mzheng said:Exactly.
The bottom line Sarah's skating in SOI will not help attract new fans to the sport.
I was attracted to FS by first watched Peggy's show skating. Back then in china that was the only Figure Skating program they aired. Late after came to the states I was addict to the pro competetion and show, back then they were all very high quality. It was not until 1995/1996 that I start pay attention to amature skating. The good quality show skating help attracting new skating fan, but not by Sarah's skating quality these days.
I agree that the quality of show skating is very important in attracting new fans to the sport. The golden days of pro skating were after the 1988 Olympics to 1994. Once the pro competitions multiplied and pro skaters were doing the same programs over and over again did skating die in popularity. I also think that pro skating declined because after 1994, they centered a lot of competitions on Oksana and Nancy. Oksana had a lot of trouble adjusting though she's picked up her skating now, but Nancy was like Sarah in that she had no pride in her skating. Nancy was horrible and I think that it turned a lot of viewers off to see her bumbling through her programs. It's really important to have good skaters skate in these exhibitions and shows. First of all, a tickets to SOI for a family of 3 (or even 2) probably constitute at least half a week's paycheck. When you spend quality money, you want to see quality skating. I would never pay money to see Sarah skate b/c if I want to see double jumps and wobbly spirals, I can go to my local club show. It's sad that Kat Witt, who never had a 3-3 combo and only 2 different triples and who is in her late 30's, can still do a double axel and SArah can't even manage that. And it's even sadder that Sarah and Kat are both OGMs.