How Coast netted 500 million viewers The inside story of pocketing badminton’s Holy Grail from Asia
and Badminton Oceania, is keen to raise the profile of his sport in the region – hosting a world championships was not on his to-do list.
Rather, it was the brainchild of a cluey bureaucrat in Tourism and Events Queensland.
“Someone at the Queensland Government did their homework before they approached us,” Mr Wong said.
“This is tourism – they didn’t approach us because they love the sport – they want the Asian market, they want the Chinese market.
“So they approached us and said ‘ can you get a world championship here?’. I said: ‘What?! We never thought – we are too small’.”
What the Coast bid lacked in size it made up for in enthusiasm – and competitive price. Mr Wong said the deal was “cheap” and the national body was delighted to jump on board.
“To then go to the world and say ‘hello, I want the world cup’ – it was like ‘ha! who are you?’.
“We had a great venue and logistics but the thing we didn’t have was being a world power in the sport.
“So we had to be smart. The trump card was that we went to the World Federation and said ‘if you award us this event, you will look good because the last 26 years it has been held in Asia or Europe.
“All world federations kowtow to the International Olympic Committee.