curious...

I said in another thread beauty =power, and often $$$.

Yes, compared to the big 3, football, baseball and basketball, whose fans are mostly men, BTW, FS doesn't pay great. But those contracts are for several seasons and many games per season. Frankly I find the amounts obscene and way out of line considering its a GAME.

Re: the eligible world, can someone tell me where those hundreds of dollars for seats at USFSA/ISU events goes? What are the podium skaters earning? If not much, how do they justify ticket prices? Does the lion's share go for admin? Do these people ever open their books? Given the ticket prices, they must be getting a good chunk of change. Or is a top heavy ISU/USFSA greedily consuming those dollars? How do they justify ticket prices when very few can afford to attend?

Sorry, this was meant to go in the Greedy thread

don't know what I did wrong, but how does one move a post once it's up? So Sorry!

Bijoux,

I can't tell you much about what you want to know. The only thing I have to comment on is the price of tickets. I attended Nationals this year and had excellent seats, about 10 rows up from the ice in the center. I paid $160 for 2 tickets and I thought that was surprisingly fair....perhaps I am naive! I expected them to cost much more. Certainly, if you buy package tickets or all event tickets they cost a great deal more, but I think overall that prices for skating tickets aren't all that ridiculous if you compare to other sporting events. Now, the Olympics are another story!

I don't think you paying $160 for two event tickets is too much. Considering how much tickets are for some concerts and other sporting events. I never think twice about paying $60 for a COI or SOI ticket because I know I am getting a good seat.

Hi Bijoux. You can't delete a post if it starts a thread, because that deletes the whole thread including other people's posts. A moderator can delete or edit an individual post or delete or move an entire thread. We almost never do that except in the case of egrerious violation of GS rules. Since people have already replied to this topic, and it's an interesting one in its own right, I'll just let it stand. You probably hit the "new thread" button at the bottom instead of the "post reply."

On topic, I read somewhere that Michelle Kwan makes $20,000 per show with COI. I don't know how accurate this is. In the post- Olympic tour, which featured 84 shows, that adds up to a tidy sum. This year, I think the tour is down to something like 14 shows Presumably other skaters make less.

I also read that in 1994, Oksana made $150,000 per show.

I would guess that something less than half of gross revenues goes to salaries. I wouldn't hazzard a guess as to how much actual profit goes into Tom Collins' pocket, but whatever it is, I don't begrudge it to him. He started the tour on a shoestring and built it into a respected and profitable enterprize. Good for him.

Mathman

Just adding my comments as regards ticket prices...

I, too, really don't mind the prices of attending either COI or SOI..........$60 apiece is a-okay for me.........however, I do know of a long-time fan of figure skating that thinks the prices have gotten to the point where she hasn't attended a COI/SOI show since around 1999. She's actually the mother of my childhood friend......and has been going to ice shows since around the late 1930's (btw she's a wealth of info. )........and is the only person I know of that truly enjoys f.s. as much as me. Btw, funny, sometimes I think she's just cheap (lol) b/c money really is no option with her (inherited a large sum of money about a decade ago & consequently retired early). Hmmm. Anyhow, that's the reason she gave me as to why she no longer attends (no lie).

***Note: I only paid only $98 for two tickets to go see a rock concert this past September 20th. YEAH! ***

That said, I usually only choose one event between COI or SOI b/c the cost adds up when purchasing a program, group picture, t-shirts, and other memorabilia, which are *musts* for me. Not only that, now that I'm going to start bringing my baby niece to such shows, it will be even double!

Peace & Love, Nadine

As someone who has been involved in organization of various events, I know that the overhead is enormous. Renting the arena, lighting, sound, renting all the equipment etc. -- you wouldn't beleive the prices! Events I helped organize were small, with tickets ranging from $10 to $30, and we would rent halls of maximum 1500 people. You wouldn't believe the accusations we got for profeteering, while I knew all along that we did not make a penny.

thanks all

I learned new things in this thread.

I guess the questions started with skaters facing paycuts, but I wonder now if any others will? The producers in the eligible world of ISU/USFSA. I know Scott earns less money as a performer in SOI. But that is his baby and he got all his crew back to make ticket sales. I have no idea what Tom Collins makes but it must be less as they have so many people on the tour.

Judges aren't paid much in eligible comps and events. It would be an interesting paper for a finance or sales and marketing student, who is intrigued with FS from that standpoint. Is Cinquanta's salary known? If skaters must make paycuts., those above should as well

I believe that judges still make nothing?

The best buy in skating IMO, is Skate America, or Skate Canada, which I believe is priced about the same.

For $155 you can get the best seats in the house for the whole competition, including the gala and the practice sessions.

So that's 4 short program tickets
4 long program tickets
gala
practices
cd's if any skated

Hockey, too.

There is a big article in the Detroit News this morning noting that TV viewership for Hockey is down 23% this year compared to last. According to the story, this is the trend across all sports and is attributable to the general economic doldrums and to competition from other forms of entertainment.

The new NHL TV contract from ABC/ESPN is expected to be about half of the current one. Perhaps the days of the multimillion dollar salaries across the board that all athletes enjoyed in the boom times of the 1990s are over.

http://www.detnews.com/2004/wings/0402/08/c01-58447.htm

Mathman

I think what sells shows is that the avid fan will go see anything they can. But it is the casual fan who is picky. the casual fan needs a big name and MK is the one they know If Mathman is right on her salary then one can not blame MK for staying eligible. That's how one keeps popular with the casual fan.

Joe

I think that part of the mark up in ticket costs include marketing and liability insurance.

With all the things that can go wrong with a large crowd of people, the producers and the venue are probably required to carry a great deal of insurance in our litigious society.

Re: the eligible world, can someone tell me where those hundreds of dollars for seats at USFSA/ISU events goes?

Click to expand...

Just guessing, but I think that the costs of hosting a show are huge and tickets sales are typicaly low.

It's not just the promotors (Tom Collins, USFSA,etc...) but the venues. Ice Rinks are very expensive to maintain compared to basketball courts,etc... Lots of venues try to cut down on operating costs due to low tickets sales: for example Lalique. The SPs were poor sellers, so ticket holders were concentrated in one small area and food concessions were not open,etc...For the more popular LPs, more staff was required to handle the larger crowd. In either case, the whole place had to be lit, heated, chilled, etc...When I look around these more than half empty auditoriums and see the large number of staff required to run them, not to mention the astonomical amount TV charges for adverts, I always think "How are these people going to break even?". I wouldn't be surprised if most GP events lose money.

Also, I wouldn't be surprised if promotors had to kick-up some dosh as well. Sure, Lalique glass is probably giving the French Fed beaucoup bucks, but they are not only shelling out to Bercey but probably to the ISU as well.

In addition to prize money, big name skaters get paid appearance fees. Paying Kwan $50k to skate is probably worth it in increased ticket sales.