Lots of seats to fill at 2013 Skate America

In my daily srourage through the net, i have become interested in the seating capacity of arenas which federations choose to host event.

Coming off the 2013 world championships, which was held at a junior ice hockey stadium (9,100 seats) do you thing that 2013 Skate America can fill the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit which has a capacity of 20,000+ seats?
Can the skating culture in Detroit get more bums on seats? Is the USFSA being too optimistic? Is it a risk worth taking as watching broadcast of an event in a half filled arena is never a good look?


Keep in mind that 2012 Skate America in Kent, Washington was held in a 6,000 seat arena.

I remember Skate America being pretty empty even during skating's peak in the 90s

Probably not. I would call if sucessful if at least 1/3 of the seats are filled.

For Red Wings hockey, they pretty much sell out. They get about 800,000 season attendance for a 41-game home schedule.

I think the 2002 Skate America in Spokane still holds the attendance record for that event. They had about 8000 for both the ladies free skate and the gala.

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=102802&ID=s1242592

I don't understand the federation's rules for awarding Skate America. I wish they would offer some guidelines. Some areas almost never get Skate America, while other cities get it twice in a decade (Reading, PA 2003/2007, Seattle area 2008/2012)??

GF2445 said:

In my daily srourage through the net, i have become interested in the seating capacity of arenas which federations choose to host event.

Coming off the 2013 world championships, which was held at a junior ice hockey stadium (9,100 seats) do you thing that 2013 Skate America can fill the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit which has a capacity of 20,000+ seats?
Can the skating culture in Detroit get more bums on seats? Is the USFSA being too optimistic? Is it a risk worth taking as watching broadcast of an event in a half filled arena is never a good look?


Keep in mind that 2012 Skate America in Kent, Washington was held in a 6,000 seat arena.

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They could sell out if they priced the seats correctly. At Four CC's in Colorado Springs two years ago, front row seats were available for around $25.

pointyourtoe said:

I remember Skate America being pretty empty even during skating's peak in the 90s

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That's correct: I recently watched the video of Michelle's 1997 SA FS (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTtkBeR7An4) and you can see that even there, during the 90s, at the beginning of an Olympic season, with both Michelle and Tara competing, there were A LOT of empty seats... This rink will look almost empty, I think...

Thay can drape off sections and make it look like a semi-full 8000 seat facility instead of an almost empty 20,000 seater.

If they are seriously worried about not able to fill seats, just invite Yuna Kim

Yes sure we will get the usual complaints about

- How 'real' skating fans can't get any good seats anymore to watch ALL the skaters, since they are all sold out far too quickly.
- Yuna fans and their banners overshadow home favs like Ashley or Gold (who probably has one, and I will be carrying one). Their professional artwork makes interesting contrast with the local DIY banners.
- The indignation that there might be empty seats seen on the screen apart from the ladies events.

The perks are

- Local secondary ticket market will enjoy their most thriving year ever.
- ISU/Organiser kicking themselves for not charging more for front row seats.
- Local hotel/tourism industries enjoy excellent business since many foreign visitors would like to spend good money on quality goods/services.
- Gracie Gold may finally get her Golden Kodak moment with Yuna Phil Hersh on standby with some 'Golden' by line.
- Lots of gushy live report and fan cams are assured BEFORE the official TV broadcast and are likely to be BETTER and HD quality than ISU blurry youtube vids.
- Major sponsorship interests like Samsung are assured.

Sound like MANY good reasons to me

Maybe USFS will get smart and invite Yu-Na to Skate America.

There are about 30,000 Koreans and Korean-Americans in metropolitan Detroit, so that alone...

Just wondering, how will it affect USFS's GPF strategy if they invite Yu-Na? (assuming that she will win SA if invited)

ehdtkqorl123 said:

Just wondering, how will it affect USFS's GPF strategy if they invite Yu-Na? (assuming that she will win SA if invited)

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That's always the question. What is the strategy of the USFSA? Plan (a) is to juggle the roster in such a way as to maximize that chance that U.S. skaters will make the Grand Prix Final. It is kind of hard to predict what the outcome will be no matter how they scheme.

I like plan (b) better. Put on the best possible event at Skate America and let the results fall as they may. Trying to shield Ashley Wagner from Yu-na Kim -- boo, that's the coward's way. And anyway, with the Olympics coming up, you can run but you can't hide.

I am finally getting caught up on my London Newspapers I brought home.....interesting articles about seat filling and bringing skating back to its former glory.
Sat, March 16th, London Free press, D4 "Fans Disguised as Emtpy Seats, by Ryan Pyette.
"....YuNa basically said what everyone's been wondering at the Bud Gardens this week....:Whats the deal with the empty seats?......"
(I think YuNa was commenting on the huge blocks of empty seats that were set aside for credentialed folk, security, and abstructed views, but that is my personal opinion...Chris)
Capacity was 6,691
average tickets per comp was 5686
Ice dance was a sell out....
Article on same page...
"London test tube for return to glory days....."
by Morris Dalla Costa
It said Basically the problem is that even in Canada, skating has tanked, but only in comparison..... Canada is the biggest Fed in the ISU with 190,000 members...so, what do you do? Put the Worlds in a 7000 seat arena or an 18,000 seat arena?
SkateCanada chose small. I hope you can find this article on the web...it is very interesting....it says skaters love the small arena as it looks fuller....it does not say that fans would rather have a larger facility with room to stretch out, even if much of it
is curtained off. It says nothing about there being few bathrooms for the fans, either, at London......
"Fading Star", article, National Post, March 12th, page B5
This article is also about how skating has tanked in Canada...
"My honest opinion, I dont think its every coming back the way it was, but we can move on and accept what it is," said David Dore, the former Skate Canada chief who's now the VP of the ISU."
The article is long and mentions that tickets are sold out in 15 minutes in asia when they have events there.
This is another long article and worth finding.....if you cant find these articles on the web, I would be glad to send them to someone who can type much faster and longer than I can and they can post them....

Mathman said:

There are about 30,000 Koreans and Korean-Americans in metropolitan Detroit, so that alone...

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Mathman said:

That's always the question. What is the strategy of the USFSA? Plan (a) is to juggle the roster in such a way as to maximize that chance that U.S. skaters will make the Grand Prix Final. It is kind of hard to predict what the outcome will be no matter how they scheme.

I like plan (b) better. Put on the best possible event at Skate America and let the results fall as they may. Trying to shield Ashley Wagner from Yu-na Kim -- boo, that's the coward's way. And anyway, with the Olympics coming up, you can run but you can't hide.

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I think Ashley would welcome the chance to compete against Yuna again, Skate America or not.

And remember, Yuna was assigned to SA in 2009, where Rachael Flatt was also competing. I'd personally love to see her on US ice again, especially in the Olympic season. If there's a chance that Gracie will get SA instead of Ashley, even better--she might get that wished-for picture on the podium.

FSGMT said:

That's correct: I recently watched the video of Michelle's 1997 SA FS (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTtkBeR7An4) and you can see that even there, during the 90s, at the beginning of an Olympic season, with both Michelle and Tara competing, there were A LOT of empty seats... This rink will look almost empty, I think...

Click to expand...

Yup I was basing it off of the same video. And these were the years when skating had HUGE TV ratings in the US, even non-Olympic events like Nationals.

Mathman said:

There are about 30,000 Koreans and Korean-Americans in metropolitan Detroit, so that alone...

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Also don't forget Toronto, which is only a four-hour drive away!

In the last two seasons Yuna was on the GP, she was on Skate America for both of them (2008, 2009). So I think it's safe to say that USFSA would probably be open to having her come to the competition!

She's done SA, CoC and TEB two times each. She's done Cup of Russia and Skate Canada once. She's never been to NHK, which isn't that surprising given that the seeding wouldn't allow her to compete with Mao most of those years (thought 2009 was a possibility since Yuna was 1st and Mao was 4th at the previous Worlds). In any case, it's unlikely she'll get NHK this season because Mao is 3rd and she's 1st.