Who should USFS select for Skate America? | Page 6 | Golden Skate

Who should USFS select for Skate America?

janetfan

Match Penalty
Joined
May 15, 2009
IMHO Skate America really needs Mirai if they are going to sell NBC on some kind of television deal, maybe packaging Skate America and U.S. Nationals together like they did in the 2009-2010 season.

Alissa, the beautiful but unpredictable U.S. Champion coming off her best year ever in international competition. Mirai -- AKA "The Future" -- out for revenge after being left off the team last year in a controversial decision. But wait! Here comes Agnes!

Or will they all be crushed by World Champion Miki Ando, or Olympic champion Yu-na Kim, or European champion Carolina Kostner? Tune in tomorrow for the exciting Round One as the International Skating union kicks off its new season!

A much better storyline than "Can full-time Stanford student Rachael Flatt balance skating and studies and finaly win SA in her 10th try ;)

I like the idea of playing up Alissa's consistency and Mirai's revenge and mercifully giving Flatt's pageant-like academic credentials a break already.

A replay of Carroll's outburst (many to choose from) could add a strong soap opera effect so popular with the non-NFL watching Sunday afternoon TV viewers.

This message was brought to you by the Save Skate America Committee.
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
IMHO Skate America really needs Mirai if they are going to sell NBC on some kind of television deal, maybe packaging Skate America and U.S. Nationals together like they did in the 2009-2010 season.
I would agree with that if there was some sort of TV deal, but we have to face the facts that Figure Skating has moved away from prime network showings. Even ABC/ESPN saw that coming when we didn't. As for Unisport, which is not carried totally, they will give an abridged version of the Results. If you like the Sport as I do and want to see it all, hopefully there will be a computer run.

If you want a 3 way battle of the top US Ladies, then you have to sit back and expect one or more likely, two Ladies will not be in the finals. However, you will have your Sunday afternoon entertainment. Yuna is training quite close to the venue, and Carolina likes America, so Mirai and Alissa will be battling for a 3rd place.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
This message was brought to you by the Save Skate America Committee.

This is how I look at it.

What do successful sports organizations have to sell? NFL football offers a regular season of 512 games. Most are sold out and almost all are shown on television at least regionally. Then there are the playoffs culminating in the grand pooh-bah, the National Championship, aka the super bowl, which rakes in billions.

Major League Baseball has a regular season of 4860 games :eek:, followed by playoffs and the misnamed “World” Series. Actually, it is the U.S. National Championship (sorry, Toronto Blue Jays. ;) )

Well, figure skating is not popular enough to hold four thousand moneymaking competitions per season. The USFSA has only two events to sell, Skate America and the National Championship. IMHO they should sell them like crazy.

Skate America should feature the best the United States has to offer against the strongest international stars that we can attract. What is the point of having a competition at all if you don’t bring your best?.

Yes, there are also international competitions, like Worlds, etc. But these do not fall within the purview of the USFSA and its marketing team.
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
I have to question the need to showcase the best of America's Lady skaters. Yes it will be a nice Sunday afternoon for those fans to see it somewhere. But is it Sport or Marketing that we are interested in? The Nationals of any country are a nice home-town event to take the kiddies to see figure skating. ;)
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Yuna is training quite close to the venue, and Carolina likes America, so Mirai and Alissa will be battling for a 3rd place.

I don't look at it that way. No guts no glory. If Czisny and Nagasu are crying in their beer about having to skate against Kim and Kostner, then competitive sports is not for them and they should go into another line of work.

By the way, at last year's Skate America Rachael Flatt beat both Carolina Kostner and Yu-na Kim in the long program. :)

"At the best she knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and at the worst, if she fails, at least she fails while daring greatly. So that her place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” :)
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
But is it Sport or Marketing that we are interested in?

I do not see how you can go on and on about the sportliness of it all, yet base your strategy on protecting our athletes from having to face tough competition.

Hiding in fear of one's competitors is not sport.
 

janetfan

Match Penalty
Joined
May 15, 2009
I do not see how you can go on and on about the sportliness of it all, yet base your strategy on protecting our athletes from having to face tough competition.

Hiding in fear of one's competitors is not sport.

Not to mention without decent marketing there is no sport, period.

I would not want to risk further deteriortation of Skate America just to get Ashley or Jeremy into the GPF.

Show me a benefit to US Skating and I will go along with the GP placement "strategy".

Basically I agree with mathman and trying to avoid competition to make it to a final (that carries little importance) seems unsporting.
 

Violet Bliss

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 19, 2010
This is how I look at it.

What do successful sports organizations have to sell? NFL football offers a regular season of 512 games. Most are sold out and almost all are shown on television at least regionally. Then there are the playoffs culminating in the grand pooh-bah, the National Championship, aka the super bowl, which rakes in billions.

Major League Baseball has a regular season of 4860 games :eek:, followed by playoffs and the misnamed “World” Series. Actually, it is the U.S. National Championship (sorry, Toronto Blue Jays. ;) )

Well, figure skating is not popular enough to hold four thousand moneymaking competitions per season. The USFSA has only two events to sell, Skate America and the National Championship. IMHO they should sell them like crazy.

I don't think the marketing of figure skating and other individual sports should be compared to that of team sports like football, soccer, baseball, and hockey.

People identify with and are emotionally invested in home teams, which represent them and their superiority. They are war substitutes. Instead of doing battles with destructive and lethal weapons, the combats are ritualized and regulated with rules, so people can have a physical and healthy outlet for aggression and competitiveness. Competing and winning vicariously is especially great for fans with few of the attributes of the players. :)

Like other individual sports, which may include pairs, skating features excellence achieved by dedicated athletes. We celebrate and enjoy their talents and accomplishments as human beings. Even with national pride for our own, we can't help admiring the oppositions when they earn our respect and win our hearts over. Figure skating is a performance art as well, so beautiful to watch, making it much more marketable than track and field where the competition may be over within seconds it takes to run 100m, or to jump over a certain height or distance.

Marketing figure skating competition is different and more complicated than skating as entertainment. As beautiful and "pageantry" as it is, it is also extremely technical, beyond the understanding and appreciation of most fans and general public. Fairness requires complex yet somewhat subjective judgement but perception of fairness must be clear and obvious for the satisfaction of the general audiences. There lies a challenge.

Skate America should feature the best the United States has to offer against the strongest international stars that we can attract. What is the point of having a competition at all if you don’t bring your best?.

Yes, there are also international competitions, like Worlds, etc. But these do not fall within the purview of the USFSA and its marketing team.

:agree:
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
People identify with and are emotionally invested in home teams, which represent them and their superiority. They are war substitutes. Instead of doing battles with destructive and lethal weapons, the combats are ritualized and regulated with rules, so people can have a physical and healthy outlet for aggression and competitiveness. Competing and winning vicariously is especially great for fans with few of the attributes of the players. :)

Figure skating can be like that! The only reason Japan and Korea are not at war is that we can go on the Internet and let off steam by throwing virtual spears at Yu-na Kim and Mao Asada. (Hey, is there an interactive video game like that out yet?)

Oh, how furiously I bang the keyboard if someone dares to say something mean about Michelle Kwan! Grrr. What satisfaction! :)

Like other individual sports, which may include pairs, skating features excellence achieved by dedicated athletes. We celebrate and enjoy their talents and accomplishments as human beings.

Absolutely. Right after we crush them 266.39 to a paltry 259.40 in the arena, we can sit back and applaud the beauty of their spread eagle into a triple Lutz. (Actually, it was a flutz -- get out of town with that mess!) :laugh:
 

Violet Bliss

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 19, 2010
Now that the genius Mathman :rock: has found a way to market figure skating like football, let's hope ISU listens and follows up with a plan to sell figure skating as a prime time sport it should be! :cool:
 

Violet Bliss

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 19, 2010
I don't remember if it was here or on some other board that I read a very clever and somewhat proven plot to sell skating tickets in China. What needs to be done is to create a fan war, attendence wise. Put a challenge to the Chinese by bringing up how enthusiastic and supportive the Koreans or Japanese fans are and how high the attendence is at a certain comparable event, and vice versa, to get the nationalistic competitiveness going. "We will show them who can fill an arena fuller faster!"

Wars are started for profits all the time. Why not exploit it for figure skating? ;)
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
I do not see how you can go on and on about the sportliness of it all, yet base your strategy on protecting our athletes from having to face tough competition.

Hiding in fear of one's competitors is not sport.
But what is it about Skate America and sport that you don't like about strategy? What you desire is to set the one competition with the Ladies to show on TV so you can enjoy it not so much as sport but as entertainment. The GP Series is one competition of many parts, yet you don't want to play the game. For whatever reason, you don't seem to care about the other host events. We will see all those skaters you want to see in other events, i.e., if they are shown somewhere. But even if they are not shown somewhere, the Finals will be, and getting to them is as tough as sports can be.

there is no fear in hiding. We expect two top worlds medalists to be on board, and if you think a lucky 3rd or 4 place will get the US skater(s) into the Finals, think again. Czisny, yes. She placed 6th in Worlds. Why kill her chance of getting to the Finals with another skater like Mirai? But if Czisny is considered an automatic for Seeded placements, how will that affect the Host Country? and how are the Seeded placements placed in any event?

Hernando - I am more into sport than marketing. I think that's a job for the ISU. If the cookie crubles, let it.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
But what is it about Skate America and sport that you don't like about strategy?...The GP Series is one competition of many parts, yet you don't want to play the game. For whatever reason, you don't seem to care about the other host events.

Well, this thread is about who the USFSA should pick for Skate America.

I have no objection to discussing who the Japanese federation should pick for NHK, etc. Fire away! :)
 

silverlake22

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
Caroline Zhang is not eligible for the GP because her score is below the minimum, based on 66.6% of the top Seasons Best score. So she can't get any event except a SA host pick. But considering that she was 12th at US Nationals and had 7th and 9th place finishes at the GP last season, I can see no reason why the US should give her one of the host picks spots.

The host spots will be extremely valuable this year, given the smaller fields. One can not assume that those outside the top 12 at Worlds will get two GP invitations. With a possibility of half of the roster going to the top 12 at Worlds, the host picks (especially for singles) should go to those who have the best shot at making the GPF.

Czisny and Flatt are already assured of getting two assignments each, since Czisny is seeded and Flatt finished top 12. Nagasu should get two invitations because of her GP and 4CC medals and her high positions on both ISU ranking (#12) and SBU (#4) lists. The US should pick Czisny as a seed and two other ladies who are not assured of two spots. I'd suggest Gao and Zawadzki as two promising ladies for the future.

Caroline's SB score is number 51 on the SB list which is within the top 75 so I think she is still eligible for GP assignments right? I doubt she'll be getting 2 assignments but I think she could maybe get 1.
 

silverlake22

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
Oh wait nevermind now it's top 50 is the cutoff so SA is Caroline's only shot, it's a shame as she missed eligibility by one slot...
 

chuckm

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 31, 2003
Country
United-States
The minimum score per discipline is 66.6% of the highest score on the Seasons Best list. For ladies, that is 134.3.

Some too-low scores:
133.86 Caroline Zhang
133.65 Cheltzie Lee (AUS)
132.15 Jenna McCorkell (GBR)
131.20 Elena Glebova (EST)
125.64 Alexe Gilles
 

silverlake22

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
The minimum score per discipline is 66.6% of the highest score on the Seasons Best list. For ladies, that is 134.3.

Some too-low scores:
133.86 Caroline Zhang
133.65 Cheltzie Lee (AUS)
132.15 Jenna McCorkell (GBR)
131.20 Elena Glebova (EST)
125.64 Alexe Gilles

Wow, so none of those skaters are eligible for the GP? That is a big change. I guess that gives skaters like Bingwa Geng, Min-Jeong Kwak, and Juulia Tuurkilla better chances of getting an assignment as their SB score of the season is above the cutoff.
 

chuckm

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 31, 2003
Country
United-States
Being eligible doesn't necessarily mean a skater is likely to get invitations. With only 10 singles skaters and half of the 10 from the top 12 at Worlds, there aren't a lot of available slots. It helps to be high on the World Ranking list and in the top 30 or so of the Seasons best list. It also helps to be from a host nation, or to be among the top skaters from a federation.

Geng will get a host pick and maybe one other. Kwak is the #2 Korean skater and should get at least one invitation.

But Juulia Turkkila isn't Finnish #1 or #2 (Lepisto, Korpi); she is #88 on the World Ranking list and #44 on the Seasons Best list. Last year, her best finish was 10th in a JGP event. Technically, she is eligible, but there are other far more accomplished skaters higher on both lists who don't have much chance to get invitations. Juulia is only 16 and another year on the JGP could help her chances for next year.
 
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