PETALING JAYA: Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) secretary Datuk Kenny Goh believes that the Badminton World Federation’s (BWF) move to extend the duration of the World Tour Super 1000 competitions from 2027 onwards and increase the prize money will bring fresh challenges for the tournament hosts but they will be beneficial for the sport.
BWF announced on Monday that the Super 1000 events will be extended from six to 11 days and the prize money of each event will be increased from US$1.45mil (RM5.684mil) to US$2mil (RM7.84mil).
The singles events will include 48 players competing in groups before the elimination rounds, while doubles events will follow the existing format of a 32-pair knockout draw.
The number of Super 1000 tournaments has also been increased from four to five with the Denmark Open being upgraded from Super 750.
The four others that will retain their status are the Malaysian Open, All-England, China Open and Indonesian Open.
“First of all, we are very happy that the Malaysian Open is being maintained as Super 1000. We want to thank BWF for maintaining our tournament’s status,” said Kenny when met at the Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM) in Bukit Kiara yesterday.
“We are anticipating that there will be challenges due to the new format being introduced by BWF with the tournament being extended to 11 days and an increase in the prize money.
“Retaining our status means that all the world’s top players are required to play in the tournament. For me, this is something positive for Malaysia. We believe this is important for the growth of badminton in Malaysia,” added Kenny.
On whether ticket prices for the home Open will be increased due to the jump in prize money, Kenny said: “We have not decided as BWF only made the announcement yesterday (Monday). Moreover, they have not released the tournament calendar for 2027 yet.”
Kenny then gave a thumbs-up to BWF’s efforts to increase the number of badminton matches shown on television.
The number of television-produced badminton matches will double from 1,410 to approximately 3,000 across all BWF tournaments.
Kenny said that the move will increase the sport’s popularity.
“I can understand why BWF want to extend the Super 1000 tournaments to 11 days. Some people might say it’s too long but badminton needs to be showed in television as much as possible,” said Kenny.
“If you watch football, every day you switch on the television, there are matches to watch. We even tend to watch some teams that we are not familiar with as well as it’s being shown all the time.
“If you are talking about Grand Slam tennis, there are 14 day-tournaments. Television ratings are very important. As long as you don’t get television ratings, your sport won’t be there. This is about getting the balancing act right between the challenges and the development of the sport.”
