You might want to take a look at the lack of promotion of
badminton in the
US rather than tennis. The USTA (and the ATP) is doing a much better job of promoting tennis in this country than the
USAB is doing with badminton. Even tho' tennis saw its greatest popularity back in the 1970s, it is still thrive in most parts of the US. The USTA appears to be doing a fairly decent job of promoting the sport in this country. Likewise, the ATP seems to be doing a good job of promoting men's tennis worldwide.
Badminton's popularity in the US peaked in the period from the 1930s thru the 1960s. During this period, particularly from the late 1930s thru to the late 1960s, the US produced quite few world class players. Interest in badminton in the US waned as big money went into other sports. Other factors contributed to this decline in popularity. The USAB (former known as the USBA and the ABA) has not done much in the past 4 decades to renew nterest in badminton in the US. There has been some increased interest in the past decade or two in areas where recent Asian immigrants have settled.
According to some metrics, badminton is actually the #2 sport in the world (after soccer/fubol). In the US, its status has been very poor in the past 40 years or so. Badminton appears to be very well-promoted and very popular in Denmark, the UK, China, Indonesia, Malaysia as well as other parts of Europe and many other parts of SE Asia. Granted, much of the success of badminton in China (& Denmark?) is due to goverment subsidies of the sport.
You might get more input about all this in the forums at
BadmintonCentral.
