A couple of more observations: first, ever notice that pretty much all technical violations are called a fault? A service fault, receiver fault, brushing against a player's clothing or body's a fault, etc. May be we ought to come up with sexier names for various offences. Offside, interference, technical foul, etc. They can make matches a little bit more interesting during broadcasts and TV pundits can argue endlessly about, say, what exactly is an interference and whether a player is guilty of it or not during a particular match. Second, statistics. More and more sports are inundated with statistics these days. Serve percentage, winners, unforced errors, match records, head-to-head records, etc. Again, even more topics for discussions for experts and fans alike.
Personally, I think we are makiing a big misstake, by focusing on "what is wrong" and "what to change" in the game itself... As mentioned earlier there are two fundamental "problems" with pro badminton. 1) the money/sponsorships and 2) the image of the game.. I fail to see that changing, scoring, service, shuttles etc... will change much in a larger perspective. Its just wasreof time and energy (spentmore wisely on promotion, marketing) Making badminton more popular, could be compared to getting a new soft drink or whatewer product marketed commersially to get it more known, popular and profitable.. Some points i would like to see. 1) Separation of the ms,md,wd,ws,xd disciplines. Completely different tournaments for different disiplines, and even separate organisations to better focus marketing, media coverage etc. 2) focus on raising money for marketing. Investors, sponsors etc. Important here is to be able to show a credible prospect of roi for the "funders".. If we cant find some badminton fans with huge bank accounts... 3) Intensify marketing efforts. lots of things can bedone to become more visible in media.. suggestions? maybe some cooperations, with music, martial arts etc. could be done.. Something like the showboat videos more proffessionlly produced. could be a great tool...
IMHO the main reason why badminton isn't as popular as we'd like it to be is the image that it has. I myself have been guilty of seeing badminton as a weak sport played by aging elders that are no longer able to play other "more intense" sports. I was however quickly turned away from this image after watching a badminton tournment on TV when i was visiting family in my home country China. I believe that a more media coverage of games would be very helpful. Of course i understand that this isn't something that can be done overnight. But i think that if we begin with just a few final rounds being covered by ESPN or other large sports broadcasters, even at unreasonable hours would be helpful to the sport. I am, unfortunately , not sure how this is suppose to happen. Another problem that has been brought up is the accessibility of the sport. If someone sees badminton being played on TV or some other media and loves it, but can't find a place to play it then all that media coverage wasn't effective. I also faced this problem when i first began playing badminton. I am a relatively new badminton player and finding a place to play badminton in my city wasn't an easy task. I spend almost 2 weeks e-mailing, calling, and asking people in person if they knew of any places where i can play. Finally i was informed that courts are set up on weekends only at my local college recreation center. I think that all of these problems are caused by a lack of members in the sport. I'm currently in highschool right now and i've been trying to get all of my friends to play. I've even considered starting a club at my highschool devoted to badminton. I think that if all of us tried to be more active in recruiting members it would help the sport as a whole grow. So next time your friends ask you where you wanta hang out for the weekend why not suggest the badminton courts . -Chad
The odd guy gets an ankle problem with the shoes they produce now, anyway. If they produced a shoe that did this on purpose, they definitely get sued.
There have been a few threads and many postings about how badminton is shown on TV, and they're mainly concerned with camera angles and commercial timeslots. Which are all good and valid. But, I think there's another issue that's been largely ignored and that's the whole image presentation. Consider our much more popular sister sport: tennis. It's mostly played outdoors, mostly under the sun under fair weather. IOW, sun-bathed outing. Doesn't take much imagination at all to realise the glamourous aspect of the sport for both the players and the spectators. Obviously, we can't just start holding badminton tournaments outdoors all of the sudden, can we? We can certainly do promotional shows outdoors, but tournaments are still indoor events. However, fear not, we can still learn from another indoor sport that's these days associated with glamour and celebrity especially when a certain team from LA plays at home: NBA basketball. Consider the following similarities between these two pro sports from the event perspective: They're both held indoors in air-conditioned gyms under artificial lights. Spectators sit very close to the court(s) and loudly cheer for their teams and/or players. Also consider the following dissimilarity: Basketball games look polished and cool, enough for such "fans" as Paris Hilton and Cameron Diaz to be seen in. Badminton tournaments, OTOH, look like underground cage fights or---pardon the expression---cockfights in dingy looking stadiums. Case in point, the 2004 Thomas Cup in Jakarta. A friend of mine said the atmosphere looked like an amateur kickboxing fight. So, how do we polish up the image of badminton as a spectator sport in such a way that it's presentable on TV, on a par with NBA games? You know the practice with dimming the lights throughout the stadium and spotlighting the court? That may be good for hardcore fans, but let's face it, no celebs would ever go to a tournament to be kept---quite literally---in the dark, would they? They go to be seen by other spectators and shown on TV. Even the best of cameramen would be hardpressed to pick out famous faces in the dark. Make floor seating exclusive (read: expensive) boxed seating like they do in tennis. The yelling and screaming "common" fans can sit further up. It's hard to look your best when thousands of people around you are screaming their collective heads off. Remove or relocate those ubiquitous ugly advertisement boards. I know corporate sponsors are important, but for heaven's sake make them less gaudy and more discrete. Learn from basketball stadiums and tennis courts how they put up such signs. Badminton seem to be stuck in the 70's or 80's with a-frame boards strewn about.
How about making the court the same size as a volleyball court with 6 players from each side. Just like volleball, each side may hit the shuttle three times. the net should also be the same height as a vollyball net. So players need to jump smash to be able to attack. Just imagine the potentials of the game. More players in court in court may attract more people and makee the sport more popular. As Quasimodo says, weird and crazy ideas are accepted here.
He also explicitly said it has to remain as badminton. In fact, his exact example was "you can't take volleyball and make it badminton." I would assume it works the other way, too. If that were to happen, it wouldn't be badminton anymore. I'm sure most players now wouldn't play anymore. I sure wouldn't.
Shall we all take a look at the problem from a different angle? Let's forget about the players, spectators, camera angles, techniques, scoring, rules, marketing, media, money, fashion, tv coverage, and whether badminton is played indoor or outdoor.... All these can be changed, if needed to be changed, one day. No.1 Pre-conception of Badminton Is badminton boring? If you like it, it isn't. If you don't like it, it is very. The same if you ask someone who doesn't like soccer. My girlfriend fell asleep 10 mins after Italy vs Germany kicked off for the World Cup Semi-final. She said soccer is all about 20 men chasing after a spherical object, and 2 men stopping it from going past them. Unfortunately at present, for badminton, majority of the world population has the same attitude as my girlfriend towards soccer. No.2 Social and cultural background Let's look at badminton from a social and cultural background. Badminton is primarily an Asian-dominated sports. My observation might be a subjective one, but hey, how many sports can you name that rise and prosper from Asia, then influence and eventually make an impact to the rest of the world to become a worldwide popular sports? "Popular" means you can see it on TV regularly, have players starring on TV ads, huge prize money and sponsorship, etc..., not just being a game in the Olympic. On the other hand, we see Asia following the footstep of Europe and America in the growth of many sports, Tennis, Soccer, Basketball, and even Formula 1 and Nascar gets more exposure and tv coverage worldwide than badminton. Something wrong with us Asians? Something wrong with our culture? Something wrong with our attitude? Something wrong with our business sense? When will the West follow our footstep? Does badminton have to rise from the West, then we follow? Asian don't have the money? Asian don't have the ability? Making badminton popular can be a deep deep philosophical subject, not just the peripheral topics of marketing, money and media, etc... It's certainly NOT a mission that one can accomplish, or one country can accomplish over a short time span. If all options we have discussed in this thread and previous related threads are feasible, Yonex, Nike and Adidas have already stolen our ideas and commercialised badminton worldwide long time ago. We would have seen MacDonalds, Mercedes and HSBC being the sponsors of Thomas & Uber Cups and World Championships. So let's go back to square one and start thinking with a blank piece of paper.
Winston, filling that blank piece of paper is exactly what I'm hoping everybody here would do. No time limit, no matter who should do what, etc. You brought up an excellent point about cultural differences. So, how do we change them? Or, perhaps not change, but de-emphasize those differences enough so that they no longer form a stumbling block?
Damn, I read "Your Mission: Naked Badminton More Popular" Maybe there lies a path ahead? Sorry for OT though.
Hmm... Western following Asian footsteps? Wait till China grows and conquers, the day might come.. It is the same as western people now getting to learn chinese language as long China is back. From what I've known, football is anciently origin from China, and badminton too I guess
Do we really have to be bothered about making badminton popular in the west in order for it to prosper? There's enough people in Asia to make it hughely popular. All it takes is for asians to stop being cheapo and pay to support the sport and its industries.
It's good to see have some key words from hara^kazuko : "China grows and conquers", and from EastDevil : "asians to stop being cheapo". What do these words tell us? The rise and popularity of a sport (not just badminton) has perhaps something to do with the power, the social and cultural backgroud, the financial situation of the country in which the sport excels? Let's ask ourselves one question. Would soccer be as popular as it is now, IF, this game was dominated by Asian or African countries. Say China, Malaysia, Ghana, The Philippines have been winning the Football World Cup for decades, would the football business and players' salaries be as OTT as it is now? Let's hear some answers on this one. We may then see the problems with badminton.
That simple? You are right. There's enough people in Asia. China + India probably close to if not more than Europe and America. What's the average income per capita? Where does the money come from to support a sport and its industry? Just the government? Just IBF? Just the investors and sponsors? And why do you think the business of Counterfeit Yonex is still flourishing? Why are we seeing a FAKE FERRARI being manufactured in China? Why not England?
I thought badminton was the most popular sport in the world?? Only crazy people wouldnt play such an awesome sport.
Badminton worldwide? Hi, to make badminton more popular, it needs to be seen everywhere with the top class players. The IBF has a great idea to create the Super Series, but I believe he failed on the choice of the venues. Neither a tourmanent will be played in America (both North and South) nor in Africa. How do you want that badminton becomes a major sport if the world class players can't be seen in those countries on a regular basis? My 2 cents, Jean-Robert Quevillon http://www.carabins.umontreal.ca
How to make badminton popular? Hmmm... use BIG Hollywood stars! Let the public know that these stars play badminton.... and sure enough, some people will follow what is hip in Hollywood. If it becomes fashionable, then it will become popular. just a cent...
