No no no! This is not a catch-22 nor is it chicken-or-egg! By the way, by now we all should realize that the egg came first! Dinosaurs laid the eggs! Today's chickens are descendants of Dinosaurs. So, as far as I am concerned, somebody has to lay the egg first! That... is the job of the BWF. The organization most responsible for badminton growth worldwide. One more time for you, pcll99: growing the sport in the USA should be seen as an investment by the BWF for now. Planting seeds. Don't hope for a harvest yet. Patience and resilience are important virtues to remember in this very challenging venture [capturing the hearts of the US sport public]. pcll99, if you read my comments earlier, I explained to you about soccer in the USA and the lack of follow up after the 1994 World Cup is a mistake by FIFA. A mistake that badminton can learn from. Having an annual prestigious badminton event in the US is different than having the World Cup once every 100 years or something. I lived in the USA long enough to understand Soccer's history there as well as other sport's histories. Their good moves and bad moves. Badminton can learn a lot from Basketball, American Football, Tennis, Golf, etc. that are successful in the US... I would like to highly note that they were all patient and resilient, yet very VERY determined to grow their sport! In the process, they had to make a lot of hard choices. Dropping things that don't work [however unpopular this decision can be], keep refining their strategy etc. I don't know what is the evaluation of the SS finals today. But if I were the BWF, I would choose to drop the US$500,000 SS Finals in favor of subsidizing a $500,000 US Open elite SS. If I were Dr. Kang, the President of BWF, I will do exactly that. I know very well that the US Open initially will encounter problems finding enough sponsorship money. I will trim even the $100,000 subsidies for the SS host. That will be a test for those piggy-backers too... I view an annual US Open elite SS as VERY important investment. More important than subsidizing HK Open, SIN Open, Swiss Open $100,000 each every year. Drop all of that! These guys are too puny, too small, won't impact the worldwide badminton growth by much. Put subsidies in the USA! There are other factors that we need to do, of couse, but the discussion will be too long. I will just give this short hint: it is extremely important to open the eyes of Nike, Adidas, Wilson etc.... so they understand the awesomeness of badminton. Once these guys are in the game... we shall enter a new era of badminton popularity and prosperity. Seriously. Because these guys are really awesome marketers. They are keys to making badminton cool... thus growing the size of the overall worldwide pie exponentially.
When the badminton business and interest grows, many people and business will benefit. Only these few parties (that I know) intentionally want to keep the pie small enough to be unnoticed by the bigger fish. Because these parties love being the big fish in a small pond. Very selfish fish indeed. Logical (for their own good)... but selfish ...and their actions are destructive for badminton, actually...
Krisna, I too hope USA get its own SS as well. I too want badminton to be as popular as basketball or baseball in the USA... (I am Canadian, btw). I didn't know part of the SS prize money comes from BWF... can u tell me where u find that information??? i thought it's the other way round... Each organizer of SS get their own sponsorships (which is the major source of the prize money, and the other source is obviously ticket sales and selling broadcasting rights) and the organizer has to pay BWF a percentage of all receipts (ie, a portion of the sales ticket and sponsorships money, etc) or a fixed sum..... but i could be wrong.... if part of the SS prize money comes from BWF, where do BWF get their money from? Krisna, I think you and I have fundamentally different understandings as to how BWF operate.... I honestly don't know if you or me is right ...
I got my information from BWF people and INA officials who deal with them. I find it unlikely that they all lie about the same thing to me. Why don't you check with people around you in Canada who knows about BWF. In INA, we have a person in charge of 'foreign affairs' in PBSI (that's our national association for badminton). That person should know a lot about how BWF works. I think I know enough about badminton, BWF, the business world, and practical economics to have an holistic conversation on how to approach worldwide badminton growth. Each country who host the SS does come up with money (whether from sponsorship or government subsidies or whatever) but they also receive a $100,000 subsidy from the BWF. BWF receives $$$ from the IOC, selling TV rights on various BWF events [like the Thomas-Uber-Sudirman Cups], donations, etc. I don't have the latest breakdown on how much BWF is getting from where... BWF stopped publishing their financial statements in 2003 or something. I have not checked lately, but as of last year, nothing. They are very not transparent to non-key BWF members, unlike FIFA and others that showed everyone their balance sheet, profit&loss, cash flow statements etc. Maybe BWF has a lot of embarrasing facts to hide...
And for the post of PR, I will nominate you... based on your hospitality rendered to Avaatar after the MO.
1996-1997? I was in Chicago focusing on my graduate studies [no time to party], hahaha... But yes, when the US Open was offering a lot of $$$, INA players did come... That's for sure... Imagine if a $500,000 offering is on the table... That's a lot of money for 99% of Indonesian citizens, you know... When I retire and have nothing else to do, sure... Wait until 2040! Thank you, thank you, please vote for me in 2040! Naah, just kidding... 2050! sorry to sound so opinionated. I am very passionate about this topic.
We'd just like to see the results.. - Oh, you were all the way in chilly & windy Chi-town?? I thought you studied in L.A.? - I take it you meant $500k total prize money for a SS Grand Slam tourney?? It won't be much, but at least the winners will get at least twice the amt of prize money being offered in Korea Open SS (currently @ $250k). - Yes, i know you do get excited on this topic. Can go non-stop. The big challenge is: How can BWF or the badminton world show & convince those big companies that badminton is truly awesome? That is the $10 million dollar question, if you know what i mean. L.A. or SoCal might not be modest or puny in terms of its vastness/size area and might be comparable to the Big Apple in terms of media/PR coverage. But you can't compare downtown L.A. to Manhattan, N.Y. It's like night and day (just ask badMania)..L.A. has the Staples Center but imagine holding a U.S. Open SS Grand Slam event in downtown Manhattan (Madison Square Garden). ..they need to target/re-focus on bringing back the interest of badminton to the majority of the U.S. people, the sport which U.S. held a pretty good grip abt 60+ yrs ago. Not the immigrants from Asia/outside of U.S. Anyway, all this chit-chats abt how to popularize badminton outside of Asia have been mentioned and brainstormed a few times before in other threads. I was one of a few, before Krisna came onboard BC, who supported the idea of promoting/investing badminton in the U.S./North America market. We'd just like to see the result. Personally, if pro badminton can grow to nearly the same popularity as & offer prize-money close to tennis in the U.S., in 50 or 100 yrs time, i'd be thrilled. I don't think badminton will topple NBA, NFL, MLB or Golf simply because of the demographic and its long embedded tradition in U.S. culture (unless half of the China's population move to the U.S.)
cannot lah too old already by then woohoo good news another good news nah i have another thing to do thanks
Always good to have competition to escalate a bidding war. Better solution–Li Ning can sponsor the U.S. tournament, Yonex can sponsor the Canadian tournament or vice-versa
My Imagination of Badminton World Tour : Grand Slam (4), minimum Prize money 500 or 600 K USD, considered of Tradition & Commercial 1. All England 2. China 3. Indonesia 4. USA Super Series Elite (4), minimum Prize money 350 or 400K USD, considered of the Badminton Power & market 1. Japan 2. Korea 3. Malaysia 4. Denmark Super Series (5 or 6), minimum 250K USD 1. Australia 2. India 3. Russia 4. France 5. Vietnam 6. Other GP Gold (more tournament is better), minimum Prize Money 150K USD It's the time the GP Gold and less category are called as City's name tournament. So we have the Badminton pro tour in close place each others, the cost will be cheaper, 1. Guangzhou GP Gold 2. Shanghai GP Gold 3. Batam GP Gold 4. Singapore GP Gold 5. Johor Baru GP Gold GP same with GP Gold, minimum Prize money 100K USD International Challenger, minimum Prize Money 50K USD International Series, minimum Prize Money 25K USD Future Series, minimum Prize Money 10K USD
I personally would like to see: Singapore GP Gold Jakarta GP Gold Surabaya GP --> held 1 week before the Indonesia GS (wow...what a name ) Just like when they hold the Sydney International, Auckland International, Brisbane International right before the Australia Open in Tennis. That will motivate players to come and attend 2-3 series in a row in a particular destination (eg: South-East Asia, East-Asia, Europe, etc)!
