I noticed that the statscan chart listed participants that were 15 or older. Look at the grassroots level and you'll discover something else. Among the non-major sports (major being hockey, soccer, baseball/softball, basketball), the way badminton is picking up in the schools/local clubs (at least in the Vancouver area), you'll find that popularity in the sport quite high. At the recreational level, there is an insatiable demand. But until badminton can get some exposure in this country (among other reasons) and get the attention it deserves, it will never be viewed as a serious sport by the general sporting public.
Here in england badminton is getting popular with Emms and Robertson doing very well at the moment, the region where I live it's quite good with many clubs and courts available to play (about 20 places to play in about 20 square miles). The problem over here is exposure in the media and on TV. I am lucky to catch badminton on TV.
What? Squash is more popular than figure skating?? No! I know we have Johnathon Power but TSN or any of the channels do not screen the Super Series even though it's played at BCE Place annually. But we have many TV coverage on figure skating!!!
TV coverage doesn't mean people actually do the sport. The title is misleading though. They should have put something like "sports people play the most".
Here in England, Badminton is not a major sport compared to Football (Soccer) and Rugby. I currently play in Bedfordshire League here in the U.K. In the mixed league there are only 4 divisions, with about 10 teams in each. From what i am told the number of divisions, has reduced as there use to be 14 divisions. But this does go back a lot of years! Also the mens league in Bedfordshire, only has 2 divisions. I would say that Badminton here in England is no where near as popular, as places like China, Indonesia, Singapore and Denmark. I feel the main reason behind this, is that it just not popular / or played at schools. Correct me if im wrong, but we always played football and Rugby at my school!!!
Very interesting thread, Loh. I dug up this info from our Central Bureau of Statistics, the latest figures were from the 1999 survey in the Netherlands. Swimming 31 Cycling 15 Fitness 12 Field Football (soccer) 9 Tennis 9 Jogging 8 Gymnastics 6 Badminton 5 Sailing 5 Skating 5 Volleyball 4 Indoor Football (soccer) 4 Horseback Riding 3 Basketball 2 Golf 2 Martial Arts 2 Athletics 1 Handball 1 Field Hockey 1 Korfball 1 The numbers represent the percentages of the total population who have participated in the sport at least once a year. Swimming takes the top spot because it used to be mandatory for school kids and still is highly recommended. The list had a few surprises to me as some lower ranked sports, such as volleyball, basketball and field hockey, get extensive tv coverage while badminton hardly gets any.
You may be interested to know that it was reported that the Brunei Sultan (King) likes to play badminton and in the past has even invited some well-known players to play doubles with him. He will handsomely reward these invited players with cash. One of them was Zhao Jianhua. The Sultan was such a popular figure in world badminton that he almost became the President of the IBF not very long ago when he was approached but he turned it down the last minute. Imagine if your country's badminton association has all the passion and commitment and able to produce talented players, badminton in Brunei would never be the same. For one, the Sultan's full support will be guaranteed!
Well it is true. Probably he was offered it during the time when the World Grand Prix was held in Brunei in 1999 / 1998? I still remember watchin the pros play here. Was fantastic. On another note, the palaces of royal families including His Majesty's have badminton courts built into their palaces. Around 5 courts I think 3 - 5 courts are present in each palace and all the courts are set up with nets and yonex mats. Oh yea not forgetting there are at least 4 - 8 racquets on standby with shuttle tubes not far away .
The Straits Times of 12 March 2001 reported that: "The IBF had nominated the Sultan of Brunei, one of the world's richest men, as its candidate for the Presidential elections in June. The need for money was evident, especially in the pat 15 months, when 5 Grand Prix events - the lifeblood of the professional badminton circuit - were cancelled because of the lack of sponsorship and this included the Singapore Open." But IBF VP Punch Gunalan dispelled this notion of money and rather stressed that what the IBF needed then was prestige as the key advantage that the Sultan would bring to world badminton. So many of the IBF Council's 25 members saw it as a godsend when the Sultan first expressed interest in the top post last November, revealed Gunalan. "For so long now, the council has been talking about what it must do to make our sport more exciting for fans, television and commercial sponsors," said Gunalan. "But most of us also felt that we need a prominent figure at the top to lift its profile... We don't need his money...But we must use the respect he commands to knock on commercial doors for more money." But at that time, there were two other candidates for Presidency, Indonesian, Drs. Justian Suhadinata, VP of IBF since 1993 and Thai, HE Korn Thapparansi, former Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand who then heads the Badminton Association of Thailand and the Asian Badminton Confederation. And when the Sultan decided not to contest, the Thai won at the AGM held in Seville on 6 March 2001. The next election will be held this year and the President's term of office will be for 4 years to coincide with the Olympics. Fend, I wonder how many palaces there are and how many badminton courts altogether? And how many times you've played there?
Well there are a couple of palaces I know off. I've been to one of his majesty's brother's palace (class invited not only me by HRH's daughter) and I've seen the courts. Well I think I've played there you know just play play but not play come on we're tiny kids back then and it's pai seh (embarrassing) you know. But my mom on the other hand has played his His Majesty's palace before with some members of the royal family. That's a different story no?
Registered Players & IBF Votes During the IBF Council 2001 Elections, a glimpse of the popularity of badminton for its 141 member countries was presented. Not all the countries have an equal number of votes in the IBF. The more registered players a country has, the more votes it is given and, regretfully, it turned out that the majority of these countries have only one vote each because they have fewer then 5,000 players. How a registered player was defined by the IBF was not known at that time of reporting. The following are countries with more than one vote: 50,000 players or more - 5 votes 1. Canada 2. China 3. Denmark 4. England 5. France 6. Germany 7. Hongkong 8. Indonesia 9. Japan 10. South Korea 11. Malaysia 12. Holland 13. Taiwan 14. Thailand 25,000-49,999 - 4 Votes 1. Sweden 10,000-24,999 - 3 Votes 1. Belgium 2. India 3. Iran 4. Ireland 5. Philippines 6. Poland 7. Russia 8. Scotland 9. Singapore 10. Sri Lanka 11. Switzerland 5,000-9,999 - 2 Votes 1. Australia 2. Austria 3. Finland 4. Iceland 5. Myanmar 6. New Zealand 7. Norway 8. South Africa 9. Turkemenistan 10. United States Of course we may not agree on the IBF voting system nor the country's badminton popularity based on registered players for the following reasons: 1. How a 'registered player' is being defined. What about 'social' players? 2. How about taking into account the number of active players as a percentage of the total population. 5,000 players for a small population has a higher percentage than that based on a bigger population. 3. Just like the UN, isn't it fairer to give each country one vote? 4. How about limiting not more than 2 Council members from the same country so that more countries can participate in the running of the IBF? What's your take?
sorry in advance for reporting some negativity here. in the US, there must be more than 10,000, but the USAB knows nothing about the rest because very few are actually registered members. the SF Bay Area alone will have more than a few thousands considering a local tournament held over the weekend has 280 participants and that must be only a small fraction of all the players here. add to that southern california and we will have a significant % of the 10,000. i must admit that i personally am not a USAB member despite my active participation in the sport. the reason being there is no benefit for being so. nobody sees any need for a USAB membership as all local tournaments and clubs are ran independent of USAB.
Interesting information about USAB Kwun. I suppose american badminton will need to unify everyone into one strong federation in order to really develop in the US...
IBF publication on this subject By the way, there is an IBF publication on this subject (though it is only 1999-2000 data) : http://www.worldbadminton.net/Portal/documents/IBF Marketing and Development Review.pdf Lots of interesting information in this publication...
I just checked out that there's about 160 000 recreational badminton players in Finland (our total population is about 5,2 million). We have 129 clubs, in which there are 6 800 players (=more or less competitive players). Total amount of badminton venues is 84. These numbers are from 2004. Badminton was 13th most popular sport among adults - three most popular sports were walking, bicycling and cross-country skiing (with over 700 000 skiers!!!). I guess I'll have to quit badminton and buy me a pair of skies :crying: .
i found out some facts and badminton is the most popular racket sport in the world and and the second most popular sport in the world after football(soccer)
Yeah ... my coach told us that badminton is the second popular sport in the world . Dunno where he got the info from though ...
"Probably" #1 or #2 in the world, but definitely not in the U.S. and the last time i went to a Sporting Goods store chain here (Big 5, Chick's Sporting Goods, Sports Chalet etc.), there are only 3-4 different badminton racket models/brands in comparison to several numbers of tennis rackets models/brands..And to add to the other thread about why Yonex is not doing enough in marketing, what's worse are the badminton racquets brands are not Yonex, but Wilson and a couple of other local brands...
