extreme precision over smooth technique. Someone like CL would not pass the test if we want smooth technique. I believe coaching should be instead based on skill level and reputation. If you played very well before (or are playing very well) and have a reputation for bringing out many stars, this is a good coach.

 

Before her injury CPS and GLY were really upping their game and reaching new levels. I wouldn't say they were a top candidate for a medal, but neither would I say fluke.

 

the loss of funding is indeed sad news...

i'm curious how this will affect the all-england's superseries status.

• is the all-england profitable? even if it is, i doubt it contributes much towards BE's annual budget.
• what i hear from BE insiders: there's a lot(!) of dead weight in the admin... way too many employees.
• remember the 2013 london gpg? you never saw it again. it lost over uk 80,000 sterling. uhhh, if that doesn't tell you there's something wrong with BE's admin, you're beyond hope.

it's now in the hands of BE to convince sponsors to put up more $ to support BE. that doesn't leave much for all-england prize money, given the size of BE's staff. in order to save the all-england's status & prestige BE will have to trim down to a skeleton staff, just like all the other non-gov't funded badminton federations around the world.

 

Don't worry about it superseries status, the all england is one of the biggest tournaments around. It still will be a big tournament, although it could lose its premier status. We'll force more efficiency with a lower budget and Yonex will save them if required.

 

AE won't lose it's Premier status. There's not much history in Badminton, so they won't be keen to diminish the little they have.

 

Sure, it's a historic event and all, but somebody's got to provide the funding. We all want to see it continue, but none of us would want to sponsor to keep it alive. It's going to be awkward if a superseries premier has $250,000 as a total prize fund.

Now...who's stepping up to the plate?

 

in truth i am worried. many thoughts come to mind...

if prize money drops too much, players/federations may not come. olympics and worlds offer no prize money. do you think the all-england can get away with zero prize money? that means teams like cba/bam/pbsi/kba/etc. get no return on the money spent to send the team to the tournament. how many tournaments per year are they willing to do that? wc/sea games/thomas-uber/olympics/sudirman cup/etc.

keep in mind the existence of BE. without gov't funding, who pays for the existence of BE? where does the $ come from to pay employee salaries? 5,740,000 from uk sport is a lot of cash to lose. sport england gave 2,340,000 last year. no word yet on how much sport england will cut.

if BE ceases to exist a new self-funded tournament organizer will need to step forward and take on all the costs. that is not as easy as it sounds.

various sponsors may come up with the $, but where will the personnel come from? will a sponsor also hire additional full time staff of their own for 9 months, at additional expense? or hire former BE employee's, those without any proven track record of fiscal restraint? organizing a superseries is far, far, far more complex & expensive than fans realize.

look into what it takes to put on a superseries and what it would cost you in england, or in your own country, then get back to us...

basically the 2 big issues are

1. the existence of BE. without it there is no nat'l team. also, how will players enter bwf tournaments?
2. the all-england. without it the country loses relevance in the sport of badminton.

from 2015: Ben Yoneyama, Yonex President, said: “We are proud and honoured to continue with our title sponsorship of the All England Championships, having agreed a new 7 year contract with Badminton England from 2015 to 2021. The All England is the oldest and most prestigious badminton tournament in the world and we are delighted to be able to remain part of this world class tournament."

[side note: the yonex/BE agreement covers some of the funding of the all-england. an agreement between bwf & BE sanctions BE to put on the all-england as a bwf tournament.]

this does not necessarily mean yonex is paying for everything it takes to run the tournament. at the very least yonex covers the prize money. BE bears some of the cost as well, in addition to providing personnel. it is also BE's responsibility to find the other sponsors/funding for the tournament. is yonex also paying for the venue, staffing, accommodations for ref's/umpires, airport transfers for players/officials, various broadcasting costs, etc.? in short, no. if BE ceases to exist, there is no more agreement with yonex.

if BE goes away will yonex pick up the slack through 2021? certainly not 100% of it.
if BE manages to exist in a smaller version, they'll likely have to find a 3rd party tournament organizer to work with yonex and the other sponsors in order to present the all-england.

 

Page 16 of BE's financial statements for y/e March 2016 reveals (amongst other things) that the average number of employees during the year was 86. Would be interesting to compare with, say, Denmark or...Spain.

https://www.badmintonengland.co.uk/core/core_picker/download.asp?id=19320

smautf

 

Sorry, despite perusing the English National Mixed rankings (no woman with a three-word name ending in Y there), I cannot resolve the full names. Would you mind mentioning the full names so I can add them to the list?

 

it would be hard to compare. the employee count might includes players & coaches.

losing the 5.4m in grants leaves about 3.6m in income. staff costs are 3.3m. not knowing how much goes to players/coaches makes it hard for outsiders to know how many admin folks need to get cut. in any case the player roster is going to get a lot smaller.

cut everyone's pay in half or run the place with half the # of people...

better get richard branson to step in and save them.

 

if there are no players with future star potential in the pipeline right now, and there is 75% less money coming in... do i really need to continue?

looks like the staff at badminton england will show the world if there's a reason for their existence.

 

BE has been carrying ( read paying for) too many mediocre players for too long. Also BE should hold their hand up and say " we decided not to support Marcus ( who was told to focus on mixed) and Chris ( who was deemed to be too old) " and the fact that they won a medal was not a result of the UK sport funded pathway. The Adcocks failed in Rio with the amount of changes they had to go through to the quarters.( they also let England down this weekend by losing to a scrap pair from Russia).

BE has had a lot of money to work with and always seem to think they know best, whilst others ( ie Marin) train and spar elsewhere in the world we keep great players such a Rajiv Ouseph in the UK training with the double players.

BE will have to operate on a skeleton framework going forward and will have to reach out to those people in England who have produced the current crop of talent and work out a new talent pathway. There is a lot of talent in u17....below that it's very very scarce at this moment in time.

 

This couldn't be closer to the truth.

There are many fundamental problems that exist within 'the system' not least the problem with mediocre players getting given funding whilst others who are just as good if not better get overlooked. The problem is that there are too many cliques within UK sport in general, not just badminton, it is all about who you know, and how much money/influence you have as opposed to just how much potential you have. Equally, there lies little chance of being removed from the programme without coming to a mutual agreement. The amount of players I am aware of who get overlooked for others because they 'fit the mould of what they are looking for' then that is you finished.

There is no creativity, no plan B, no looking to try new ideas in order to try and get a broader outlook, nothing.

Personally, I am almost glad to hear that the funding has stopped, we rely too much on being spoon fed in this country, if you want to be successful and you have the talent, you will find the means to make it work, it will become so much more worthwhile in the long term on a personal level knowing that you weren't simply handed the money. It will also force BE to make big decisions regarding players who do not quite make the grade but are still on the programme, what money they have left will need to be prioritised for those they think have the true potential.