Philip Hersh on Cinquanta pressuring Yu-Na Kim to compete at 4CC
- Thread starter french quarter
- Start date
Watch out, you might get bumped by Mr. Hersh!
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2009
For your eyes only...
What's this? The press of a button on a vanity? A revolving wall? Secret room! Sequined disguises? Holy zamboni! What is mild-mannered, part-time university student, Yuna Kim's secret? Once again, she begins her electrifying transformation into Bond Girl...
Meanwhile, at Commissioner Orser's office high above the streets of Toronto...
COMMISSIONER ORSER: We've just had word that The Cinquanta has bribed Mexican immigration authorities to the tune of One THOUSAND dollars and is now in Tiajuana!
CHIEF WILSON: This must be part of his grand scheme to destabilize figure skating in the Western Hemisphere!
COMMISSIONER ORSER: Flash the signal!
CHIEF WILSON: You got it honey, this is a job for...
BOND GIRL (kicking through the glass window): I'm already one step sequence ahead of you!
CHIEF WILSON: Bond Girl! *swoon* Love the outfit, the makeup, the black nail polish... but how did you know about The Cinquanta?
BOND GIRL: I just got a Twitter from Mao Asada.
COMMISSIONER ORSER: No Bond Girl! Mao is part of the conspiracy!
BOND GIRL: Ha, ha, ha, ha! Mao is really... Manga Moon, protector of skating in the Eastern Hemisphere! People became suspicious after she skated so sublimely to Chopin's Nocturne...
MANGA MOON (bursting in): But no one recognizes my skating now with Bells of Moscow! Ready Bond Girl?
Bond Girl makes suggestive eyes. They run out the office as best as they can, being on skate blades and all.
COMMISSIONER ORSER: The good citizens of CoP can rest easy tonight with those two!
For your eyes only...
What's this? The press of a button on a vanity? A revolving wall? Secret room! Sequined disguises? Holy zamboni! What is mild-mannered, part-time university student, Yuna Kim's secret? Once again, she begins her electrifying transformation into Bond Girl...
Meanwhile, at Commissioner Orser's office high above the streets of Toronto...
COMMISSIONER ORSER: We've just had word that The Cinquanta has bribed Mexican immigration authorities to the tune of One THOUSAND dollars and is now in Tiajuana!
CHIEF WILSON: This must be part of his grand scheme to destabilize figure skating in the Western Hemisphere!
COMMISSIONER ORSER: Flash the signal!
CHIEF WILSON: You got it honey, this is a job for...
BOND GIRL (kicking through the glass window): I'm already one step sequence ahead of you!
CHIEF WILSON: Bond Girl! *swoon* Love the outfit, the makeup, the black nail polish... but how did you know about The Cinquanta?
BOND GIRL: I just got a Twitter from Mao Asada.
COMMISSIONER ORSER: No Bond Girl! Mao is part of the conspiracy!
BOND GIRL: Ha, ha, ha, ha! Mao is really... Manga Moon, protector of skating in the Eastern Hemisphere! People became suspicious after she skated so sublimely to Chopin's Nocturne...
MANGA MOON (bursting in): But no one recognizes my skating now with Bells of Moscow! Ready Bond Girl?
Bond Girl makes suggestive eyes. They run out the office as best as they can, being on skate blades and all.
COMMISSIONER ORSER: The good citizens of CoP can rest easy tonight with those two!
Thank you!!For your eyes only...
What's this? The press of a button on a vanity? A revolving wall? Secret room! Sequined disguises? Holy zamboni! What is mild-mannered, part-time university student, Yuna Kim's secret? Once again, she begins her electrifying transformation into Bond Girl...
Meanwhile, at Commissioner Orser's office high above the streets of Toronto...
COMMISSIONER ORSER: We've just had word that The Cinquanta has bribed Mexican immigration authorities to the tune of One THOUSAND dollars and is now in Tiajuana!
CHIEF WILSON: This must be part of his grand scheme to destabilize figure skating in the Western Hemisphere!
COMMISSIONER ORSER: Flash the signal!
CHIEF WILSON: You got it honey, this is a job for...
BOND GIRL (kicking through the glass window): I'm already one step sequence ahead of you!
CHIEF WILSON: Bond Girl! *swoon* Love the outfit, the makeup, the black nail polish... but how did you know about The Cinquanta?
BOND GIRL: I just got a Twitter from Mao Asada.
COMMISSIONER ORSER: No Bond Girl! Mao is part of the conspiracy!
BOND GIRL: Ha, ha, ha, ha! Mao is really... Manga Moon, protector of skating in the Eastern Hemisphere! People became suspicious after she skated so sublimely to Chopin's Nocturne...
MANGA MOON (bursting in): But no one recognizes my skating now with Bells of Moscow! Ready Bond Girl?
Bond Girl makes suggestive eyes. They run out the office as best as they can, being on skate blades and all.
COMMISSIONER ORSER: The good citizens of CoP can rest easy tonight with those two!
OMG. This is so hilarious
Go Bond Girl and Manga Moon - Joined
- Jun 3, 2009
I'm trying to understand this from Cinquata's point of view and failing.
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2005
What's so hard to understand? He's running a business and his greatest asset from Asia isn't going to be at the competition. Are fans still going to turn out if she isn't there? Will the TV revenues be as high? Korea doesn't have another skater to focus their attention on. With the other top skaters not attending because of Nationals, I'd be concerned about this competition too if I was him.
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2003
I think I love to skate has it right.
I believe Cinquanta's position to be something like this. It is his job to promote ISU events and sell them to sponsors and television networks. This is really his main and only job. Everything else can be delegated to various technical committees and the like.
Yuna Kim skating at Four Continents in Korea = $. When top skaters like Kim blow off the events that the ISU is pushing, that makes the ISU look impotent and feeble -- it can't control its own members (federations), it certainly can't control the skaters, and thus it has no product to deliver to market.
I believe Cinquanta's position to be something like this. It is his job to promote ISU events and sell them to sponsors and television networks. This is really his main and only job. Everything else can be delegated to various technical committees and the like.
Yuna Kim skating at Four Continents in Korea = $. When top skaters like Kim blow off the events that the ISU is pushing, that makes the ISU look impotent and feeble -- it can't control its own members (federations), it certainly can't control the skaters, and thus it has no product to deliver to market.
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This is true.
Speedy's problem is that he comes across as arrogant and a bully. So even when he has a somewhat valid position he is not viewed as credible.
He dug himself a major hole by failing to see the scheduling problems 4CC would have this year when the host city was picked way back when and likely not counting on Yu-Na being such a huge international star by this point. Or that she would be training on the other side of the world in the host nation for the Olympics. Plus now that the men's WC is American and not likely to compete along with three of the top dance teams (due in part to wacky NBC scheduling), there are even fewer stars to attract fans. In fairness to him, it's likely that he could not have envisioned 4CC having the stronger potential field four or five years ago. Not enough logistical scenarios were planned out for this competition. Now he is desperate to dig himself out of it and salvage what ratings and attendance sales he can.
He also tends to be inconsistent in his decision making and often fails to see things from the anything but a European perspective. I think that is why many fans in the US and Canada in particular have such a problem with him.
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- Joined
- Nov 7, 2007
Ah, the voices of reason...
Giving these two posts a bump, so that maybe Mr. Hersh can see them (since he apparently hangs out at FS boards) and stop spreading groundless and polarizing konspiracy theories.
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2009
1. I'm not convinced that fans WON'T be there, though. And revenues in the four continents won't be that high outside of Asia anyway.
2. The biggest show case is the Olympics. Wouldn't he want his greatest asset from Asia to be in peak form for that? In terms of the future, Kim having a great performance at the Olympics means more for the sport, in my mind.
re: evangeline
Maybe groundless, but I think that the appearance of scandal will be enough to damage the sport's reputation considerably.
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2010
The arena is said to hold only two thousand ppl at its max and be located very close to Japan. Skaters as popular as Asada and Suzuki will most likely attract more than enough audience both from Korea and Japan, even without Kim. If Mr. C was really worried about any 4CC ticket sales, he must have put a pressure on Kozuka, who cancelled his participation at the last minute and could have filled up the arena with his fans on the day when super female skaters would not be there.
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2003
I don't believe that it is necessarily this particular event, the 2010 Four Continents, that Cinquanta is trying to fill seats for. I think it is the principle that the ISU is the boss over figure skating. When the ISU puts on an event it expects all skaters and federations to toe the line.
This is similar to the rule that says a skater who skips a Grand Prix event cannot be in a show or exhibition during the Grand Prix season. And the rule that says the ISU "expects" national federations to send their number one and number two skaters to the World Team Trophy. Again, when Cinquanta tries to sell these events in the future, he wants to be able credibly to promise participation of the top stars.
This is similar to the rule that says a skater who skips a Grand Prix event cannot be in a show or exhibition during the Grand Prix season. And the rule that says the ISU "expects" national federations to send their number one and number two skaters to the World Team Trophy. Again, when Cinquanta tries to sell these events in the future, he wants to be able credibly to promise participation of the top stars.
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- Joined
- Jan 1, 2010
The ISU provision that Mr. C mentioned in his letter provides that the ISU can sanction top ten skaters who do not participate in the ISU competitions without a good reason (injury/illness). That means Ando, Daisuke, Oda and etc, can get sanctioned along with Kim. Nonetheless, I've never heard that any top ten skaters got pressured by Mr. C's mail and phone calls except Kim, based on that provision. Any pressure on one specific skater does not seem fair to me especially in the Oly season. It feels like he has singled out Kim for whatever reason.
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He publicly chastised Kwan in the press between at least 2002 and 2006 Olys. She decided to stop skating in GPs to save her body. Not sure if the same provision existed back then.
BTW, that's why Kwan only competed under the CoP once (2005 Worlds). US Nats only started using the system in 2006. I always said this was a huge disservice on the part of USFSA to Kwan given that she was sitting out GPs then and they were supporting that decision. They knew she was only doing 2 big comps a year and yet chose to deprive their biggest star of an opportunity to acclimate to the system. Once she finished 4th in Moscow in 2005, she was playing catch up all season leading to Torino to adjust to the different spin positions and jump combos that were now necessary to win. (This was back in the days of Bielman craziness.) I think her injuries at Nats and pre-Olympics were a direct result of not having enough mileage under the new system.
BTW, that's why Kwan only competed under the CoP once (2005 Worlds). US Nats only started using the system in 2006. I always said this was a huge disservice on the part of USFSA to Kwan given that she was sitting out GPs then and they were supporting that decision. They knew she was only doing 2 big comps a year and yet chose to deprive their biggest star of an opportunity to acclimate to the system. Once she finished 4th in Moscow in 2005, she was playing catch up all season leading to Torino to adjust to the different spin positions and jump combos that were now necessary to win. (This was back in the days of Bielman craziness.) I think her injuries at Nats and pre-Olympics were a direct result of not having enough mileage under the new system.
probably similar letters without the mention of "threatening words"
Just because Yuna is the only top skater of her country, she has to attend every competition that is being held in Korea? sounds not fair to me.
$peed￥ should've asked Yuna before handing the deal if the revenue is his main concern.
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