Tara Lipinski's Night of Skating Champions show cancelled

FYI

They don't give a reason yet but it's at the Toyota Center Website (new arena just built here in downtown):

http://www.houstontoyotacenter.com/events.aspx?WhereFlash=Events&eid=10002

Refund info is given at the site (if you bought tickets).

The reason was that they sold a few hundred tickets only. So I heard.

windspirit said:

The reason was that they sold a few hundred tickets only. So I heard.

Click to expand...

If that's true, that doesn't bode well for the future of figure skating!

Well, (a) there's the economy; (b) it's Texas and we know how well Nats did in Dallas, promotion or no promotion; and (c) Tara, sadly, is no longer able to skate, no longer with SOI, and no longer a name draw. I don't know who the "skating champions" were, but my guess is probably the familiar pros with perhaps some skaters like Alexander Abt and possibly some other eligibles from other countries. Most people and familes can only afford one major figure skating event for the year. I'd be surprised if a city the size of Houston isn't getting COI, SOI, or both, which are going to eat up the figure skating dollars for most.

I feel bad for the skaters and Tara. This can't be easy for her, I mean the whole exacerbation of her hip problem and decline (end?) of her skating career. How much things have changed not even six years after Tara won the OGM. Very unfortunate.
Rgirl

RealtorGal said:

If that's true, that doesn't bode well for the future of figure skating!

Click to expand...

I agree with Rgirl. I just don't think Tara is that big of a draw anymore. I was kind of surprised they were having a Tara show anyways. I feel sorry for Tara (a little).

Rgirl said:

I don't know who the "skating champions" were, but my guess is probably the familiar pros with perhaps some skaters like Alexander Abt and possibly some other eligibles from other countries. Rgirl

Click to expand...

For example Yagudin, Baiul, Wylie and I&Z were in the line-up
http://pub76.ezboard.com/falexeidiscussiongroupdiscussionsonalexei.showMessage?topicID=5869.topic

I have forgotten which others were mentioned in the Online article. Those links do not work any more and more skaters were added.

Marjaana

lavender said:

I agree with Rgirl. I just don't think Tara is that big of a draw anymore.

Click to expand...

From what I've read, I think it had more to do with the fact that the show was hardly advertised. If people don't know there's going to be a show, they can't buy tickets. SOI is still coming to a relatively small town not very far from me, which means that enough people there buy the tickets. The show is quite well advertised, though, on the radio and local TV.

I think that I saw on some forum (maybe SOI?) that this show was advertised on TV. It is of course another matter if skating fans happen to catch the advertising.

Marjaana

I don't like reading stories like that. It's sad that Tara and those skaters more or less got stranded in Texas. Many of the reasons given here are all valid but, I'll just throw in: is disinterest in figure skating by the "general" public on the rise?

Joe

Joesitz said:

I'll just throw in: is disinterest in figure skating by the "general" public on the rise?

Joe

Click to expand...

Petrenko´s "Viktory For Kids" charity show in Danbury CT was sold out. It is true that the arena had only about 1500 seats, but the tickets did cost between 100-250 USD... The show got excellent reviews! The charity organisation is going to sell a videotape from this event:
http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2782

Tara´s "Night of Skating Champions" show was supposed to be on Oct 17, so I don´t think the skaters were actually stranded in Texas, so to speak, LOL.

Generally speaking it looks like that there was less interest at least towards some events in past season:

- Hallmark Skaters Championships (pro-am) did not sell tickets well (skating fans prefer it as a pro event)

- neither COI or SOI did fare well

Marjaana

I think a lot of the problem is simply how sports are viewed in this country. Last week, Frank DeFord's (SI writier) commentary on the web and NPR dealt with the demise of the WUSA (women's soccer league) and the lack of support for organized women's sports in general. Unfortunately, most sports are watched by men, and they prefer the contact, bone-crunching aggressiveness of football and NASCAR. One of his comments on women's sports particularly struck me:


"And everyone just loves gymnastics, at least ONCE EVERY FOUR YEARS..."

I think that's the point--the American public adores skating every Olympic cycle, but then tends to forget about it after that until the next Olympics. We had several good years after Tonya and Nancy that gave the sport a boost, but then the pro events became more cheesy and same old, same old and the appeal of them died. While many people may know the "best loved" (for lack of a better term) skaters like Peggy, Dorothy, Brian B., Scott and Michelle, the others are just not household names like these skaters. I think we're also seeing a period where the eligibles are better known than the pros, too and more likely to attract an audience. Tara has been off ice for a protracted period and was on and off due to injury in her pro career, and without sounding rude, she just didn't become the "next Dorothy Hamill" in terms of mass appeal after her Olympic win. While we skating fans may adore the other skaters who were to be in her show, the general public more likely didn't know many of these skaters beyond Oksana. Again, I don 't mean to sound nasty, Paul Wylie is one of my favorite skaters, but I bet if I mentioned his name to any number of non-skating fans, they'd ask "Who?" I'd also bet that the same group couldn't name the current Olympic Ladies Champion either considering how fast she went off the skating radar. Sad, but true.

I doubt that it was the headliner that couldn't sell tickets, because TL is pretty big here as this is her home. I think it has to do with poor advertising...I don't think I saw an ad for it ANYWHERE in town, even on the local news. If it weren't for this forum I wouldn't even know that there was a show. That doesn't mean that there aren't/weren't ads though...just that I didn't see any. And I'll tell you that this city is FULL of billboards...

Bummer for Tara and those other skaters who didn't get to do the show. It sounds like a lack of advertising did pretty much doom that show.

The Hallmark Skaters Champs was actually a really fun competition and it had a few big names in it (Alexei, J&D, Todd, Irina, and Sarah). I was surprised it wasn't better attended (although the night session wasn't too badly attended IIRC, the tech programs were the ones not well attended at ALL) and I won't be surprised if it never comes back to Columbus again. It might have been advertised in Columbus more, but that kind of show could have done WONDERS if it had advertised a bit more in Cincy, Cleveland, and Toledo among other cities in Ohio. It was not advertised at ALL here in Cincy. Columbus is about two hours from all those cities and that would have helped attendance I think. We came up from Cincy and it wasn't a bad drive at all. Some of these events and shows just need some good advertising and they won't do that bad at all.

I don't know if skating events are dying or if they are just not advertising enough for them. That is something we should really look at as the season approaches. Pardon my rambling and I hope this post made sense....LOL :sheesh:

I understand that e.g. "Bacharach Tribute On Ice" in San Jose was sold out (or with a very few empty seats). Of course there were also lots of Bacharach fans present, LOL... Anyway, I don´t know how well the Disson events are advertised, but the audience seemed to find that show very well.

In the same way I would expect the skating fans and general audiences to find other figure skating events and to attend them if they are interested in the cast. There is info on Internet about all events, and that is the very place to find events in the arenas near you. If skating fans and general audiences themselves are not able to use Internet, they surely have children or grandchildren to help them, LOL. In these days TV is perhaps not the best place to advertise these events, in my opinion.

Marjaana

Yazmeen - Your points about Americans preferring other sports is well taken. Few countries have baseball teams. At the same time, I think if Europeans had a choice of World Fiogure Skating or The World Cup (soccer) playing at the same time, the latter would win over big.

However, Tara's show was just that - a show. Figue skating shows are basically family entertainment, and of course, the avid fans of the sport. All posters had good reasons for the cancellation from economy to advertising. Unless something else was going on in Texas, I don't think American preference had much to do with it. I hope not.

Joe

I live in fort bend county just a couple minutes away from sugarland, and I have not seen one thing about this show, I would of not know about it except for the internet.