- Joined
- Jun 21, 2003
SunDae said:If they want this event to have fans in seats, the only hope for North America is a tiny arena in a Small but convenient enough town. Otherwise, Japan should always host.
Population of Spokane is about 200,000 people. The Arena seats about 10,000 for hockey, arena football, and concerts. The attendance figures for U.S. Nationals in 2007 and 2010 were quite strong -- record-setting in fact. I don't know if they had a full house for ladies LP or not, but it was pretty well attended both times. If they expect a smaller house they can block it off to 5000 or 6000 good seats.
The problem is always to round up enough local support, sponsorships, corporate donations, city involvement, etc., to make a go of it. The ISU and the USFSA do not foot the whole bill, by any means. Chris mentioned the problems they had in 2010 when the State of Washington promised the event co-ordinators $100,000, but then backed out when the state government found itself in a budgetary bind that year, leaving the local organizing committee to scramble as best they could to meet the shortfall by beating the bushes for fresh support.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if it turned out that there are no other bids but Spokane's. It is possible that the whole event was concocted by the USFSA, who then approached the ISU and their figure skating go-to guys in Spokane to see if they could get something together. If you search for information about the event, the (Spokane) Spokesman-Review appears to be the only newspaper that has heard of it.
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