About the MBA

Our Vision
Providing quality opportunities and the greatest sense of enjoyment for players at all levels

Our Mission
To provide effective leadership, successful programmes and financial stability to promote sustainable development of badminton in Manawatu

Manawatu Badminton Association (MBA) is an incorporated society and our main function is to develop and promote badminton in our region. The MBA is one of 26 regional associations and is affiliated to Badminton New Zealand. Our Board meets regularly to discuss strategy, finance and governance to provide the operational staff with support to help grow the game of badminton in the Manawatu. We currently employ a full–time Community & Development Manager (Sandra Lynch), part-time events officer (Cassandra Feasey) and a part-time Shuttle Time Coaching Officer (Joshua Curry).  This is so we can expand our services, increase participation numbers and implement programmes to improve our playing standards in the Manawatu.

What do we do?

  • We are passionate about our juniors and runs a variety of initiatives such as:
  • Every season we run weekly junior representative training squads. Our teams compete in the Central Region Inter association competitions for U19s, U17s, U15s and U13s.
  • We run annual Primary, Intermediate and Secondary School competitions.
  • We run the Shuttle Time programme in schools.  Since 2012 we have run badminton programmes in local schools with around 3,000 participants taking part each year.
  • We run School Holiday programmes for children of all abilities in January, April, July and October.
  • Annually we assist Badminton NZ by hosting the National Junior Teams event in CET Arena Manawatu in Palmerston North during the July school holiday. There are hundreds of participants from teams all over NZ! So Awesome to see U13s through to U19s battling from their association on court!
  • We want all our players at a Senior badminton level to enjoy themselves and so we have competitions and development programmes to cater for everyone such as:
    • Our Thursday Night League Team Competition runs every Thursday in the B&M Centre CET Arena, which goes all year around. This caters for beginners to advanced players and is made up of a mixture of business house teams, club teams, social teams and family/friend teams.
    • We run senior representative training squads and our Teams currently compete in Badminton New Zealand’s Inter-Association Team Competition in Senior, Masters, Veterans and Super-Vets Categories
    • We facilitate Badminton Coaching Courses for any players interested in becoming a coach
    • Volunteers and Officials are an invaluable part of the badminton community and we are grateful for all their work and effort helping out and officiating at our events

A huge THANK YOU for the assistance to our funders – NZCT, Pub Charity, TAB, Sport Manawatu, Mainland Foundation, Lion Foundation and Masonic Youth Trust.