New U.S. Nationals/decline of figure skating article

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070121/SPORTS17/701210593/1048/BUSINESS05

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=SPORTS&template=front (click on figure skating links in the second paragraph)

Detroit Free Press writer Jo-ann Barnas says:

"Figure skating is still the centerpiece of the Winter Olympics. Only thing is, the Olympics aren't what they used to be.

"And neither is figure skating...."

An interesting perspective from Tanith Belbin: ""I think it happens with any kind of entertainment, actually -- like a TV genre that's lost its viewers...."

I agree with that. In the 1960s half of the TV programs were cowboy shows. In the 1970s game shows were big. Now we have reality shows. That's just the way it goes. Something is popular for a while, then viewers turn to other interests.

On the bright side, Spokane is on pace to break the all-time attendance record for U.S. Nationals of 125,000 tickets sold. Since the population of Spokane is omly abot 200,000 people, that's a good turnout.

Thanks for posting MM. Spokane KNOWS how to host a skating event - they did a spectacular job with 2002 Skate America, and their very good newspaper - the Spokesman-Review gives incredible depth and quantity in their coverage. I would guess that nobody within a 100 mile radius of Spokane does NOT know US Nationals are in town, lol.

But...like with most sports....skating needs a star. Just about all of the big name American skaters are from 'yester-year' except Michelle and to a lesser extent Cohen, and neither are competing right now...and actually neither are even doing shows right now!

We used to have big name men's skaters ala Hamilton and Boitano and right now the best thing would be for Johnny to really go out and win big...because he has amazing cross-over popularity and is the only bona fide male figure skating star in the US (under the age of 40....)

I think it cuts both ways. Figure skating needs a star, but you can't be a star unless figure skating maintains its panache. There has to be something to be the star of.

BTW, a sidebar to this article mentions Caroline Zhang, Davis and White, Stephen Carriere and McLaughlin and Brubaker as future stars that might rekindle interest in the U.S. in the 2010 Olympics (the ladies free skate from Torino attracted fewer U.S. television viewers than American Idol or Dancing with the Stars, at that time slot).

Is this a dis of our current stars? What's wrong with Kimmie Meissner, Johnny Weir or Evan Lysacek and Belbin and Agosto? I think these athletes are just as talented and charasmatic as the stars of the past. They just have the bad luck to come along at a low point in the popularity of the sport.

Wondering how this article may have been rewritten with the past turnout in Spokane?

It's coming back baby!!!!!!! Big time.

Actually, this columnist wrote one great story after another as nationals unfolded.

Jo-anne Barnas is the Free press correspondant for "Olympic sports." She tries to give balanced coverage to many different kinds of events, but I think she secretly likes figure skating the best, LOL. Especially when there is a local angle (like the junior ice dance teams from Ann Arbor sweeping the podium in Spokane.

:agree: I read some of the links, I believe it. She was just reflecting. Just trying to bring attention to how it is "becoming" again. Not much rewriting, maybe the title would change.:agree:

I read in USA Today a couple of weeks ago that this season is the last on ESPN's contract with USFS, and ESPN does not want to pay USFS to televise their events anymore. They want USFS to pay THEM to telecast the events. So what's going to happen?

Is this a dis of our current stars? What's wrong with Kimmie Meissner, Johnny Weir or Evan Lysacek and Belbin and Agosto? I think these athletes are just as talented and charasmatic as the stars of the past. They just have the bad luck to come along at a low point in the popularity of the sport.

ITA. Johnny had some interesting things to say on the subject in one of the press conferences. He was saying that the emphasis in skating was on making difficult things look effortless, when what the general public seems to want these days are car crashes and football players beating each other to a pulp. I'm paraphrasing, lol. But I think he has a point. It's a different world now.

I think these things do run in cycles. Maybe skating will regain the popularity it had in the 90s, maybe not. I think it's unfair to lay the blame on the skaters, which is what seems to be happening more and more in the media. They're doing their best and they're great kids and fine athletes, by and large.

Johnny also said that in the wake of the dominence of Michelle Kwan and Sasha Cohen, nobody knows who [the new generation of skaters] are. That appears to be a problem of marketing, as well as other factors. Evan Lysacek talked about how the Japanese have been extremely successful in marketing the sport in that country. Wonder if the USFSA has been taking note? Or if the same strategies would even work in the US?

jsteam4501s said:

I read in USA Today a couple of weeks ago that this season is the last on ESPN's contract with USFS, and ESPN does not want to pay USFS to televise their events anymore. They want USFS to pay THEM to telecast the events. So what's going to happen?

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With luck, corporate sponsors will step in and cover the costs of broadcasting on ESPN.

The only catch is that Evan, Kimmie, and Emily will have to get together for a Campbell's soup dinner or perhaps for a Hershey's candy bar snack break ;-)

Mathman said:

On the bright side, Spokane is on pace to break the all-time attendance record for U.S. Nationals of 125,000 tickets sold. Since the population of Spokane is omly abot 200,000 people, that's a good turnout.

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I'm not entirely sure that this Nationals would be a good gauge as to the actual current popularity of skating in this country. Have you ever BEEN to Eastern Washington?? There is NOTHING going on for HUNDREDS of miles in ANY direction; this may have been the biggest thing to hit that town in -- well, possibly ever. In addition, it is an extremely conservative area so a family-friendly event such as Nationals would be very popular. It's not like holding a Nationals in someplace like, say, Boston or Minneapolis, where there is a lot more going on in general.

JonnyCoop said:

Have you ever BEEN to Eastern Washington?

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Actually, I have. I lived in Spokane (the Heart of the Inland Northwest) for the first 18 years of my life, at which time I was blown by "such wind as scatters young men through the world, to seek their fortunes farther than at home where small experience grows" -- and made my way to Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love.

OK, still not Minneapolis or Boston, but better than being dead (according to W.C. Fields).

Spokane Nationals was the best of my 4 Nats. The citizens there came out in droves because they advertised heavily and what happened was that the Nats produced a grand profit plus an increase in the economy of the city. They plan to hold more major events at the Arena. Good show, all around.

I do expect a turn around in figure skating by Vancouver. New stars from all countries will be coming into view before 2010. JMO

Joe

jsteam4501s said:

I read in USA Today a couple of weeks ago that this season is the last on ESPN's contract with USFS, and ESPN does not want to pay USFS to televise their events anymore. They want USFS to pay THEM to telecast the events. So what's going to happen?

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I thought the contract went through the 2008 season? As much as we complain about the coverage (and sometimes lack thereof) ... I am terrified that we'll have nothing once this contract ends.

Decline in figureskating.....

We've covered this subject before.

I disagree that lack of a star, in particular Michelle Kwan, has caused this decline.
It's true, the US doesn't have a stand-out star at this time. Kimmie doesn't have star qualility and she, in my opinion, has nothing special about her skating that's going to make her one. With the exception of Ben and Tanith and their great success with ice dance so far, the US men have no particular star and pairs have been a yawner for years.

However, declining interest in figureskating has been happening for many, many years. It seems the high point was when Scott Hamilton started Stars on Ice and then Tonya Harding helped with her scandal. I really don't feel the decline is due to a lack of stars. Either it's just a natural low at this particular time or people are fed up with the scandals and scoring problems.

I do agree that interest in the Olympics is not what it used to be and I really don't understand the reason for that particular issue.

Dizzy

dizzydi7 said:

I do agree that interest in the Olympics is not what it used to be and I really don't understand the reason for that particular issue.

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It's called "lack of narrative", that is the lack of any deeper emotional or psychological connection for most viewers. There are three parts to the puzzle:

1. The main reason the olympics became such a big deal after WWII was the cold war. The olympics served as a proxy for the war of ideas between the West and the Soviet Bloc. Once the bloc crumbled, the olympics no longer had any ideological basis to generate emotional involvement for most viewers.

2. The second thing that made the olympics unique was the spectacle factor. I remember in the 70's when cable wasn't available where I lived and there were just three air channels available. The olympics were a rare and unusual thing that dominated broadcast time when there wasn't that much available.

3. The 'amateur' mystique (an integral part of the spectacle). Everybody knew that many olympic athletes hoped to have professional careers of some kind after the games, but the dedication and self-denial of their 'amateur' status game them a kind of special aura.

None of these apply anymore.

1. No more cold war, no more over-arching metaphor. Terrorists (and the middle eastern cultures that spawn them) are notoriously un-athletic.

2. We live in a media and spectacle saturated world where the olympics just aren't big enough or unusual enough to get excited about.

3. The destruction of the 'amateur'. Instead of dedicated purehearted young people who practice self-denial and whose very existence bespoke dedication, we've now got a lot of cagey, hip professionals. Doping scandals have done nothing to help matters. Once athletic drug use meant eastern bloc she-hulks.Now it's degraded into a wiley and cynical game of cat and mouse. Everybody knows everybody cheats (or they might as well because everybody assumes they do) and too often those who suffer most are the rare innocents caught in the hysterical anti-doping dragnet (like the romanian gymnast in Sydney, I decided to never watch olympic gymnastics again and haven't and won't.)

The commercialized LA games were an important part of the overall cold-war subtext of the games, after the end of the cold war, commercialized olympics are just the same as any other commercialized event, except maybe more so.

So (reviewing) the olympics no longer represent anything except commerce first, and secondly sport as spectacle and there's too much other sporting (not to mention other kinds) of spectacle in a media saturated world. If they ended tomorrow I wouldn't care a bit.

Skating needs to cut the chord from the olympics and develop a larger year-in year-out audience. Period.

dizzydi7 said:

We've covered this subject before.


However, declining interest in figureskating has been happening for many, many years. It seems the high point was when Scott Hamilton started Stars on Ice and then Tonya Harding helped with her scandal. I really don't feel the decline is due to a lack of stars. Either it's just a natural low at this particular time or people are fed up with the scandals and scoring problems.

I do agree that interest in the Olympics is not what it used to be and I really don't understand the reason for that particular issue.

Dizzy

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I agree that the scandals and scoring problems have turned the pedestrian viewer away from skating. They get upset when the person they see as the best skater of the day doesn't actually win.
I think the reason that the Olympics isn't what it used to be is the internet. We are not as seperated into countries as we used to be. I know I don't root for a skater just because he or she is from the US. I root for my favorite skater no matter what country they are representing.
I am doing my part. I just upgraded my seats for Saint Paul and I read and talk skating all the time down here in the Heart of Texas which is football country. I even read figure skating murder mysteries!

Excellent post, Mafke -

While I am hopeful by Vancouver there will be an upsurge in interest for figure skating, it will be an uphill battle. Even using Golden Skate as an example, we have many posters who found the Ladies Division at Nationals boring and little mention was made of other Divisions except how badly the USFS is treating poor Johnny.

But your take on the 'amateur' thing is interesting. The money Kwan made as an eligible does not have the feelings one had for Lynne. I believe Kwan avoided competitions (which she supposed to love to skate) unless they paid big Bucks such as the cheesefests. Albeit she was ailing in pain but that didn't stop her from getting to the Nats and Worlds either to keep her fans in tact.

The international competitions will keep interest in the Ladies Division while the Asian gals battle it out. Unless Cizny gets those jumps down, I don't think it will go beyond Japan and Korea for Vancouver and with S&Z in Pairs. Europe will have Joubert and Lambiel, and a Russian Dance team.

I don't think we can bring back 'amateur status'.

Joe

Mafke, that was an outstanding and well-reasoned post.

I have been trying for a long time to firm up in my mind just what was going wrong with the Olympics and why figure skating needs to strike out in a new direction. You put the words and logic into my feelings about this.

Hmmm.......

It's the lack of a head to head i.e. Kwan and Slutskaya or Kwan and Cohen. It's allso the lack of a superstar. Not ONE American skater has that kind of charisma (Kwan's). That includes Belbin and Agosto and Evan.

It's also the direct result of what I call "the dilution of skating." By that, I mean putting on these declasse cheesefests and skating shows. They only served to over expose the sport via meaningless venues. It's the thrill of genuine competition, whether inspired by the Cold War or not, that fills the seats and pays the bills.

Thirdly and very importantly, the general public does not understand the scoring system. If they can't "participate" and understand how the skaters are scored, they become less involved and walk away. Everyone understands a touchdown, no one understands this unwieldy mess courtesy of the ISU

I hate to see it come to this, but I envision a time when no one televises Nationals. It just won't be financially feasible.

Joesitz said:

I don't think we can bring back 'amateur status'.

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No, and overall I'd say junking it was a good idea, but it did take away a certain mystique. Unfortunately, I don't think any of the powers that be thought about that any more than they thought about potential unintended consequences of any other major change they've made in the last twenty years or so.

I didn't know better I'd think ISU was run by a bunch of short-sighted people with no further aim than the next buck...