Asia Cup has been moved to Jan 2003 (so does this mean I should post this in the 2003 tournaments subforum [doesn't exist yet]) Asia Cup last time in S'pore was an excellent tournament. The Vietnam one was a little disappointing in that the best of the M'sians were not playing. But there was one excellent match between Taufik and Sun Jun.
Hmm, Now there is no Asia Cup. Anybody from S'pore know what's going on? The sponsorship deal was quite a large amount of cash. Strange to suddenly not see the tournament on the IBF calendar.
Just passed through the HKBA's headquarter's the other day. I saw a poster up of list of event and it states Asia Cup in beginning of April. HOwever, no other details. I asked one of the staff about it. She was very cagey on the matter. i.e. not confirmed, can be anywhere in Asia, I speculate, there might be a bid to hold it in HK but details have not been sorted out - such as sponsorship, guarentee by associations to send their players (becasue preparing for WC)
So, another enquiry yielded an answer which was "sponsors are being sought". Even this year's HK Open is at risk....
May get worse It's quite dissapointed to know there won't be any Asia Cup 2003 due to lack of sponsorship. Asia Cup has been very exciting to watch traditionally with rivaly from nations like Malaysia, Indonesia, China and Korea. One thing for certain, badminton popularity is on the downhill slide ... Remember few years ago, the Grand Prix Final also was cancelled due to lack of fund. If IBF continue to run as it's run today, don't be surprise badminton will be out of Olympics event in near future ;-)
Decline must be due to lack of Sponsors as the badminton fans are not exactly big spenders or in high volume. Made worse by war and SARS killing business. Only hope may be if countiries like China and Korea keep supporting the sport. Surprising how many tournaments there are in China and the air time on TV.
Target US market Even if Korea and China continue their effort in supporting badminton, badminton will not go far if US maket is not the main target. Badminton will only do well if the money is there just like Tennis and the only country that can single handedly bring this sport to the next level is US and judging on the current popularity of this sport in US, badminton has no hope in the future. It's not an easy task to promote this sport in US but IBF need to do something urgently or else badminton event get kick out of Olympics is very probable. Imagine there was 0 airtime given in Olympics 1996 and 2000 in US. First thing first, generate interest to kids in USA for badminton and import high profile players to play for US as champion will help to promote this game and bring in more sponsors hence money. We need more than just Gunawan, bring in Taufik, bring in Peter Gade, bring in Boa Chulai, bring in Lee Hyun Il, bring in Sigit/Chandra... sounds crazy but we may be in the do or die pahse? I just hope badminton doesn't extinct in my lifetime ;-)
