IIRC, back in 2011-12 when OSIM used to sponsor BWF tournaments, Korea was one of the Super Series Premier tournaments and the richest tournament (don't recall the amount maybe 1 million $). How come the tournament got degraded to Super 500 presently. Has there been any cut in Government funding or lackadaisical attitude of BKA ?
the major share of prize money comes from the sponsors. osim had a change in their budget. so when you see tournaments change levels it's not due to bwf. i think korea was the first to break the $1m mark...?
You're right. For years prior to the existence of the Superseries finals, the Korea Open was already often the richest tournament, offering $250,000 along with INA and HKG and later being the only one to offer $300,000. In 2011, they offered US$1.2 million. A BKA council member told the Korean media at the time that it ended up as a bait-and-switch by the BWF as Korea only bid for SSP with that amount because the BWF said there would be 4 Premier events and had they known it would be 5, they would only have bid with $1 million, which was the amount in 2012 and 2013. The Korea Open lost its Premier status as of 2014, when it was replaced by Malaysia, but it still offered more prize money than most of the Premier events. Interestingly, although the Indonesia Open offers more than $1.2 million now, the winner's cheque is still slightly smaller than the ones in Korea in 2011, which was only passed last December by the WTF in Guangzhou: Korea Open 2011 (cheque here), Indonesia Open 2019, WTF 2018. Government funding? I'm not sure how that would apply. BKA lackadaisical? Hmm. How many tournaments actually do manage to find sponsors year after year to put up prize money well in excess of the minimum required by the event level they successfully bid for? I'm pretty sure when the SSP began, the All England was offering less than a third of what Korea was. Also, Korea has long had its equipment sponsor foot the bill as title sponsor for the Korea Open but after the fiasco with Victor last year, I suspect the priority is keeping the team stocked with racquets and attire, rather than prize money that will almost certainly be taken out of the country. I wonder if the move was prompted by the Incheon airport corporation, which also pays a salary to the national team Head Coach and 9 of the national team players. The 2019 venue is owned by that company and it's a new facility which they are likely looking to promote. Dropping the prize money may be just a practical move given realistic forecasts of ticket sales because the venue is in the middle of nowhere.
Total prize money US$1.2m, the most lucrative at that time, back to 2011 edition, then shrinking a lot at present time.
Indeed, KOR Open 2011 winner in singles category pocketed US$90,000 (US$1,200,000 x 7.5%) INA Open 2019 Super 1000 => US$87,500 (US$1,250,000 x 7%). Guangzhou World Tour Finals => US$120,000 (US$1,500,000 x 8%)
Reading about the things done by BKA , those court cases and all made me think that they may have developed a careless and arrogant attitude that's why they go demoted to Super 500. It's true that they have done a lot in terms of prize money from 2011-13 and it's not at all easy to hold on to sponsors. I as an outsider would only think that the fault is with BKA (judging by its past history). I maybe wrong but anyway thanks for the info.
I see what you mean. Don't get me wrong. The Korea Open has always been a god-awful tournament in terms of organization. I just don't think BKA arrogance can result in lower prize money. As for Super 500, that wasn't a demotion. The event was already at regular Superseries status for the period 2014-2017 and that wasn't a demotion, but rather the only possible result of not bidding for a Superseries Premier. I don't know if Korea bid for a Super 750 or 1000. As I remember, those lists of bidders were not made public. If anything, the evidence of arrogance is in the fact that a bid was put forward for SS Premier in 2010. The only thing they did was come up with the prize money. They did nothing to publicize the event, tickets went on sale only 10 days in advance (with aliens forced to buy leftovers at the door) and the title sponsor didn't display a single new product to spectators. You can read about that 2011 failure here. Why would you try to stage a million-dollar event in a place where only 2/3 of the finals day spectators and 3 out of 20 journalists even stick around to watch the Lin Dan vs. Lee Chong Wei final? Not to mention a host broadcaster that shows exactly 6h for the entire week, and cuts one broadcast mid-match to show a rerun of "Running Man".
But still I believe it won't happen... Chinese Taipei has been doing everything to make Taipei Open became a higher tier tournament since the Superseries era but they just won't get it. Some say it might be political interference by China, but no one has the proof. So we can only guess why they keep failing
if it were political interference why would china still allow taipei, hong kong and macau to have their own badminton federations? since there is no significant economic impact on china i don't think they care about the level of a badminton tournament. they only care about making the sporting world address taiwan as chinese taipei out of 'face.' for the conspiracy theorists: bwf allows 4 tournaments per 'member association' (not incl. continental championships or wtf) - page 3 of https://extranet.bwfbadminton.com/docs/document-system/81/1466/1471/Section 5.3.1 - Tournament Sanction Policy.pdf 'china' has 3 (1000, 750 & 100), hong kong has 1 (500)... is that 4? macau has 1 (300)? does that = 5? taipei has 1 (300)... does that = 6? if not it means bwf regards taipei as an independent country, yet it cannot call it taiwan. but, hong kong & macau also has their own federations when they are undoubtedly part of china again. does that mean bwf regards hong kong & macau as independent countries as well? what other 'country' has bwf allowed to have more than 1 member association? https://corporate.bwfbadminton.com/about/membership/ you can formulate your own theory based on the info above. it reinforces my experience w/ bwf: it's about $.
The UK has 3 member associations too (England, Scottland and Wales). "Member association" is not synonymous with "country"
ah, true. they are nations within a country. confusing at times. are hk & macau nations within china? basic criteria: https://www.thoughtco.com/scotland-is-not-an-independent-country-1435433 how does it, or should it, affect sports governance? does it depend how much money is involved?
Looking forward to Marin's appearance at the Vietnam Open today. I hope that she is fully recovered, because WS just isn't the same without her.
Yea..Im praying and looking forward to Marin's play today...they have put her game at the near end of the day lolz..But I hope today they will telecast it cause it will be boring to watch the scores only lol
Yup, the return of reigning Olympic Champion is main attraction of this VIE Open after almost eight-month lay off. She's scheduled to face Thai promising talent Supanida Katethong, the semifinalist of just concluded TPE Open.
The match should prove a good indicator of Marin's level of recovery/fitness. Talking of the Taipei Open: Tomorrow in R2, we will be in for a re-match of the MS semi-final, as Watanabe Koki and Heo Kwang Hee are set to clash again. Watanabe briskly despatched of today's opponent in 20 minutes, ... with a score line of 21-10, 21-2! It looks like he means business.
Definitely not. But who cares anyway so long as there are tournaments for players and fans One thing positive about abandoning Super series format was that some people argued Singapore and Hong Kong were too small for Superseries status even though they had the necessary prize money sponsorships. Additionally, HK is not a country but part of China so some argued China had too many Superseries tournaments. Looking at the bigger picture, we should be looking at upgrading tournaments and creating more low level ranking tournaments rather than actively downgrading tournaments. More lower level ranking tournaments get a bigger pool of people involved- can’t see a problem with that for growth of the game.
You should understand that both Hong Kong and Macau had already have their Badminton Associations far before they later were handed over to China. Regarding Taiwan/Chinese Taipei, it was the pressure of China to expel them from IBF but it was later resolved by following the agreed principles of Nagoya Resolution which allow the Taiwanese players to compete under the name and flag of Chinese Taipei.
Everyone is waiting to see her fitness aftee her injury. Hope she can return to her best performance. So that WS will be even more interesting.