Lost Video

[rhombus]

I was clearing out a room in my house last night and came across an old video of the 1989 All England Championships covered by channel 4. Richard Keyes, Nora Perry and Derek Talbot were the commentators on the Yang Yang versus Morten Frost Mens Singles final. Frost lost in two straight sets, but at the presentation the winners prize money was flashed on the screen......£5,000. The Prize money this year was only 10,000 Dollars. With the exchange rate at the moment, this means the Prize money has hardly increased in 16 years. Maybe this can be the first priority for the management in British Badminton. This is a scandal, how can we encourage young people into Badminton if there's no money in it. I wonder how much the wage of the Administrators have gone up in 16 years?.

[TonyBear]

I know a number of up and coming juniors who express surprise at the paltry prize money with a degree of despondency as to their long term future in badminton. Some even suggest following Nathan Robertsons example and consider emigrating to Denmark when they are older !

Would have thought that Badminton England could have added to the prize money, this would certainly make the sport seem more viable and more exciting.

Similarly the prize money in Elite tournaments hardly becomes that of a professional sport.

[johng]

hmmmm.and just where do you think this money is going to come from???

Sponsors??? .hard enough to get ANY cash out of them as it is

IBF.....dream on

BadmintonEngland..possible..but which budget would it come from.coaching?, development?

Have to say tho, I have for a long time argued, like many others, that the prize money is way too low

[Phil McBride]

If someone from the UK was to win the AE would their member association not give them a top up bonus?

If they are playing at that level are the players not taken care of financialy by sponsorship deals and funding? In that case monies payed for winning or participating in tournaments would almost be seen as a bonus.

If people are money orientated then they should become lawyers :(

What more do you want?

[NeilNicholls]

hmmmm.and just where do you think this money is going to come from???
Where it always comes from. You, me, the public.
That's where Yonex, Badminton England, Sport England, the government, gets their money from.

Does the All-England make money or break even?

[rhombus]

Professional sport means not having to do other jobs to fund your activities. Nathan and Gail are at the top of the tree now, but I know from talking to players who are professional but are not there yet, living on lottery funding is impossible and sponsorship non-existant. The player who was coached at our club had to rely solely on his parents. When you see friends starting work and earning reasonable money, enough to socialise and invest in their future, it must be a major disincentive to continue in your badminton career. Especially when the administrators who run the game are giving themselves descent salaries. Do they say to Henman, Federer and Agassi to be content with sponsorship rather than relying on prize money. How many thousands of percent has the Wimbledon mens singles prize money gone up in the equivelent 16 year time frame?

[Rodrigues]

A lot of this comes down to exposure and public interest. Badminton is "Tennis Light" in just about every respect - equipment, worldwide interest, players' profiles, sponsorship, financial rewards, attendances at tournaments etc.

However, to look on the bright side there's a real opportunity now in Britain to at least partially eclipse UK tennis, what with the Olympic medal and our success in mixed generally. Tennis is in for a very rough ride with Henman and Rusedski ageing and inevitably on the wane and the future domination of the women's game by the hungry and hugely determined "-ovas" from Russia and surrounding countries. Our society is just too soft to entice the "nice girls" who play tennis to go on to compete at world level but we do have extremely skilled and determined male and female badminton players who can compete at the top level - and often win.

It's just possible that the great British public, despondent at our tennis future as H & R inevitably slip down the rankings, may turn more to badminton for their racket sport buzz, where occasional significant success is now assured (if only Nathan's shoulder holds up!!). And if this happens, the big sponsors and the media could have the game more in its sights, bringing the cash in?? You never know. It could just happen?

[Christina]

[QUOTE=Rodrigues] there's a real opportunity now in Britain to at least partially eclipse UK tennis, what with the Olympic medal and our success in mixed generally.......but we do have extremely skilled and determined male and female badminton players who can compete at the top level - and often win.[QUOTE]

Considering there are very few good tennis players in this country, I do wonder sometimes why tennis has so much more media exposure in the UK compared to badminton. For example, even when comparing the men's singles (england's main weakness when it comes to badminton) there are only 2 english players in the top 200 in the world for tennis, wheras there are 4/5 in the top 50 in the world for badminton!
In general, England is so much better at badminton compared to tennis, and yet i doubt the level of interest in badminton will reach similar levels of interest in tennis any time soon. I think this is mainly due to the fact that badminton is mainly dominated by a few asian countries and they give other countries little chance to compete, but in tennis many countries around the world have decent players with a high world ranking and so the interest in the sport is able to grow.

[rhombus]

When compared to the 1970's and 80's we are now bit players in the Badminton World. In the lost video mentioned earlier 2 English Mens Singles players got to the quarter final of the All England, narrowly losing their games in 3 sets...... Darren Hall and Stephen Baddeley. We would have Mens and ladies doubles pairings in the Semi-final and do equally as well in the Mixed Doubles event. Nathan and Gail are doing well,
but we are now struggling in all the other events.
We also had depth in all the events, Nick Yates not mentioned won the Japan Open singles in the 80's. Nick was regularly in the Top 20 singles players in the world but just scrapped a living playing Badminton. If you do not put the investment in, you will not produce the players.
We have therefore always been more successful in Badminton when compared to Tennis. Badminton captures the imagination in other countries why not in ours. Simple, it is not promoted, televised or invested in, and like the railways this has happened over many decades.

[johng]

Neil

You say the money should come from the public

I assume you mean from that section of the public that pays to go to watch the All England ??

I think the attendance figures for the last couple of years have been about 20,000.

Lets say BadmintonEngland decide to increase the ticket price by £2......that is £40,000 extra !!!!!!, Hardly a stunning increase is it, especially when spread between the 8 winners and 8 runners up, plus semi finalists.

[NeilNicholls]

Neil

You say the money should come from the public

I more sort of meant that wherever it comes from, it's the public who eventually pay the bill.
Either directly from entrance fees of those attending, or badminton players in general if it comes from BadmintonEngland membership fees. Or the general public if it comes from SportEngland (or government).
Yonex sponsorship money comes from badminton equipment buying public.
Presumably SKY pay for the rights to broadcast, so the SKY subscribing public help out.

more prize money eventually comes out of some of those pockets (or others I haven't thought of)

[Phil McBride]

I more sort of meant that wherever it comes from, it's the public who eventually pay the bill.
Either directly from entrance fees of those attending, or badminton players in general if it comes from BadmintonEngland membership fees. Or the general public if it comes from SportEngland (or government).
Yonex sponsorship money comes from badminton equipment buying public.
Presumably SKY pay for the rights to broadcast, so the SKY subscribing public help out.

more prize money eventually comes out of some of those pockets (or others I haven't thought of)

Oh so i'd be helping out more than once then?