And i am not a fan of sideline coaching. Throughtout this tournament (BWF livestream), i am hearing coaches shouting instructions during points. Its just so noisy. The night before, everything is rehearsed,etc. This will add the excitement and unpredictability of the sport, imo.
I think people that say that there needs to be more money in the sport need to realise that the money would ultimately come from those watching/participating in the sport, which is us here. This money that people speak of doesn't come from thin air or from a tax. The majority of us have watched this tournament for free through BWF's youtube channel. More money in the sport would mean that you'd have a pay a subscription like pretty much every other sport. Would we want this? Tickets to watch events would go up, as would rackets, shoes, shuttles, bags, strings, all to pay for a larger prize fund.
PBL in USA is a horrible idea. It would lose money big time. Outside of California, nobody cares about badminton in the US. And even inside California, it's mainly the Asian heavy areas that would be interested in badminton. Most of California doesn't really care about badminton either. For something like a PBL in the US to draw the top international players to go to, if the costs were similar to India, a PBL in the US would just lose lots of money. For badminton to succeed in the US, it has to start at the grassroots level and get popular from there. The US is decades from being able to host a PBL with top international players that can break even.
From China. As China's economy grows and China gets richer, more money from China can be pumped into badminton. Likewise, if the other Asian countries get richer, such as India, Indonesia, Malaysia, etc, they will also pump money into badminton. I think Japan performing at the top level also helps badminton because money from Japan will start to flow into badminton if Japan can continue to produce top players in the world.
Hi Morten. I don't think you can force the popularity of badminton world wide. We just have to let the popularity of it grow. I think hosting the World Championship (WC) in different countries and continents would help. If a country has competitive players in the top 32, I would support hosting the WC in that country. So this means countries like Spain, Russia, Germany, and India, since they have produced players in the top 32. Another WC in the US may make sense because US also has some top 32 players now. If BWF can determine that a WC in Brazil would break even or be profitable, I would support a WC in Brazil, since that would be a first for South America. But I'm not so sure a WC in Brazil would be profitable. Having said that, hosting the WC in those countries is a one time event so I think it's okay. Beyond that, you just have to let the popularity of the sport grow in those countries. The US tried to "force" soccer onto the American sports audience back in the 70s with the NASL by paying for the top players in the world. The NASL ended up making huge losses and it eventually folded, hurting the development of soccer in the US by more than a decade. The MLS learned from the NASL's mistakes and instead of blowing a huge salary on its players, it started with lower level players, paid them poorly, but grew from there. Now the MLS is still continuing to grow and it's getting more popular, with teams being able to afford better players, and the salary being spent on players is rising gradually. The reason why the MLS is succeeding in the US is because they are willing to be patient and grow the sport gradually (rather than "forcing" it like the NASL). Most important though is keeping badminton in the Olympics. The Olympics is a huge way to promote badminton. That's why I hope more countries can win a medal in badminton. With India, Spain, and Japan getting medals in the last Olympics, it was a huge boost for badminton in those countries. I hope in the next Olympics, we continue to see a diversification of the medal winners and I think this will really help badminton grow in popularity.
Happy holidays, and greetings and thank you to you and to all commentary team of BWF World Tour. With the congested schedule, you guys accompanied us through a lot of matches this year. Good job!
more prize money across the board not just the top tournaments....coz more money = more coverage....across the board means increased frequency of coverage in media....you wanna promote badminton you have to put it on media more....all the time if possible get the sponsors to get items for prize instead of 100% money....that picture of Maria Sharapova given a Porsche after winning that Stuttgart tourney or something stuck on my mind for a while...prize money is still far away from tennis so try expensive items instead for more media coverage get the players to play with tournament visitors.... 15 yrs old nobody to high ranking local government official to local actress or singers or stuffs and make the media covers it....this before the start of tournaments or something formula 1 diversify its track into street tracks like in singapore....do something similar with badminton....hold the tournament on stadium with rooftops maybe or hold it on the place where they usually hold us open tennis...make makeshift tents to ward off winds....who knows maybe those used to watch US open grand slam will come try watch badminton if held on the same place badminton doesn`t really need very big place to be held....surely bwf can find attractive alternate places to hold tourneys in.less popular countries.to increase.media.coverage
I think some small stuff, other than of money investment, could be implemented. Standardized tournament quality, Small stuff in and around the pitch. Example: Like i remembered while i watched 3 tournaments live: 2019 World Championships in Basel, 2019 and 2018 edition of Indonesian Open. Those three are one of the biggest tournaments in the circuit, and there is not even a decent interview with the player after they won in the tournament! The questions are not even relevant, it is not audible in the stadium. Compare that to a woman's handball tournament in Champions league in europe that i watched. It is in the middle of nowhere, only the group stage, and the level is just 'european', and clearly the small stuffs are more thought out. Sad. And numerous other stuff that, i believe, could be implemented in world class tournaments (that this forum already have a lot to say too). BWF should help popularize local leagues; like helping Japanese or Indonesian leagues or national tournaments to have a bit more coverage. I know this is more up to the nation's badminton associations, but maybe BWF could push the assoc to do more? Like have a sharing model for streaming cameras or something like that. The funny thing is, like here in Germany, Badminton actually have quite a following, good league system or so on.. But nobody even realizes that.. I believe, players that are closer to home, is also what helps other sports to be big. And another thing: Instead of pushing for something like 'air badminton', why not bwf helps to search for material for new, cheaper and more sustainable shuttle? So that the cost of shuttle could be hold down? There are literally clubs here that have problems with ball availability to play! Imagine if the kids going in to play badminton, and the club cannot provide something as simple as shuttle?? There are more stuff.. but maybe later on...
Sports these days, especially the successful ones, like Basketball, Tennis, or Football are increasingly centered around promoting their stars. I find that a regretteable trend when it comes to team sports, but it still is what it is. Everybody on the planet knows who Lebron, Messi, or Ronaldo are, but most would be hard-pressed to name just 3 of their respective team mates. In tennis, everyone knows Federer, Nadal, Djokovic. Who is the current #8 in the world? I don't think a lot of people could answer that. So the stars are well-known and they carry the sport when it comes to marketing. In that regard, badminton still has a lot to learn. In this post Lin Dan/LCW era, the sport needs to put massive emphasis on its stars. It needs to show them frequently in highlight clips, social media and make them "cool". It needs panel shows hosting experts who discuss these stars and their achievements. The matchups between the best players need to be talked about before and after the games. Fans need to hear what the stars have to say about the opponents, chances for titles and their goals for the season (and not just from badly translated on-court interviews after matches). Badminton needs BWF produced little shows ahead of and around the biggest tournaments of the season that bring context to those tournaments. "Badminton Unlimited" is a tiny, tiny step in the right direction, but it seems complete random and most of the time has no connection to what's currently going on on the tour. The magnificent stories that could have been told today: The fight for supremacy between the two best XDs in the world Maybe the start of a new era in ws (the queen is dead, long live the queen)? The culmination of the greatest season of all time in MS The emphatic ending of Japan as the dominant WD nation Yet another age-defying title win by two of the greatest MD players of all time All of this would have made for great discussion pre and post match, would have offered opportunity to show personal sides of the athletes, give context to seasonal procedure and so on. What we got was a few pictures of some random, sweaty people akwardly pressing their hands into clay stars. In other words, badminton needs BWF-produced content centered around its stars, not air-badminton.
oh and if you want badminton to be viewed as professional.sport then really make it a professional.sport..... professional.referees....hawkeyes on all court....make instant replaya challenges available for any disputed calls you can`t expect the sport to be taken seriously if.you.don`t hold it seriously
obviously more $. how to get more $ is a whole other conversation. overhaul the c-suite and dump all the dead weight @ bwf. hire real executives with real professional sports experience. but that requires my answer above. depends on the state of bwf. yup. opinion on worldwide growth: show the world how making money is possible in badminton before trying to prop it up in poor countries. people will regard badminton as a 'career' only when it's possible to make good money. bwf is wasting time & money in developing countries trying to prop it up. if you lived in a poor country why would you want to pursue a badminton career for relative pennies? it's not worth your investment of time... the return on investment is nil. pump up tournament money in europe & north america & asia (since it's already ingrained in participation #'s). futbol, nfl, mlb, nba, nhl, tennis, golf, e-sports and to an extent boxing... why do people around the world pursue these sports as careers? $. all established before expanding into more markets when they could afford to... after they have shown how it's a viable career. and i am all in favor of the most controversial change that needs to be made: shorten the game for tv. without tv you'll never get the money needed to make badminton career worthy worldwide. this ain't rocket science. hell, it's business 101.
a non-badminton fan won't care about badminton stars if they aren't rich or became rich from badminton.
There are so many aspects to work on but allow me to insist on one point that is crucially missing from the badminton scene: the media / the press. There is no active badminton media other than the BWF coverage (YT, FB & IG) isn't it? Some site do relay information from the BWF or athletes' social media but that stops there. Who is producing any original content except the BWF? Which is not really a media but act alike because they obviously see there is no one present. Where are the interviews of the players, tournament organisers or coaches, analysis of the journalists and coverage of the upcoming and completed tournaments. A little page about badminton history wouldn't hurt the newcomers in the sports and so on. But it's nonexistent. I'm salivating every week waiting for the new BWF Badminton Unlimited episode to catch 30 mins of badminton exclusive content. Obviously I appreciate the effort from the BWF but my point is there should be some independent media producer in the sport creating original content. More content. When looking at football or other sports there are websites, blogs & magazines to help keep in touch with the sport and the athletes through such a deeper connection. I think fans would love a Kento Momota interview (just an example , could be anyone) with some photos of him at home in Japan to see another side of the athlete and get to know the other side of what we only see during tournaments. A report on the japanese camp. Some drills or tips from the pros/coaches. ETC. Why is the BC forum so popular? Because badminton fans got to feed on something and there isn't much. We are all speculating about this player or that injury it's really hard to get real information and/or original content other than from the BWF. If you ask me money is important but I doubt kids who will be the next badminton stars starts badminton because of money. They start the sport because they saw someone somehwere that had them dream about how cool badminton is.
Hell yeah, i dont even know who is WR 8 in XD or WD. Make the game more exciting, in terms of gameplay having the coach on the court is look unprofessional.
