ISU Changes to GP

VIETgrlTerifa · Apr 2, 2005

Eliza said:
Excuse me while I ramble on a bit here.

I've always enjoyed the GP's, but have never understood why ISU decided they needed to have a GP Final. I'm sure an official explantation has probably been in print somewhere, but I don't remember. I've always thought the final is unnecessary. The skater's had Nationals, Worlds, and every 4 years (or 2 years one time) there were the Olympics.

Then the GP final was brought in & now there's Four Continents. At least I can understand the reason for having 4C. I think it is meant to take the place of the long defunct North American Championship & include all other non-European countries,

To me, the GPF is just not necessary. I tend to not take it seriously - mostly because at one time the format was so silly. The skater's in 1st & 2nd competed in the final for gold & silver. Skater's in 3rd & 4th skated for bronze & 4th - they couldn't finish any higher than 3rd. 5th & 6th followed the same format. It was the most stupid format. I always wondered "Why bother, it's so meaningless". Even now that the format has changed, I still don't see why they have it.

I guess I just remember the days before GPF & I never felt that anything was missing.

Was the creation of the GPF an attempt to make the individual GP's more interesting to skating fans? Did they think they could sell more tickets if the GP's were made to seem more important by having a final? I know attendance at Skate America was pretty bad in 1989 when it was in my home town. That's the only reason I can think of.

Eliza

The GP series were an idea by the ISU to cash in on the skating boom. People forget that having the GP events as a series with a final were intially just a made-for-tv idea in order to make money.

thisthingcalledlove · Apr 2, 2005

VIETgrlTerifa said:
The GP series were an idea by the ISU to cash in on the skating boom. People forget that having the GP events as a series with a final were intially just a made-for-tv idea in order to make money.

And now that the interest has waned, the money is barely trickling in...

Mathman · Apr 3, 2005

attyfan said:
To Michelle and Sasha (at least), the prize money (especially for the GP) is probably chump change compared to what they earn from touring, personal appearances, and/or endorsements. Does ISU prize money have a great impact for other top skaters, or, do they depend on the cheesefests? (the 50K that Irina won at the end of last year in Marshall's equalled what she earned on two GP events) II also read somewhere that, for skaters who don't have a great deal of competitive success, the "prize money" (if any) barely pays the cost of getting to the event. I think that maybe the ISU should eliminate the GP, and, encourage more cheesefests.

"Let a thousand flowers bloom."

As Vietgrl says, the purpose of the Grand Prix was for the ISU to get a bigger peice of the financial pie. And as Thisthing mentions, the pie has gotten smaller and smaller. This leaves the ISU in the position of trying to exert more and more power over less and less.

I absolutely agree with Attyfan. The ISU's attitude is, "What's good for the ISU is good for figure skating." This is backward. What is actually true is, "What's good for figure skating is good for the ISU."

The ISU should encourage skaters to do all the cheesefests, exhibitions, shows, tours, pro-ams, and competitions that the public will buy. Why should a skater be threatened with loss of eligibility for skating in a non-sanctioned event, and for making as much money out of it as the traffic will bear? The cheesefests do not negatively impact the Grand Prix in the slightest. If anything, they increase public awareness of the sport and make more people want to tune in.

Preventing Plushenko from skating an exhibition in St. Petersburg just because it is not an ISU production -- to me that is the epitome of cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Mathman

Mathman · Apr 3, 2005

Jaana said:
Maybe in the first place it was a bad idea from ISU to invent e.g. GP series with prize money? Without that and other prize moneys, attendance fees for certain skaters, etc. many of the skaters would have turned pro after competing successfully e.g. in the Olympics and there would be less skaters injured now (because their eligible career would not have been so long)? Because ISU has allowed prize moneys, etc., many of the skaters have become millionaires. Maybe the clock should be turned down and to return in the old system where skaters earned the big money after they turned pro, LOL?

I agree to this extent. The ISU should allow skaters to "go pro" -- that is, to try to make money from their skating as best they can -- without losing their eligibility for World championships and Olympics. What is ridiculous to me is the mentality that says if you skate on the Stars on Ice tour then you can't go to the Olympics.

What does the one have to do with the other? If you make your national Olympic team, you get to represent your country at the Olympics. This isn't 1912 when native American track star Jim Thorpe was stripped of his Olympic gold medals when it was discovered that he had "sullied the amateur ideal" by having earned some money playing for a barnstorming football team.

The whole idea of having a sanctioning board such as the ISU that passes rules about what athletes can and cannot do goes back to the European class system. The dilettante lords and ladies (well, the lords anyway) who participated in amateur athletics did not want to soil themselves by competing in the same arena with the lower classes, with those who -- ugh -- had to work for a living. No, the upper classes were too pure in their love of sports and sportsmanship for it's own sake for that.

(Maybe this is the origin of the phrase, "I just want to skate and have fun," LOL).

MM

Joesitz (RIP) · Apr 3, 2005

On a personal note, I prefer figure skating as a sport much much more than exhibitions like SOI and COI.

It's the competitions that matter to me with or without the two American darlings. Let's just have a simplistic GP program of many talented skaters who are invited by the ISU. They skate one event, The winners, then go into a semi final round, The winners of which will then go into a final round. Over an out.

The problem with this plan and the original program is the venues and their dates. They are the problems and will the ISU take any action to improve that.

Joe

ISU Changes to GP

VIETgrlTerifa

thisthingcalledlove

Mathman

Mathman

Joesitz (RIP)

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