All England Prize Money

[Michael Banks]

I read recently that the total prize money for the All England Badminton champs was £56k. Is this true? I'm sure it can't be as it so low :confused: It also looked like Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson got a cheque for $12k between them. £3k for winning the most prestigious badminton tournament in the world is a bit of a joke. I'm sure Yonex can stump up more than that, sounds like a joke to me.

[Loafer]

ummmmm 12k split 2 ways = 3k each?

anyway, assuming I have either missed something or that was a typo Mr Banks, I would agree, that HAS to be incorrect? 56K TOTAL prize money? Yonex are REALLY letting the sport down if that is the highest prize money they can afford and yet they still insist no other manufacturers can perform commercial activities!! That makes their control over the AE untenable, surely.

Larry

[Michael Banks]

cheque for $12k between them. £3k for winning the most prestigious badminton tournament in the world. $12k, not pounds
;)

[Michael Banks]

Found this, even the Duke of York is getting in on the act.

Robertson and Emms make semis
By Richard Collins
(Filed: 12/03/2005)

Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms, who reached the semi-finals of the All-England Championships in Birmingham with a 15-9, 15-3 win over Indonesia's Anggun Nugrono and Yunita Tetty yesterday, are supporting an outspoken excursion into sports politics and economics by the Duke of York, the patron of the Badminton Association of England.

The Duke used his visit to the 106-year-old event earlier this week to launch unexpected criticism of its most recent sponsorship deal, according to the Olympic silver medallists.

Although the new five-year arrangement with Yonex extends the Japanese equipment company's relationship with the world's most prestigious open tournament to more than 25 years, the prize money will not have risen in two decades. Hence the royal patron has warned that the tournament risks losing its prestige - and Robertson and Emms agree.

"He was criticising the association for making a five-year deal with prize money like that," said Robertson. "He said they should be putting more money into a tournament with high prestige like this."

Emms said: "If it still has $125,000 [£65,000] prize money for the next few years while Asian tournaments go over the $300,000 [£156,000] mark, the All-England's prestige will not last long. He was very passionate about it. He said the All-England should have found a real commercial interest for the players and the prize money to make it an event to which everyone comes. And he's right."

[Loafer]

$12k, not pounds
;)
ahhhhhhhhhhhh, still criminally low though.

obviously a "royals-light" news week

[Loafer]

and I assume in the light of the recent name changes and his patronage of the organisation; he is now to be referred to as

"Duke York"

[Rodrigues]

Yonex must be doubly miffed :mad: - not only at the adverse comments from the BE President regarding prize money, but by having to suffer watching the most popular Finals match by a million miles, being won by wielders of Carlton rackets, wearing Carlton kit and Hi-Tec shoes!! :D Still, they have sponsored the tournament through thick and thin - but isn't it time to up the cash!!? :confused: Or allow other sponsors a slice of the action - or preferably both. Wouldn't that ultimately be for the good of the game? :confused:

[dlp]

The AE is only a 4 star now, with Worlds a 7 star, Korea Open a 6 star , Singapore 5 star etc, I wonder how long we will be able to claim it is a big event. £65,000 prize money sounds like peanuts, I'd like to know how many Yonex rackets are sold at the AE merchandising stores over the week, selling a thousand top end rackets alone would I imagine give a profit to cover the prize fund...certainly the proportion of spectators with new racket, shoes , shirt etc seems high.

[rhombus]

Can anybody tell me if there was coverage of the All England on the BBC/ITV at the weekend ? If it was on did they show the third end of a game i.e. 13-13 all.
Why is it that the BBC devote precious time in their scheduling in June to Veterans Mens Doubles with guys
like Ken Rosewell, John Newcombe and Tony Roche?
I've just looked on the Wimbledon website and the 2004 Mixed Doubles winners walked away with £90,000
(shared ). This is in comparison with the Mens Singles Winner who walked off with £602,000. Total tournament prize for 2004 of £ 9,707,280.
Why are the sponsors of Badminton not matching these figures ?
Why is Badminton not high on the TV scheduling when it is the 2nd most popular participation sport( only behind Football ) ?
Who is to blame ?
And why have I been asking the same questions for 25 years ?

Comments please

[Woody]

I saw nothing of the actual game on BBC or ITV but did see a lot on Sky Sports. They covered all of the finals and showed a lot from the quarters and semis.

BBC did talk about it on the 10pm news.

[redkingjoe]

AE is not considered a small sports event in Hong Kong. AE got a lot of media coverage on TVs and newspapers even though HK was doing very bad(as expected). it sounds very strange to me that the Prize money is so low....and it's only a 4 stars event...who can negotiate to "give" more star to it? the Queen...

[Loafer]

I saw nothing of the actual game on BBC or ITV but did see a lot on Sky Sports. They covered all of the finals and showed a lot from the quarters and semis.

BBC did talk about it on the 10pm news.
that is bloody annoying, i managed to miss it all!!!

[Woody]

Thats a pity because although I only watched it on TV I actually felt wrapped up in the atmosphere (yes I know sad muppet).

I watched virtuall all of the badminton live at the C/W games and thought the event was very good but I have to say the sense of fun generated at the AE this weekend appeared tto be better.

Remind yourself next year 'must make more effort'

[rhombus]

What % of the population have sky sports, am I the only one with chav TV ?

[discostu]

i'm sure their prize money was much lower than that.

the mens singles winner got $10,000.

i'm sure it was around $7,500 so $3750 each which is less than £2k which is ABSOLUTELY PATHETIC!

what were they thinking signing for 5 years at $125,000 a year?!

If its so prestigious,how come Yonex sponsor other tournaments with greater prize money in?

Shameful

[Phil McBride]

I think that the tournament not being in Asia doesn't help it either, yes there are lower points tournaments in Asia but they do not have the presence of the AE.

I would be interested to see what the gate returns are. And then tha accounts for the competition.

Surely Yonex make their moeny back and then some with sales from the stalls on the whloe weekend so could afford to put up the prize money?

Why is it in dollars anyway?