31 July 2008
Badminton spotlight falls on England as European Championships
hit Liverpool and Manchester
The world’s fastest racket sport will hit the Northwest as
Liverpool and Manchester are set to stage one of its premier
tournaments, the European Badminton Championships.
The star-studded Championships will be split into two events for
the first time ever with the Echo Arena, Liverpool holding the 2009
European Team Championship from 10th-15th February 2009, while the
MEN Arena, Manchester will play host to the European Individual
Championships in April 2010.
Tickets for the Team Championship, which are set to feature many
of the world’s top players from over 30 different nations including
stars from Beijing such as British Olympians Nathan Robertson,
Anthony Clark and Donna Kellogg, have gone on sale at www.accliverpool.com with prices
starting at just £12 for adults and £3 for children. There will be
a 10% discount on all tickets bought before December 31st 2008 and
all Team Championship ticket purchasers will be given a 10%
discount on tickets for the Individual Championships when they go
on sale next year.
While Manchester has a rich heritage in staging top level
badminton tournaments, having hosted the Commonwealth Games and
being the regular home to the annual National Championships, The
2009 European Team Championship will be Liverpool’s first major
badminton tournament. It will also be the first time that the
European Championships have been staged in England since Preston
hosted the event in 1984.
Adrian Christy, Chief Executive of BADMINTON England said, “It
is great for badminton in England, and particularly in the
Northwest, that such significant tournaments will be staged here
over the next couple of years.
“Recent surveys have shown that badminton is the largest
participation racket sport in England and the European Badminton
Championships will allow us to build upon this
popularity.”
At today’s ticket launch, England stars Jenny Wallwork and Chris
Langridge took part in master classes with youngsters in Liverpool.
Wallwork, who was part of the England squad that took silver at
the European Championships in Denmark in April, said, “The
European Championships are one of the biggest events in the world
and coming from the Northwest it will be incredible to play in
front of a home crowd.”
Peter Mearns, Executive Director of Marketing at the NWDA, said:
“The European Team and Individual Badminton Championships are major
events capable of attracting large numbers of visitors to the
region and enhancing the profile of Liverpool and Manchester as
ideal tourism destinations and venues for staging world-class
sporting events.
“The Championships will make a significant contribution to the
regional economy and will further project Liverpool and Manchester
on the international stage, carrying on the legacy from Liverpool’s
European Capital of Culture year and Manchester’s World Sport 08 –
both of which have been a resounding success.”
The European Badminton Championships (The 2009 European Team
Championship, Liverpool and The 2010 European Individual
Championships, Manchester) are being staged by BADMINTON England,
Badminton Europe, Liverpool City Council, Manchester City Council,
the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and UK Sport. The
home side will be supported at the Team Championships by official
Team England partner Center Parcs, who recently became part of the
BADMINTON England family.
- ENDS-
For further information on The European Badminton Championships
please contact:
Adrian Hill, Head of Communications, BADMINTON England
Tel: +44 (0)1908 268400
Mob: +44 (0)7500 331816
E-mail: AdrianHill@badmintonengland.co.uk
Or
Jonathon Bates, Capitalize
Tel: +44 (0)207 940 1708
Mob: +44 (0)7825 427 461
E-mail: jbates@capitalize.co.uk