2014 Worlds Men Short Program

[Meoima]

Yes the arena wasn't FULL, but let's face it, USFSA would kill to have the type of ticket sales Japan is seeing sans-Daisuke at Nationals and Skate America.

How the ice stadium at North America these day? Not promising I suppose? It's sad really. I hope when Worlds being held at American in 2016, it would be much crowder.

 

[Celeste]

It is weird to assume that Daisuke's fanbase will move on to Yuzuru, imho. Other than that they're the most succesful male skaters of Japan and overlapped in the same era I don't see much similarity in looks, character or skating style. Yuzuru might attrack different fans (maybe the mentioned younger idol fans?) than the aunties that follow Dai. Not every figure skating fan just follows the next skater when their favourite is gone. If Mao retires there will be a big big gap left as well. Japan does have it's own issues in that area I assume. Saitama is a pretty big stadium and seemed full to me at least, and I'm sure sooner or later Yuzuru and others will be able to fill up the stands as well. Maybe tickets will be easier to get then. It seems to me that the balance is slowly favouring the Russian skating again, but who knows.

I must agree with you as I see diffrerent Fan type following Yuzuru as they are different type of skaters. As a matter of a fact, tickets in Japan are so expensive, such that all even tickets from 1st to 32nd row was at USD750 and front VIP rows were over USD1000. If you also attend GALA, the total was over USD1300. And the scalper price per day was about USD1500 for single day ticket !!!!! Huge fan base of Daisuke and Mao was paying this amount but this type of craziness is seemingly over, as same tickets after Daisuke's withdrawal was dumped at discount of nearly 80% in MEN's event. Those discounts tickets were picked up by new fan base but I am not sure if Japan Federation will use similar type of large arena in future event as one of the most prestagious news paper already reported few months ago that the Federation is planning to use much smaller arena for future event. In any case, it is sad to see this happening in Japan.

[Brades of Passion] The rules and judging need to be significantly altered so that beautiful/exciting/artistic/characterful skating is what gets rewarded. Figure Skating has become less and less relevant because it has failed to engage the imagination and the emotions of viewers. This is directly because of the rules and judging. The rules created possible incentive for rewarding ugly/disjointed/meaningless movement and the judges have helped to turn that possibility into reality because they have no clue how to actually judge choreography and interpretation and they hand out +GOE far too freely for lackluster elements.

I agree with you. The current judging system does not reward beautiful and attractive movement and concentrating too much on wether the elements is being done or not. This will lose fan bases who were looking for artistry in skating.

 

[tripletwizzle]

Suck it Plushenko. So happy for Kovtun to stick it to that olg bag! (Please, stay retired, we don't want you back Evgeni.)

Ah, only in skating is one considered "old" at 31 I'm nearly there, I guess I better go apply for my AARP membership

 

[Mrs. P]

Ah, only in skating is one considered "old" at 31 I'm nearly there, I guess I better go apply for my AARP membership

I'm also 31. So I guess I will join you in the nursing home.

 

[tripletwizzle]

I think, to Mao and Daisuke's credit, that they have built skating as enough of a national pastime that people will continue to attend competitions for the time being even if they are no longer skating.

Yes the arena wasn't FULL, but let's face it, USFSA would kill to have the type of ticket sales Japan is seeing sans-Daisuke at Nationals and Skate America.

I know, right?! 16,000+ seats filled out of 18,000 seats available is a HUGE success.

 

[tripletwizzle]

Its okay for some skaters to overscored, as long as they are not from Russia

We all get like this from time to time, everyone's all about fairness in scoring--until it comes to their faves Then it's, "w/e, I don't care if it was UR, GIVE IT TO HIM GIVE HIM ALL THE POINTS HE FOUGHT SO HARD I LOVE HIM "

 

[shellbell757]

Don't hide behind the smile and be honest. You are looking at his bums.

Perhaps....:

 

[vtgal]

So we can now lay to rest the idea that Abbott was going to be anywhere near the podium. Hope he does ok in the FS; however, I won't be sorry to see the end of his career.

 

[cuon_alpinus]

Hanyu was beautiful. Very impressive. Love his eagerness to push himself even after being an Olympic Champion. I heard he was injured somehow, but surprised at his tenacity. wow

 

[moviechick]

How the ice stadium at North America these day? Not promising I suppose? It's sad really. I hope when Worlds being held at American in 2016, it would be much crowder.

I live in Boston and when nationals were here a few months ago, there was like zero buzz for it at all. Granted, this city really only cares about the Red Sox but it was still rather quiet.