BADMINTON FEDERATION LAUNCHES MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR TOURNAMENT SERIES

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May 19, 1997 (NEW SHUTTLENWS) - As competition started today at the world badminton championships in Glasgow, Scotland, the International Badminton Federation announced the startup of a yearly multi-million dollar series of tournaments called the "Spectacular Seven". These tournaments will be the crown jewels of the badminton World Grand Prix circuit much like the Grand Slam in tennis.

The seven tournaments will likely be selected from the top events in the current Grand Prix circuit and will offer more prize money than before. Four of the tournaments will probably be in Asia, two in Europe and one in the Americas.

Speculation is that among these tournaments will be the Malaysian Open, the Indonesian Open, the Korean Open, the Japan Open, the All-England, the German Open, and the U.S. Open.

Plans are for the "Spectacular Seven" to be packaged and televised on a much wider basis than today. U.S. television coverage is being specially targetted by the badminton federation.

Also on the drawing boards are two invitational competitions which will be All-Star events for the "Spectacular Seven" series and for badminton as a whole. These invitational tournaments will truly be all-star events with only four of the world's top players or pairs being invited to play.

The locations for these invitational events may change from year to year and the host cities will be selected in line with the badminton federation's goal of making badminton more popular.

Sydney, site of the 2000 Olympic Games, is the leading candidate to host one of the inaugural all-star tournaments which will also be packaged for a hoped-for extensive international television coverage. The Italians reportedly have also put forward a strong case for Rome as a host city.

The badminton federation plans to have both the "Spectacular Seven" and the invitational events in operation within two years.