Pro Skating: Echoes of an Era | Golden Skate

Pro Skating: Echoes of an Era

janetfan

Match Penalty
Joined
May 15, 2009
Here is an interesting article about Pro skating focusing on the 90's but also with a look back at the earlier productions put on by Dick Button.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1009229/1/index.htm

The link above has the full article - below are some excerpts:

"Between October 1996 and March '97 figure skating is scheduled to provide 162½ hours of programming to ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, ESPN, TBS and USA, half of it in prime time. In one dizzying two-week period between Dec. 14 and Dec. 28, 12 figure skating shows will be aired on seven networks—none live—a schedule that includes such grandly titled competitions as the Continents Cup, The Professional Skating Championships, the Legends Skating Championships and The United States Postal Service Challenge."


"And, of course, money. Gobs of it is being greedily divided by a few well-heeled promoters and agents, plus a dozen or so marquee skaters. Todd Eldredge, Elvis Stojko and Michelle Kwan were each paid $100,000 by the International Skating Union (ISU) to skate in the Continents Cup in mid-October, an inaugural competition that CBS will air (on a show called Olympic Winterfest) in prime time on Dec. 28 and 29. The Gold Championship, held in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Nov. 23, was even more lucrative. Six Olympic gold medalists vied for a million dollars, with $200,000 going to each of the winners, male and female, $160,000 to the second-place finishers and $140,000 to those finishing third. Not bad for one night's work."


"Which explains why the World Professional Championships was the highest-rated figure skating show of the 1995-96 season, outdrawing even the world championships. The professional competition's numbers—which last year averaged an 11.3 rating and 18.5 share over two nights on NBC—were down slightly from 1995 but still impressive. Certainly the ISU has taken notice. "What I'm learning from the professional world is that we should, and will, begin integrating events with a wider range," says Cinquanta. "We're not asleep. We're thinking. This is the future."


"Among the competitions that the ISU is planning to add by the 1997-98 season is a top-jump event, sort of a game of H-O-R-S-E on skates, in which competitors try to one-up each other with, say, a double flip followed by a triple toe loop. "Ottavio's moving pretty fast in this direction," says Ferguson, who goes so far as to allow that the ISU might consider sanctioning its own version of the Rock 'n' Roll Championships."
 
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skatesindreams

Rinkside
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I'll always miss the years when I could watch the best in skating - pro or amateur - each weekend.
Cinquata should be ashamed of himself for not allowing reasonable television contracts to be negotiated; but, that's too much to hope for.
He'll get to see whatever he pleases, in person. Why should he care about anyone else?

We shouldn't have to depend solely on the Internet for coverage.
However, I'm grateful to have that; thankful for my video collection - and my memories!
 
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escaflowne9282

Rinkside
Joined
Mar 7, 2005
In fact, Cinquanta killed pro skating by trying to grab control of the whole shebang.

IMHO you really cannot put the blame purely on Cinquanta for the demise of pro skating. For one thing, the market was being saturated with skating and there were dozens upon dozens of skating shows , and pro and pro am competitions to the point that certain programs by certain skaters were being done to death.
Pro skating also sold itself short by having shows/competitions with silly and cheesy concepts, and so many skaters who went pro circa 1998 did not take themselves seriously and lost all of their skills entirely.
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
I
Pro skating also sold itself short by having shows/competitions with silly and cheesy concepts, and so many skaters who went pro circa 1998 did not take themselves seriously and lost all of their skills entirely.

Certainly that was true, but on the other hand some skaters pushed the envelope for original movements and musical expression in ways that they couldn't have in eligible skating. Kurt Browning did some incredible programs, technically stunning but also artistically innovative. And of course there's Torvill and Dean. Remember the program they did to "Venus" from Holst's The Planets, where a draped, invisible Dean carried Torvill aloft in celestial splendor? I hope there's a chance to see those kinds of programs again someday.
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
In fact, Cinquanta killed pro skating by trying to grab control of the whole shebang.

exactly. I really hope Scott hamilton is successful in bringing back at least a shadow of what they had in the 90s.
 
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