Yuzuru Hanyu announces retirement

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

As mentioned, it is a ticket holder’s prerogative to only want to go to an event to see someone. Of course, this can deny access to people who wish to see the whole field skate and support them.

At least now with his retirement we will see less of the former showing and more of the latter showing up.

I’m reminded of Sochi when a great deal of the audience who only came to witness Plushenko straight up left when he withdrew. Was it their right to do so? Yes of course. Just like it’s someone’s right to leave in the middle of a skater doing their program. But it’s extremely rude and bad etiquette and the antithesis of what the event is intended for.

Not every organizer just wants tickets bought. Some actually care that the event is well attended start to finish. The skaters certainly appreciate that. I am also pretty certain Hanyu also cared about spectators watching the other skaters too and not just showing up to watch him and file out once he’s done.

 

[surimi]

This thread's last two pages are a disgrace, personal beef diaries and bashfest, and have nothing to do with Hanyu's retirement. Yesterday was late for closing it for replies. It's disgusting what's happening here, and I'm out.

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

Or perhaps they sold their tickets because without Hanyu competing, the cost was too great for them? Going to competitions is very costly, and not a lot of people can afford to go very often or to travel far to do so.

I know I’ve spent lots of money to see some of my favourite skaters, and I wouldn’t have gone to those competitions had they not been there, even though I love going to competitions.

Selling tickets doesn’t necessarily mean those people only care about Hanyu and not skating, it might just mean the cost was too high without him and they prefer saving their money to go to another competition later.

There is really no reason to judge people like this, when we don’t know their reasons for selling their tickets.

I think the point is that if somebody truly cares about skating in general instead of primarily one skater, then a withdrawal of that one skater isn’t going to dissuade them from attending an event. And in this case they wouldn’t be really saving to attend a future event because he’s retired and was the primary reason for them to attend in the first place.

Random curious question: from people’s experience, did CS/Grand Prix events that Hanyu attended charge more for men’s event or all-event passes than CS/Grand Prix events that didn’t feature him? And if a “headliner(s)” like Hanyu or Chen or Papadakis/Cizeron, Sui/Han etc. was at an event, do they charge more for those tickets compared to other disciplines in that event?

 

[kolyadafan2002]

Random curious question: from people’s experience, did CS/Grand Prix events that Hanyu attended charge more for men’s event or all-event passes than CS/Grand Prix events that didn’t feature him? And if a “headliner(s)” like Hanyu or Chen or Papadakis/Cizeron, Sui/Han etc. was at an event, do they charge more for those tickets compared to other disciplines in that event?

I think location, number of seats, rink rent etc is a bigger factor as usually GPs are planned before they know who will skate in them.
They might increase the premium ticket prices, and also chances are they would sell tickets quicker.
The effect would be most noticeable in singles (be it men or women), because unfortunately ice dance and Pairs are both heavily underappreicated by figure skating fans.

 

[4everchan]

As mentioned, it is a ticket holder’s prerogative to only want to go to an event to see someone. Of course, this can deny access to people who wish to see the whole field skate and support them.

At least now with his retirement we will see less of the former showing and more of the latter showing up.

I’m reminded of Sochi when a great deal of the audience who only came to witness Plushenko straight up left when he withdrew. Was it their right to do so? Yes of course. Just like it’s someone’s right to leave in the middle of a skater doing their program. But it’s extremely rude and bad etiquette and the antithesis of what the event is intended for.

Not every organizer just wants tickets bought. Some actually care that the event is well attended start to finish. The skaters certainly appreciate that. I am also pretty certain Hanyu also cared about spectators watching the other skaters too and not just showing up to watch him and file out once he’s done.

I come from the classical music world and maybe that colours my opinion about this...
It's "fine" if someone has to leave at some point during the concert but if they disturb people or make noise doing so, this will not be appreciated... and if from time to time, we do witness people leaving, they will not be able to reenter easily.... or come in just in the middle of a symphony because they want to hear only the end of it... There is a proper etiquette about this and ushers who will not let people in during the performance.. It's pretty disruptive when people come and go randomly at figure skating events... I would have no problem at all if some fans came in to watch a group of skaters (show up in the warm up, and leave when the last one has performed or in the next warm up)... the issue is that some of the fans jump in and out in a disruptive manner during the event confirming that their love for one skaters is so much bigger than their love of the sport. This is what this thread is discussing at this point, which is relevant in my humble opinion.

 

[gsk8]

Hey folks! This thread has obviously run it's course about retirement and has moved on to border-line fan bashing and other issues. Please feel free to start another thread if you'd like to discuss something more specific.