Badminton players are a poor lot. Look at the price money the tennis players earned compare with the badminton players..worlds apart !!!! What do you thing ?
The western world thinks tennis is a sport, and badminton is a backyard game. Why would they pay attention to some "backyard game" and invest $$$ in it? That's why badminton is poor.
some sports have become a business, like tennis, F.1, football, basketball, golf... when sports are commercialized, you have to look at some economic factors, earnings per capita, spending behaviour and culture. asians and some asian companies are rich, some richer than the west, but asians have very different approach, vision and culture to business. that in some way affects the development of any asian dominating sports.. THINK... if badminton were now dominated by the west, like world # 1 is US or Switzerland or Germany and if tennis were dominated by China and Indonesia and Malaysia... the picture might be different now .
Very very true... The sponsors want to put the $$$ in, to make their own heroes... No one wants to pay, if their own representatives can hardly break the 2nd round...
A little bit off topic... Its quite interesting how certain sports are dominated by countries belonging to the same region. E.g.: Badminton: East Asia Tennis: Europe Cricket: South Asia Basketball: Americas etc... This tends to oppose the theory of globalisation...which would mean, that, at least in sport, globalisation hasn't had much of an effect (it has had some effect thus far). This would mean that globalisation has to still hit sport in a big way - this would be an advantage for badminton since you'll have more players from the west...and would be a disadvantage for tennis since the number of players from the west would decrease... just my theory...I don't really know much about globalisation and on what factors it is based...
globalisation and domination are two different things. different sports require different body-build, which in turn has to do with diets... and you forgot to mention that africans and carribeans dominate track and fields...
Most of the monies come from the advertisers at our television stations . CHC7576, What I think is... Badminton will depend on how many commercial television companies are interested in showing it in their programs? And, when they show Badminton, how many sponsors will come forward to advertise when Badminton is televised? Actually, I would like to congratulate BWF for making their first move in trying to make Badminton more television-friendly, that is when they introduced the NSS (New Scoring System). When BWF can sell to our commercial television stations for higher fees like other sporting bodies can, like FIFA, the Olympic Games Committee, the Formula-1 Car Racing, Golf, Tennis, etc..., only then our Badminton Tournaments would be receiving higher prize monies. Summary: Most of the monies come from the advertisers at our television stations. .
I knew I was wrong! Nonetheless, its still interesting to note that if country X wants a badminton champion, all it has to do is ensure its citizens start living like the Chinese and do a little interbreeding...!
What about a transfer scheme ? THINK... if badminton were now dominated by the west, like world # 1 is US or Switzerland or Germany and if tennis were dominated by China and Indonesia and Malaysia... the picture might be different now .[/QUOTE] In today's boarderless world, the western world can easily secure the service of Lin Dan and other world class players and be dominant in the game. Look at Singapore. With the service of Chinas' table tennis players, they won silver medals in the recent Olympic games for Singapore. WBF should have a transfer scheme for players to move about internationally and play for other country especially those country with big budget to promote sports. The current world champions in double are indonesian/vietnamese played under the US flag !!
Off topic-That was.. ..in 2005 (Gunawan & Bach). Current MD World Champions is the pair from INA (Setiawan & Kido) who also happen to be the current OG MD winner.
Tennis is more rewarding than badminton but more people play badminton than tennis. The reason why tennis is more rewarding is simply due to the game being more popular in richer countries. Richer countries can pay more for live telecast of tennis matches. With more money coming from live telecasts sponsors will out do each other to promote tennis tournaments with huge prizes. Badminton has remained relatively low paying because poorer countries cannot afford to pay for live telecast at the rates that richer countries pay for tennis live telecasts. But with the emergence of China as an economic power badminton will make the big time, at least for Chinese players. As an example Lin Dan is expected to earn 30 million yuan (about US 4.5 million) this year alone. However, can this type of rewards be possible in Malaysia, Indonesia, Korea, and Denmark?
Lin Dan earning $4.5 million US a year ??? . Wow ... Lin Dan earning US $4.5 million a year ??? We would hope that Lin Dan could promote Badminton with some of his monies earned in the near future. .
Not only Lin Dan is making it big time, others like diving queen Guo Jingjing is making even more. It has all to do with economics and in this case it is China's fast becoming an econmic power. Give it another five years, another Lin Dan type may earn ten times more than what today's LD is earning. You see, it becomes a chain reaction. As a country becomes rich and powerful, its companies as well as foreign companies with a business eye on China will pay huge amounts of money to become sponsors of sporting heroes of the likes of Yao Ming, Lin Dan, Guo Jingjing, etc. You must remember China's economy has grown thousands of times (not twice or three times) larger than it was 30 years ago. Thirty years ago the average Chinese earned 300 yuan/year. Today an average Shanghainese employee earns between 20,000 to 550,000 yuan a year, and this pay level is increasing at 14% every year.
The problem is, the ones can be released for free is usually the ones either pasted their prime or not even in the 1st tier to begin with. No offense for the players like Pi Hongyan or Xu Huaiwen, as they are very good players themselves. But seriously, do you think they can win the big titles with a consistant basis like Zhang Ning or even XXF? I really don't think so. Unless LYB or CHN getting crazy, they will never release a player like LD or even BCL/CJ/XXF/LL/ZL/WYH level. Why? Well, I don't think I need to explain that... Of course, you can argue Tony G. is an exception. However, Tony is a very special player, and no doubt winning WC2005 requires a bit luck as well (see INA's final performance...) Therefore, with the theory I posted in previous thread, the "exported" players can still hardly compete with the power house. Also, ppl tend to love their local heros. The "imported" ones might hardly get equal amount of love from the general public (not a particular gym / team / community, the general public...)
Look at the way the players who are dominant are trained as well. CHN, INA, MAS, and KOR players are all part of a heavily state-sponsored system that allows for them to be completely free of financial burden while they compete. Most all of the players in tennis except for a small few are individually trained by their own teams and usually dont even train in their respective country and find their own monetary support.
What we need in the states is better organization and leadership in the organizations that support badminton (if there are any, at that). I was talking to my mom (a pretty big tennis fan) and she said tennis organizations were what really brought to light the public's attention of the sport. It's such a shame that badminton remains unrecognized, and it is my belief that it has MUCH more potential that we give it credit for over here. VIVA LA BADMINTON REVOLUCION!!!!
Tennis gets more money because it is a higher profile sport and thus gets more money. They get rights from TV coverage aswell as ticket sales (which are exspensive). Im not sure what the gate is during an Open but I think your looking at 500,000 people plus over two weeks, and then you have the other tours/tournanments. Badminton the coverage or crowds are nowhere near as good, and therefore players wont get paid as much. Its like soccer in Australia, lots of people play it as grass roots level - but a minority actually watch it on TV or go see games live. If badminton was to become a major player more people would have to invest in the game ie go see games live, or private investment. Money = power. I dont agree with needing organisation/leadership - the badminton orgisations dont have the financial clout as other sporting bodies so you cant expect them to do much. Unless your Russian/Saudi/Thai billionaire and want to donate that wont change in the short term. If badminton is to be become a big sport grass roots participation has to improve in wester countries - which it is, and if 'more' fans are willing to fork out $$$ to see pro games especially in wealthier countries then and only then will the profile and salaries of the sport be improved. I also fail to see how transfering top players overseas will improve the image of the sport if noone knows or cares who they are.
