An idea for "splitting" the ISU: Speed/Figure Skating

It has often been commented on here that for both disciplines of ice skating to thrive, the ISU needs to split into two separate bodies – one governing figure skating, and one governing speed skating.

But, last weekend, I heard a conversation that started me thinking about an alternative way of splitting the ISU.

During their lead-in to the Canadian Grand Prix last Sunday, Sky Sports F1 showed a feature in which Ted Kravitz was interviewing Bernie Ecclestone. Obviously, the bulk of the interview was about the direction Formula 1 was heading over the next few years. But, then Ted brought up the current crisis at football’s governing body, FIFA, and asked how it related to F1. And in his reply, Bernie made a very good point.

Bernie explained that all the problems in football arose because the commercial rights are held by the same people that make the rules. And he commented that he couldn’t understand why that was still the case, because the European Commission had forced motorsport to separate the commercial rights from the governing bodies in the 1990’s.

Below is a table showing how this separation works in selected high-profile Championships:


So, that started me thinking. Would a similar system work with skating? Transform the ISU into a body solely concerned with making the rules that govern skating, and have other organisations, independent from the ISU, managing the commercial rights.

And this system could be applied whether we had one governing body for all ice skating, or separate governing bodies for figure skating and for speed skating.

One good thing about this system is that it would remove the conflict of interest of having the same people making the rules and running the commercial side of the sport. As we have seen in football recently, having them in the same hands can potentially leave the door open to corruption. And given this current climate, closing a door that could potentially lead to corruption can only be a good thing for skating.

But, on the other hand, the governing body would have to be very careful that they chose the right people to run the commercial business. Because if they chose the wrong people, the sport could be run into the ground very quickly.

That is what happened when the AMA (American Motorcyclist Association) sold the rights to their Pro-Racing series in 2009 to the owners of the circuit where the most prestigious race of the season is held. In the five years that they owned the commercial rights, this group managed to transform the AMA Superbike Championship from being one of the top domestic championships in the world to being a complete shambles. By last season:

• all but 2 of the factory supported teams had pulled out
• the number of riders on the grids dwindled from over 30 to just 16
• the number of rounds went from 11 to 6
• low numbers of spectators turned up at the circuits
• sponsors pulled out
• TV coverage disappeared

In the end, the AMA had to take back the commercial rights. They then sold them to a group of people that had a background in motorbike racing. It will take a few years to build the series back up to where it used to be, but as soon as the 2015 season started, you could see the difference. For a start, the number of rounds is up to 9, although the prestigious race I was talking about is now no longer part of the championship. And there is TV coverage again (the broadcaster may not be back to showing the races in full yet, but highlights are a start).

The others will take a while to build up. After all, sponsors, manufacturers, teams, riders etc. need to see what happens this season to gauge whether it will benefit them to get involved. But Honda are already showing signs that they may be interested in returning.

So, there are drawbacks to both systems.

We have been complaining for years about the way the ISU does things. That they concentrate too much on speed skating and neglect figure skating. Having separate bodies for rules and for commercial rights would allow both bodies to concentrate fully on their respective areas. And maybe if the ISU did not have the commercial stuff to worry about, then they might be able to give more attention to governing figure skating.

If we had somebody independent from the ISU doing the day-to-day running of the two sports, maybe they would do things better. On the other hand, maybe they wouldn’t.

And that is the problem: you just don’t know until after it has happened. So, maybe it’s a case of better the devil you know.

I’ll be honest, I haven’t a clue whether separating the commercial rights from the governing body would be a good idea for skating or not. If the ISU can get a group that know what they are doing, I would probably be in favour of it.

Conversely, I wonder if Eurosport Events would be interested in becoming the commercial rights holders for figure skating?

Although I have been talking about motorsports (because that is what I know most about!), Eurosport Events also promotes other types of sport. For example, they promote the Global Champions Tour in show jumping.

And, hey, if they owned the commercial rights to figure skating themselves, you would know that Eurosport would make sure we got brilliant coverage on the TV!

So, what do you think of this idea?

CaroLiza_fan

(P.S. Apologies to karne for taking ideas from something Bernie Ecclestone said. I know how you feel about him...! )

I don't think using F1 as a model is a great idea.

First, Bernie is as corrupt as Sepp Blatter, and has just as little shame. He openly talks about accepting bribes, and recently was on trial for such in Germany. We know there is bribery and corruption - after all, how else do places like Azerbaijan, Korea, Bahrain, Dubai et al get Grands Prix? He cares only for money and nothing else, and it is slowly destroying the sport. The classic tracks are slowly dropping off the calendar in place of these substandard events in countries that can't even fill a single grandstand. Teams come in and struggle with the high costs, and receive no help from FOM, until they flounder and sink. The only teams that can really survive or thrive are Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull - everyone else is in some form of financial trouble.

And figure skating just doesn't have the same sort of profile as motor racing. The reason things like FOM succeed is because the profile is big to begin with.

karne said:

I don't think using F1 as a model is a great idea.

First, Bernie is as corrupt as Sepp Blatter, and has just as little shame. He openly talks about accepting bribes, and recently was on trial for such in Germany. We know there is bribery and corruption - after all, how else do places like Azerbaijan, Korea, Bahrain, Dubai et al get Grands Prix? He cares only for money and nothing else, and it is slowly destroying the sport. The classic tracks are slowly dropping off the calendar in place of these substandard events in countries that can't even fill a single grandstand. Teams come in and struggle with the high costs, and receive no help from FOM, until they flounder and sink. The only teams that can really survive or thrive are Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull - everyone else is in some form of financial trouble.

And figure skating just doesn't have the same sort of profile as motor racing. The reason things like FOM succeed is because the profile is big to begin with.

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We all know about Bernie and the bribes. But, that all happened when his best mate Max Mosley was in charge of the FIA. Since Jean Todt took over running the FIA, Bernie hasn't been able to get away with the same stuff he was previously able to.

Now that we have heads of the 2 bodies that are not in cahoots with each other, we are seeing the system work in F1 the way it was intended to. Or, to put it the other way, the way it has always worked in motorbike racing.

The reason the system works so well in motorbike racing is twofold. Firstly, all the high-ranking officials in the governing body are former competitors themselves. And secondly, although Dorna does have a powerful figurehead in the form of Carmelo Ezpeleta, he actually listens to the riders/teams/manufacturers, and bases his decisions on what they think.

I acknowledge that skating is not high profile at the moment. But, it used to be. Which to me says that there are people out there that could be enticed back into watching the sport.

So, if we had a promoter who attempted to reach out to these people, I believe that figure skating could become high profile again.

A lot of people like watching sport because their country is doing well in it. Taking Great Britain, skating was very popular when we had the likes of John Curry, Robin Cousins, Barber / Slater and Torvill / Dean winning on a regular basis.

But, Americans are the winners when it comes to this attitude. So, it is no surprise that skating was so popular there in the 90's. Kristi Yamaguchi, Tonya Harding, Nancy Kerrigan, Tara Lipinski, Michelle Kwan, Sasha Cohen... and that is just the Ladies! Need I say any more?!

Yet since then, skating has become less popular in these countries because they aren't winning internationally anymore. Admittedly, the USFSA have been trying to use Gracie Gold to try and make the sport more popular in America. But, she simply isn't winning regularly enough to reach out to enough people.

Others like watching sport because of the intense rivalries. People still talk about the Battle of the Brians (Orser and Boitano) and, of course, Tonya and Nancy.

Mao v. Yun-A was the sort of rivalry that promoters dream of having in their sport. 2 very pretty girls who are the same age and from the same part of the world... but from 2 countries that have a history of not liking each other.

The ISU showed how inept they are in commercial matters by not using this rivaly to promote their championships. Yes, their fans made a big deal of the rivalry. But they were the only ones.

So, now that Yun-A has retired, they have missed that opportunity to use a rivalry to promote the sport. There simply aren't any other big rivalries in the sport at the minute. Unless, of course, Virtue / Moir and Davis / White come back. But, everybody knows that they are all good mates away from the ice, so that won't work.

With all this in mind, I still believe that skating (and figure skating in particular) would be better off with somebody other than the ISU promoting the sport.

CaroLiza_fan