That's not reason enough to bring a World Championships down there.
Cities Where ISU Skating Competitions Should Be Held
- Thread starter AshWagsFan
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Apparently, the Japan Figure Skating Assoc, must present the best package -- everything -- to the ISU. With the loss of revenues to the ISU the last year or do, due to Covid, the Saitama package must be the best financially, not to mention by 2023, things should be back to normal, and Japan being an island nation (and having learned more lessons from the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games), it should be safe to hold a Worlds there. We've tried to get a year for San Francisco, but the new Chase Warriors Arena doesn't seem to be interested.
It's reason enough to joke about it.
Why, when the more beautiful city of San Francisco is up the road??
That being the case, how about Mumbai? Burundi? Kolkotta?
Yes, I forgot how the people on this thread were planning world championships!Oh I'm sure making jokes in selecting host cities is on top of the agenda!
I can't really compete with amazing reasons such as San Francisco being a "more beautiful city" though, unfortunately.
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- Jul 9, 2014
Because San Jose has better facilities. San Francisco is also FAR more expensive than San Jose for guests when it comes to Hotels, Food , and Transportation. It is important that the event makes money and that's why I would go with San Jose.
Personally I'm of the opposite opinion, I wish the ISU would be more openly systematic about holding events in places where people will actually show up. Of course, they should experiment to new areas to find out where those places are.
I've been meaning to start up a thread about the "best designed/decorated arena"/"best arena environment"/"most iconic arenas" etc.
For the JGP, I prefer small arenas that can still create an nice atmosphere with not a lot of people. I still remember the 2015 JGP at Logroño Spain which was held in an extremely tiny arena but still had some nice energy. Probably an even better example is Brisbane Australia for the 2017 JGP. Only Japan, Russia, and (to a lesser extent) Canada can put on a JGP event with a near capacity crowd for the later events in a medium size arena. I like how the events in France have a gala. JGP events in the past few times it's been held in the US have been in big arenas with sparse audience.
A year or two ago I binge watched the top performances at junior worlds and none of the events had been well attended since 2011 in South Korea which was a year after Yuna won the Olympics. And by "well attended", I mean half the lower section filled. I am baffled how Sofia, Bulgaria has hosted it so many times considering no one is ever there. Most famously when Trusova did her historic 2 quad free skate. The only explanation is that no one wants the event... especially if it reduces their chance to host the GPF or senior worlds... or even the european championship. Something really needs to change here.
I don't know how the ISU can really justify raising the age limit when they don't do a good job in venue selection for junior events when it comes to drawing an audience. Giving Junior Worlds to one of the big skating nations is probably off the table but it's sad how small the crowds have been for a very long time. I would search for some place where people will actually show up and give it to them for a long time. Maybe Finland or Spain or Italy. It would have been interesting to see how Harbin China would have done attendance wise.
As far as arena decorating and staging aesthetics goes(at non-Olympic events), the last two winter universiades and last two winter youth olympics were extremely well done. As was the 2015 GPF in barcelona. The Russian Junior and Senior Nationals often look really good. Too often figure skating events have the aesthetics of a dentist office with a touch of NASCAR.
- Rostelcom Cup: I prefer the old gritty soviet Luzhniki arena to the fisher price Megasport Sport Palace. The latter's not too bad though.
- Vegas has been the best host in recent memory for Skate America. One end of the arena not having seats forces the audience to sit closer together and gives it a kind of staging feeling. They really should just make it the permanent home.
- The Internationaux de France always has an ugly yellow kick plate at the base of the boards. Not really a fan of how the Grenoble arena looks but it feels more crowded and intimate than either in Paris or Bordeaux(even if the later had same capacity). This event has had some bizarre things surrounding it in recent history... water puddles on the ice, birds flying around, and giving out stars instead of medallions.
- The Cup of China always has the audience extremely elevated from the rink. It can look kind of weird at times when camera pans out.
- Don't really have anything negative to say about NHK Trophy or Skate Canada.
For Worlds, I like Boston and Saitama the most out of the recent worlds. Good but different kind of energy from both. Shanghai next and then Helsinki. There really hasn't been a bad host for a while though.
I really have no problem with Japan hosting worlds every 4 years... it's that they get the GPF right before the Olympics that's a bit more problematic. It should not be taken for granted that the Japanese audience will always be there. Japan can be a kind of trendy country and other sports are making inroads. If we didn't have worlds in Japan every 4 years I bet we would eventually be having worlds every 4 years in China in order to grab that market.
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- Jan 12, 2014
Saitama arena capacity.... I can't believe my eyes. It's substantially bigger than all the NBA arenas.
To think the White Ring used for Nagano Olympics can only hold 7000 people.... and for sure it wasn't 7000 spectators, as the media/broadcast ate up a good chunk of the space.
To think the White Ring used for Nagano Olympics can only hold 7000 people.... and for sure it wasn't 7000 spectators, as the media/broadcast ate up a good chunk of the space.
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The Providence, RI setup sounds great with the hotel right there. Sounds like the Las Vegas arena for Sk America. Allstate Arena or Sears Arena in the Chicago area would be good -- no United Center. Helsinki or Barcelona. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch would be awesome, even tho it looks like a bad day at the keyboard.! 
For U.S. Nats, I'd like to see some different places like Indianapolis, Phoenix, St. Louis, Dallas.
For U.S. Nats, I'd like to see some different places like Indianapolis, Phoenix, St. Louis, Dallas.
I had to google Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch to see if this was real lol.The Providence, RI setup sounds great with the hotel right there. Sounds like the Las Vegas arena for Sk America. Allstate Arena or Sears Arena in the Chicago area would be good -- no United Center. Helsinki or Barcelona. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch would be awesome, even tho it looks like a bad day at the keyboard.!
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It is. Longest place name in the World, I believe. I've been there once, on a visit. That's why I knew there was a train station (although whether there are regular trains coming in, I don't know). I'm not sure there's even an ice rink, but it's just such fun to put a name like that in the mix for a future World's! I loved the suggestion. It's very much a tourist place actually because of the name.
LOL. The myth actually goes that this name was conceived to give the railway station there the longest station name in Britain. Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll isn't that hard to type, IMO
But apparently, this honour goes to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tauma...kakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu
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An additional argument in favour of a world's in New Zealand!
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It's huge but to get an event pass in Japan is essentially to win a lottery. Well, maybe that's another indication that the sport is incredibly popular there.
There is a few trains to the station but they only stop at the request of the passenger, so people will have to say the place they want to stop to the conductor
. Sadly the nearest rink is about an hours drive from Llananfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch although I'd love them to hold worlds in the village since I have some family there - Joined
- Dec 7, 2017
That could be interesting. I’m sure ISU would love some of that oil money, tee hee. But it would be a step in the right direction in terms of visibility for the sport in places it’s not well-known. UAE is quite strict though in terms of modesty so I don’t know if figure skating costumes for females would be considered too racy? Apologies as this my complete ignorance - I’ve never been so I could be completely wrong! I just know from friends who have been that they wouldn’t even be affectionate in public with each other, even as a married couple, because of the strict rules around modesty in public. It might be different for sport.
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OMG, I did that too. It looked like it would be in Wales, and it is! I've been to Llandudno, and the Llan-- made me think of that.
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Thank you for your detailed post, I agree with most of it, but I'm not sure about this sentence. I don't know what raising age limits has to do with holding junior worlds in these god-awful cavernous rinks. Right now, junior ladies may have a following in certain countries, but nothing is forever
I follow the junior men. Oft times it looks like the summer comp I try to attend has more people on benches than are sitting in those rinks have for delightful skaters in junior men and ice dancers.
I would like to see junior worlds held the same time and the same place at senior worlds. And as much as I would love to see senior worlds in my backyard, it should be held where it will attract fans. Sadly, the Lehigh Valley is not that place
