Don't agree with the amount, abut at least I have pointed it out few pages ago. Sooo, lets move on hahaha
I'm moving, if you read last few posts... one side it could be wrong doing a mandatory (other said okay with the consideration they're too many if 12), another side having problem in running tournaments (which could be helped with that mandatory present there). Let things grows organically while some tournament stagnant with their competitive level and remain the lowest among others in the same level.
it would seem that way, but it relies heavily upon who makes the final. if you review all the videos from all ss/p tournaments you'll see the stands virtually empty even on finals day. ticket sales based on who enters are not a significant part of revenue for the majority of ss/p tournaments. lower level tournaments don't count on any $ from ticket sales. the earlier rounds (1 through quarter finals) are a throw away. not enough people worldwide can change their daily routines on account of a badminton tournament's early rounds, regardless of who is playing. lcw plays to empty crowds in malaysia, lin dan in china, etc... anyhow, i'm not one to argue with historical data when mandatory appearances were in place the past 11 years.
Early (pre tournament) ticket sale would be higher if they have a certainty all top players will come than 'not certain' and need to wait who's coming and who's not coming' later). Don't you think with the mandatory commitment will arise the fans coming to say hello and get their idol autograph? Once they got that bond relation, they choose to buy the ticket at any upcoming tournament. We will agree about a fanatic fans will auto buy the ticket and don't care where is the tournament were held. And why don't we increase the number of these kind of fans through this mandatory commitment?
the early rounds go from 9:00 am to 10:00 pm or later. you don't know who plays when until the day before. not only that, matches ALWAYS run behind schedule (because bwf schedules them too close together) making it extremely unpredictable when your favorite athlete will be playing. running 2 hours behind schedule is common. for autographs you need to catch your fave player wandering around a public access part of the venue. the superstars are only obligated to do 1 autograph/photo session for 1 hour the whole week if requested by the host organizer. but the fans rarely know which day it will be. it's usually scheduled during semi's or finals... but if the player ended up losing early, well, you can guess what won't be happening. they can't sign autographs or take pics if they left town. the handful of true fanatics always take tuesday thru sunday off from work. ha!
Just info, the scheduling for next year SSP and PoP will be good. R32 will be separated into 2 days, Tuesday & Wed, no qualification stage. With 4 courts, we will have 10 matches per court for both day (about 8 hours 'only'). Players reaching final at previous week tournament can be set to play at wednesday to have extra rest (XD basically). The only unfairness with this schedule is the break for players who played on tuesday
i wonder how they're going to decide which 40 matches play on tuesday & wednesday. anyone have any ideas they'd like to share?
No. I voted assuming this is about the number of the mandatory tournaments set by BWF for 2018. This is sport tournaments not a world tour concert. Every player should decide which tournaments they want to participate themselves (or the one who pay their salaries). They need to earn for their livings. If the (top) players get paid by BWF for being in the top 15 then yes as a part of their job, but they do not and bwf isn't paying them for their effort, expenses nor time. It should be decided by the ones who pay the players (sponsors or national teams). Or if they were independent players, then they should decide it themselves. If they want those players to take part just to please the crowds then they should at least compensate them for their "effort". To fly all over takes time, physical energy, money or even more especially if the tournaments could be back to back within a month. And to everyone's surprise, not all top players has the net worth of Lin Dan who could afford to just 'lose' in the first round and not be bothered by the deficit. It is not easy to get sponsors just because you are top ranks players as some people may have thought. We might know the reasons for this new rule. One is to prevent the audience-magnet certain top players to skip the tournaments. Maybe for fund raising, they could consider to hold exhibition matches between the top rank players after the match is over then it could might just attract more audiences. But then again it is always about the cost. Professional sports should be mainly about the players to earn their livings. They are not playing badminton for fun like one do hobbies, they train everyday to be able to earn enough to support their lives and their families. To fine them or force them to participate in tournaments is just ridiculous. Single players might be able to earn a bit from the tournaments. But the prize money for double players are too small compared to the expenses needed to accommodate two players (airfares, hotels, food etc) unless they can proceed to the Semi Final. And for some players $5000 might be nothing compared to what they might have to sacrifice if they fly over and to just lose in R32 or R16. Who knows the medical expenses they need to spend for any injuries or health issues just for the trip. Another aspect to consider is their fitness. If you are young uprising players then you might be more than happy to fly all over the globe to participate in as many as tournaments to gain ranks or titles. But for those who are already on the top with many titles on their hand and not so young anymore, what was there to gain participating in lower level tournaments? Definitely not the prize money nor titles, they just want to earn enough points and fit enough to be qualified and to compete in higher level tournaments. And again, that's entirely up to them. They have enough obligations to be fulfilled in many other tournaments representing their countries who PAY them accordingly. For so many reasons, it is NO. Let the players decide what is best for them. Their well-being is their main asset.
I kind of very much agree with this. If a sport is healthy it should be able to support itself, that is, players are willing to put it as a career and make sacrifices to play tournaments and earn prize money to make a living. If players are not willing to do this it's simply because their reward (prize money) does not equate or overtake the amount of time/effort needed to reach the top. Having a minimum mandatory number of tournaments suggests that badminton on an international level really isn't in a healthy place. The ticket sales and the world governing body (BWF) are not able to raise enough funds for athletes to feel that playing as many tournaments as possible is worth it to them. Therefore, the only thing left is to have their respective national federations pay them a salary like any other job. If you're earning a fixed salary like anyone else, where's the incentive to play every tournament? Prize money become a "bonus" as opposed to "can't live without". This is also why independent players find it hard to support their careers purely on tournament winnings. Would you train 24/7 and make life sacrifices, if your tournament results are the difference between paying bills and not paying bills? This is like saying if you're in an office job, then unless you're a manager or CEO, you will not be able to survive. Would you stay in a job like that? I feel like the responsibility lies with the BWF. It's their job to make sure that players want to play the sport professionally and play tournaments day in day out. It is not the responsibility of the players to help the BWF in order to help themselves. I don't see how having top players play mandatory tournaments help the fan experience anyway. Do you prefer knowing Lin Dan not playing a tournament, or seeing him in the draw but then knowing that he will play to lose in the first round? What if one day all these recent legends of the sport retire, does the sport just die because there will be no crowd favourites doing BWF's job for them? BWF needs to do better in marketing the sport. I see some progress already with a new world tour website, which is a good start, but to illustrate some issues - currently the main website is a "fan" website. Which professional sport's governing body uses a fan site as its main website? When each of the four grand slams of tennis roll around everyone around the world knows about it. When All England comes unless you're into badminton you wouldn't even hear about it. There's simply a lack of exposure, which leads to lack of tv interest, and we all know where the money in sport comes from these days. Don't use the players as a tool to sort out these issues. Sort it out using other methods and the players will come to play.
And I have this impression that BWF is somehow forgetting that they don't really have the authority or control over the players nor the associations the players belong to. IF the associations are fed up with the demands or rules set up by BWF they have an option to just not send their top players out to any tournament at all before the Olympics qualification. They have to protect their own assets for the more important events of their interest. Then what BWF is going to do? The top players have other option to earn (much more) money by playing in leagues or sponsorship event. I am sure they don't have any problem paying the fines if they were required to do so. BWF might need to focus on the quality over quantity. Having too many tournaments in a calendar year is in fact decreasing the quality and the prestigious value of each tournament itself. Apart from SC,TC,UC,WC, OG or AG, All England seems to be the only tournament that almost if not all (top) players would consider worth throwing everything else aside. What wouldn't any player do to win an AE title(s)? Even 5,6 times winners are still motivated to come back for more. I am not so sure what BWF is trying to gain from this new mandatory rules in long run in terms of the quality of the sport itself. Even the ever hard working LCW complained about the number and we know how willing he was to participate in many tournaments in the past.
