S
SkateFan4Life
Guest
Well, here we are at the beginning of the 2004-2005 competitive figure skating season, and once again I expect that my local newspaper, "The Asbury Park Press" - which has a circulation over 500,000 - will print practically NOTHING on any of the figure skating events. The Grand Prix events are never mentioned while the Grand Prix final receives about one or two small paragraphs. The US Nationals does receive some coverage, but it's buried at the back of the sports section. The World Championships also receive some coverage, but very little.
The only time figure skating is actually covered in depth in my newspaper is during the Winter Olympics, and as you can imagine, the coverage from Salt Lake City leaned very heavily towards the pairs judging controversy and very lightly on the actual competition.
"The New York Times" and other major newspapers contain more figure skating coverage, but even they do not cover the Grand Prix events or the other non-World or Olympic events in any detail. The Goodwill Games is practially forgotten.
Why is this? Really, this is so frustrating! Every single high school football, basketball, and baseball game receives pages of photos/coverage, and the pro sports fill the sports pages. Why are winter sports, and figure skating in particular, pushed to the back of the sports pages, if they are included at all?
Could it be that the sports editors consider figure skating to be a performance and not a sport? Could it be that the biased judging has so turned off sports writers that they refuse to cover the events? Could it be that the sports editors are somehow unaware of the legions of figure skating fans who would love to read about these competitions?
From reading this forum, it's obvious that there are many very enthusiastic, knowledgeable figure skating fans. I say that we pool our talents and contact our local newspapers and urge them to give figure skating some decent coverage, for a change. I can be a nudge - no problem!
The only time figure skating is actually covered in depth in my newspaper is during the Winter Olympics, and as you can imagine, the coverage from Salt Lake City leaned very heavily towards the pairs judging controversy and very lightly on the actual competition.
"The New York Times" and other major newspapers contain more figure skating coverage, but even they do not cover the Grand Prix events or the other non-World or Olympic events in any detail. The Goodwill Games is practially forgotten.
Why is this? Really, this is so frustrating! Every single high school football, basketball, and baseball game receives pages of photos/coverage, and the pro sports fill the sports pages. Why are winter sports, and figure skating in particular, pushed to the back of the sports pages, if they are included at all?
Could it be that the sports editors consider figure skating to be a performance and not a sport? Could it be that the biased judging has so turned off sports writers that they refuse to cover the events? Could it be that the sports editors are somehow unaware of the legions of figure skating fans who would love to read about these competitions?
From reading this forum, it's obvious that there are many very enthusiastic, knowledgeable figure skating fans. I say that we pool our talents and contact our local newspapers and urge them to give figure skating some decent coverage, for a change. I can be a nudge - no problem!