Where was the passion and pure love for the sport then?
I guess I've been unfair to Evan's legal right.
An athlete can be passionate about his/her sport and still fight to be recognized for his worth. After all this is the year of athlete pay/rights vs owners/leagues/federations' profit margins. We wouldn't begrudge a business exercising the right to charge a fair price for their product. Evan is his own product.
This sort of thing has been going on in sports that have traditionally operated under the rules of amateurism and shamateurism for decades. Given that skating is an individual sport without leagues, teams or owners, the best analogy to these arguements can be found in sports like tennis and golf where national federations fill that role.
In tennis, players in major events had to maintain official amateur status in order to be allowed entry prior to 1968. Once they started being paid, even for outside interests, they were barred. Still these were people with wives, husbands and families to support, so many of the very best left the majors behind for makeshift pro tours as soon as they made a name for themselves by winning a few big events. That led to a constant turnover in the amateur ranks with new champions every few years, but it was argued eventually that the very best players were pros. (Any of this sound familiar in skating?) Of course if you dug below the surface, the "amateur" events were paying larger and larger appearance fees under the table to hold on to as many players as possible. Everyone knew about it, but no one acknowledged it. Thus the term shamateurism. Finally, in 68 tennis became open to pros (thus the term "open era") and everyone was on the same competitive playing field again.
But the national federations still tried to operate for several years as if they were still in the amateur era. They dictated all the terms to the players about rules, appearances, conduct, pay, dress code, sponsorship, ticket prices, scheduling while also leveraging their relationships with them to promote events and make significant profits. They essentially treated them as employees. Eventually, things came to a head in 1973 when a Yugoslav player declined to play Davis Cup for his country. His federation suspended him and Wimbledon denied him entry into the tournment draw despite having an adequate ranking. The men's players association united around him and almost all the top players from non-communist countries elected to boycott the tournament. It was a huge international sports story and is still talked about today (especially in this climate). The tournament officials were caught off guard. They were certain they had all the power. They still held the event, but it's outcome has always been view with an asterisk because the very best did not play it. Following that fiasco, and players' rights issues gradually improved, still nearly forty years later, they are not on par with other big time sports. Most of the power still lies with with the federations, the grand slams and the regular tour events. Players are still paid a shockingly low percentage of profits have virtually no say in scheduling, pension, and health issues. For example, at this year's US Open, the players received
12% of the revenue as prize money and per diem fees. In the NFL, players players get 53% of the revenue as a result of their new deal.
Now I recognize all of the revenue challenges that USFSA and ISU face and that they are not the NFL or pro tennis, but the principle of fair compensation still exists regardless of status. These skaters are essentially being treated as employees and are forfeiting the right to control their image and the money that can be earned from it. If there were no direct prize money, as in the Olympics (where national federations and sponsors step in to fill the pay void), there would be no issue. But since prize money is involved, this is a pro sport. As such, the athlete has the right to negotiate in his own best interest at the very least. At best, they should have a seat at the table to help craft the rules of the sport, address the health issues involved and consider pension issues for those invovled in the sport long term.
My point is this is nothing new and is actually symptomatic of a larger issue in sports in general. All the major sports are addressing these concerns this year. Evan is not unique in this and should not be singled out for his choice.
