100 % this. Marketing was very low outside their social media and not much even there either. Tickets prices were reasonable this time. Those who live near the venue liked the Sunday events. But we saw it was not good idea, because Sunday was less sold. Finland is a long country by figure and many people must be at work on Monday. So people who come from north need one extra day and I guess many think two events it not worth it. First I saw there will be events on Sunday I was disappointed but as prices were not bad I decided to go. I could come home at Sunday evening as there were trains to my town still after the competition, but would have been here too late so I booked an extra night at hotel and arranged free from job. I would not have done it, if the tickets weren't so cheap this time.
I already write to competition board that at lobby if the hotel I stayed was on the lobby an announcement board "what is happening in the town". There was announcements about football games etc. but nothing about FS. The receptionist asked what there is happening on the ice hall when I checked from her the best route to walk there, only 15 minutes walk. So she had no idea what was going on. If I did not follow thus forum and local fed's social media, I would have known nothing about the event. There was article about Janna in one media and one about Nella in another. But the event was just mentioned on one sentence, not in the title. The main problem is that media is not interested and local fed does not understand that social media is not enough to tell about events. They need help in marketing. When NHL hockey game was played in Tampere some weeks ago, media was full of it in advantage. Not just the game but what players did and said. I already write to competition's chat thread that one local and very used web-TV schedule had first put this "figure skating nationals" on their schedule, in Finnish. I gave feedback and then they had changed it worlds. I gave feedback again but nothing happened until just the day before the first event it was fixed to be the Grand Prix. I think that tells a lot. Today I got to my FB an article where the director of the fed complained that even skaters themselves did not come to watch. It was behind paywall but I could read a bit from the beginning. It was clear they were waiting more people.
Also what I noticed, though national TV, YLE, had rights to show Finlandia Trophy on their channel, but somebody else was responsible about the cameras at the arena. When YLE is present, it is very visible but this time I saw none of their trucks and people who made the camera work did not had YLE's clothes. I had two big events, one sport and one religious one near my home last summer. This is a smalla town. It was very visible that YLE was broadcasting both.
Some people say host spots should be removed. I would not go so far, because home skaters sell some tickets. But I think two would be enough, if there are not three eligible skaters who has the spots anyway, and the minimum scores could be a little higher. Finland had only Emmi and Viveca 2018 as the others were so much behind them in skills or were injured. In other disciplines there are no more to send, all the other age eligible in seniors national team men skated at JGP this season. There is now third ID pair in seniors, but not yet good enough to send to GP. I think Finland's fed demand to get A GP spot has been the same as it is to make it national team, 155 in women and 185 in men. - in pairs and ID they demand Euro's TES but it is a not problem as both ID pairs and only pairs pair has worlds TES already. But they accept also national results and unofficial ISU results. These are in any way the scores they demand to get a spot bigger competitions. Our only pair, I think, and ID pairs would have had two spots anyway.
What I think, because of the absence of audience, not just Finland but in small competitions, we will see a day when SP is removed and skaters have only FS. I don't say I wish it, but I guess this is the future. The qualification scores will be higher than today. The patterns were removed from ID, figures were removed from others, so removing things and make competitions shorter can be a solution. It is not a solution to make the FS only a sport for a small group of fans who are arrogant towards those who do not understand enough about the levels and difficulty. The sport needs people who just come watch and enjoy, buys tickets and off-ice stuff without big understanding of the scoring system or technique.
globalnews.ca
but most of casual viewers won't do it.
