2018-2021 – Big bucks, new structure

Today, almost exactly 10 years after the kick-off of the Superseries era, the BWF unveiled its new structure of tournaments for the years 2018-2021.  China, England and Indonesia will host the three biggest tournaments, topped only by a 1.5 million  season finale.

One, then three, then five, then eleven. In that order, this is the number of hosts per level in new structure unveiled by the BWF after its council meeting today. Some countries will celebrate, some will be sad, depending whether their home event has been upgraded or downgraded, but apparently, the BWF had lots of candidates to chose from for each level. The final repartition gives a new twist to the international calendar, with one Super Finale – the host of which is to be decided later – a US$ 1,5 million event and a significant gain in prize money for all tournaments that will be played in this four year period.

“Our tournaments have grown in stature and appeal significantly in recent years and, with each cycle, we evaluate progress and assess how we can improve our events,” said BWF President Poul-Erik Høyer.

“We have determined the time is right for badminton to soar even higher and our key goals are to showcase our sport at a high level of presentation and competitiveness, to increase television coverage for the sport and to increase the star quality and popularity of the top players globally through increased television coverage.”

The prize money gets a big boost for some events, which double their prize money – for instance, France goes from US$350,000 to US$750,000.

The new structure:

Level 1:
(Superseries finals, US$1.5 million): to be decided
Level 2:
China, England and Indonesia (US$1 million)
Level 3:
China, Denmark, France, Japan and Malaysia (US$700,000)
Level 4:
Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand (US$350,000)
Level 5:
Australia, Chinese Taipei, Germany, India, Korea, Macau, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand and USA (US$150,000)

Photo: Poul Erik Hoyer and Gustavo Salazar (Copyright: BWF)