Has anyone had a look at the 2003 IBF report? if you haven't had a chance you can download it from worldbadminton.net website. i had a read of it and my focus was on the financial statements, year ending 31 December 2003. in both 2002 and in 2003 there were operating deficits (operating loss) with income less than expenditures. The problem is the gross income for both years. in 2003 gross income was $1 026 302 (just over a million) and in 2002 gross income was $1 641 192. There were a number of reasons why there was less income in 2003, mainly due to the postponement of world championships because of SARs. What i have trouble comprehending is if badminton is so popular around the world, then why is the IBF making peanuts out of it. Based on the president's and CEO's report, I suggest that if badminton wants to improve then drastic changes needs to be implemented. However, if the board wants to leave badminton just as a 'social' sport, which it is already viewed this way, then i suggest that badminton stays as it is and won't be a commercial sport. this is what needs to be settled before the sport can progress. do we want it to be a commercialised sport like tennis or not? you can't have the best of both worlds. badminton can be a tv sport if it wants to but drastic changes will be needed. there has already been many suggestions in the forums regarding this. the matter is up to the IBF board. if they don't make the tough decisions, then i think we should have a board that can dramatically improve the position of this wonderful sport. badminton based on it's popularity should be a 50 million plus revenue organisation not just a $1 million plus income base. that's probably why the IOC is thinking of cutting the sport from its olympic calendar. the board needs to put words into action!!!! if i had the time, i would definitely put up my hand because i want badminton to be even more successful than tennis because it is better sport. what does everyone think about these important issues?
I agree that Badminton is an exciting game to watch but people just don't have chance to see it and love it. Especially in North America, we can hardly see a badminton match in tv.
helo All of us here gotta/gonna/ want to make badminton as a popular sport as we are all badminton fanatics. I really hope that the board would make more and more commercialising ( sorry for typo,dono how to type it) of the sport itself.One of the way is to try making more badminton websites to try to promote it.I really want badminton to be very popular or even more popular than tennis or whatsoever racquet sports. Peace.
IMO, it's tough to commercializing a sport that doesn't draw crowds in earlier rounds. My impression from reading the reports of BF'ers are that people only pack in the venues for later stages (semi-finals to finals). Perhaps they should space out the matches and give the athletes more time to rest between games to improve the quality of the games. They could also reduce the number of tournaments, but increase the extravagance and prestige of each one of them.
Theres something strange about competitive Badminton players i observe......They are simply too disciplined!!! In tennis, basketball, soccer, we have those weirdos with lots of attitude. (Though I admit dey can have a kinda bad influence). These guys break all de rules n de public thinks dats cool. These leads to big advertising bucks and hence commerical success. In badminton, I hardly see any competitive player spotting long, dyed hair. Wearing strange clothes with funny facial hair. Almost all of em dressses the same and spot the same serious look. And their attitude is always: I gotta train more, i gotta perfect my strokes, badminton is my life... Well, dat appeals to a small minority of folks like us. But if you expect the majority of the public to take to that, i really doubt it.
Maybe we should just allow something like a WWC or something funky in badminton games to create more fun? (it's going to be messy!) like.....players chasing after umpires for bad calls......or something really out of orders......I know they sounds bad, but that's what would catch people's attentions......like NBA, NFL, baseballl.......they all have fights, trash talkings.....etc....and sometimes people like those stuff (but of course should not happen too frequently, otherwise it will be just like wrestling)
How can they elimnate Badminton? I don't understand how badminton is in jeopardy with the IOC. To my understanding, the IOC is cutting Mixed Doubles in the Olympics because they claim this will make badminton in line with the other racquet sports (ie. Table Tennis) where there is no Mixed Doubles event. If you compare badminton to other sports they are thinking of cutting, such as race walking, it's not even close. There are well known sponsors for badminton (ie. Yonex, JVC, etc) and tournaments such as the Thomas Cup receive fairly good TV coverage. viper_mav
I think we need to be more creative with the way we promote badminton. The only thing I could think of is to do a fund raising programme for badminton at a crowded open place with a large projector showing pros playing badminton. Probably a game of men doubles would be most eye catching.
actually i thought that putting more badminton posters about the Opens and give some information like venue and ticket prices would help. but i think popularity of the sports doesn't = more TV coverage. maybe in Singapore we didnt have a sports channel. and they are always using SCV to leech our $$$. sigh... i understand u guys not in the S.E.A will probably not get any chance to see a match on TV. but the onli time i saw a badminton match in S'pore tv station was the time where susilo 1st went to semi's in the S'pore open 2003. and it was cut off half way as he was thrashed??? haha. all the TV broadcasting company out there.. please wake up!! WE WANT MORE BADMINTON TO BE SHOWN ON TV!!
I recall a while ago a report on Worldbadminton.net stating that there was a plan to have top players tour around under-badminton-developed nations doing demonstration matches, but i never heard anything of it again...
I agree 100%, I am disappointed I could not even watch a clip of the recent Yonex Japan Open, the newscasters only said it is Japan Open. WTF. It is a popular sport in the world, look at how successful soccer is, even though america is not popular with it. Badminton should form clubs, it is big money. Imagine those world class players with media attention like David Beckham, have some spice here and there, and the media is going crazy.