Promoting figure skating

What do you think can or should be done to promote figure skating in the usa? How can the US foster up and coming talent? Should skating federations do anything? How can ladies field become more competitive? Im interested in everyones opinions.

Sinnerspinner, i think it’s great that you are starting a thread when you are relatively new here:agree:

This question has been discussed and discussed and discussed, and I think it comes down to this:

1. The USFS should promote the heck out of my favorite skater (s).
and
2. More skaters should skate like my favorite skater (s).

I certainly agree with that!

I don´t know enough about the skating in the US, like structure of the federation, clubs and so on. I only know that some skaters share ice with non skaters and some I believe don´t have a roof... I saw Gracie on an ice rink without, but this might be years ago...

Anyways,

I feel that promoting a sport, is first of all done by fans. They share pictures with athletes on facebook, or comment on their website, so that their friends can see this. They might also invite friends to the ice with them. Then there is of course TV coverage, which has become very hard overall and the US has got tons of private networks don´t they? Many people might miss out on coverage, because they picked the wrong provider?

That is kind of the beauty of my country, you pay for one provider and have access to all channels, if you so desire.

As for FS in general, well i find it super tough to promote the sport, if the seating policy at some events, is so terrible done. Sometimes you have the ice hockey walls blocking the sight, then you have no direct access to the ice rink behind the boards, but sit very high up... which does not support a family like atmosphere. But also the ticket prices and choice of cities is not well done.

If you have to pay more than 1000 bucks, for a week of FS, plus Hotel and Flight, then this is just not very young people friendly. Most don´t even earn that much!

Look at Handball Worlds, while I don´t have to buy tickets, I checked the price and they are round about 35 bucks, for a whole day of Handball, best seats. Compare this to the hundreds of bucks that some bigger events charge for a day.
FS in my opinion, has that "expensivness" that does block new fans from the sport.

It´s kind of like in tennis these days, too many games at the womens bracket are sparely crowded, not because people wouldn´t like to see Agi vs. Svitolina, but because of the high cost for tickets and ATp fans, who don´t like to watch, even though they have tickets.

Because of this, I never was a big fan of mixed gender tournaments. Not everyone likes everything, but yet must pay for both genders. In FS I believe (been some time I boguht a ticket), they sometimes split competitions, but an all event is still asking for an investment into all disciples. Maybe, a future idea would be ticket sales as All Event, but per discipline.

Finally,

FS suffers a bit under the lack of understanding I believe. If you dont understand what you see, then you quickly lose interest. At least in my case If I have nothing to contribute, then it becomes boring for me. Maybe, the ISU could get fans more involved. A voting for best costume after an event, best program, or public signature lessons...

Sure, fans can ask skaters, but at some events the security prevents this (rightfully). to get attached, you need to be allowed to grow some type of relationship with someone or something and this i find FS needs. More press people that actually report more than a line, there are interested people, just they don´t write for the NY Times, but some private blog.

New breed of journalists need to get in and more events in more countries. Too much is happening in the same countries all the time. Worlds should come to Germany again, Europeans should come to Latvia or the Ukraine and GPs should be in different countries each year. Always the same is not gonna do it, how are different ethnics supposed to be attached, if it never happens on their doorstep?

Here the ISU could find better deals with the national cometees, so that they invest hand in hand into this new infra structure.

In general, I would like the IJS to be recalibrated so that clean skating is rewarded more. It doesn't do figure skating any favors when a viewer, especially new ones, see a skater fall once, twice, even three times, and STILL win. In singles skating, falls and mistakes should be penalized more in the GOE (and falls on transitions should be penalized more heavily as well) and the guidelines and rules governing PCS should be rewritten so that technical mistakes lower PCS overall.

It would also help stymie the trend of skaters performing quads and high-risk elements that they know probably can't land properly but still try it in competition purely on its base value, which has led to an outrageous number of injuries particularly this season. Completed quads should still get the high scores that deserve now, but an error on any element should lower their overall value in GOE more than they do now.

I think everything boils down to money, and more specifically, how it's allotted and how it's not.
There might be plenty of young talents with the drive and desire for the sport but if their parents can't afford it, that's it. There's nothing like the Russian sports schools that allow for most, if not all, talented children to learn a sport and be given the opportunity to succeed. And in today's system of financial inequality at a bigger level than ever before, this is going to be a problem as the 1% get richer and the rest of us get poorer, and less able to put our children into expensive sports.

There's also the matter of how it's perceived.
For boys at least, they WILL get mocked at school for skating because in the US it's seen as a feminine sport. And any skater will have to deal with others that say all the time that it's a sport only for rich people and that they must be rich and snooty for doing it. That's a lot for a kid to handle.

We also don't have the best coaches. Yes, I said it. Frank Carroll may be great for jumps but he takes away much of a skater's personality that gets reflected into their skating, and he is not the best mentally. Raf is good but he doesn't get the results that coaches such as Hamada, Tutberidze, and Mishin do.
Lastly, we don't have good all-around training. You can have the physical but I'd like for us to take a leaf out of the Russian's book and incorporate a strong mentality into everyday training and start pushing for independence and trust in the coaches from a young age.

Just my two cents.

Why only in the US? What's so special? This is an international forum, isn't it? US makes only 5% of the world population.

As to promoting figure skating I don't think much can be done. FS is as popular as it can be. Even in the US it probably reached its possible maximum. In the US it gets good TV coverage, all major events are televised on cable for those who want to watch it. The entire population already knows it exists and how it looks, so if they haven't come it means they are simply not interested.
It will never be able to compete with major team sports, but I will risk a statement that in the US, except tennis, it is already one of the most popular individual sports. It has probably a bigger audience than snowboarding, skiing, tracks, swimming, gymnastics.
So I think by my own observation that you cannot go higher than it is already.
What can be done, though, is to maximize its attractiveness among the existing viewers: more events, more money, bigger prizes. Maximize and improve what we already have, rather than trying to reach audiences that simply made their minds and will never come to FS no matter what we do.

Spirals for Miles said:

We also don't have the best coaches. Yes, I said it. Frank Carroll may be great for jumps but he takes away much of a skater's personality that gets reflected into their skating, and he is not the best mentally. Raf is good but he doesn't get the results that coaches such as Hamada, Tutberidze, and Mishin do.

Click to expand...

And you know this from personal experience?

One thing I thought about doing but don't have the time to do is to create a compilation of the "best of" figure skating performances since the last Olympic season.

Manitou said:

Why only in the US? What's so special? This is an international forum, isn't it? US makes only 5% of the world population.

As to promoting figure skating I don't think much can be done. FS is as popular as it can be. Even in the US it probably reached its possible maximum. In the US it gets good TV coverage, all major events are televised on cable for those who want to watch it. The entire population already knows it exists and how it looks, so if they haven't come it means they are simply not interested.
It will never be able to compete with major team sports, but I will risk a statement that in the US, except tennis, it is already one of the most popular individual sports. It has probably a bigger audience than snowboarding, skiing, tracks, swimming, gymnastics.
So I think by my own observation that you cannot go higher than it is already.
What can be done, though, is to maximize it's attractiveness among the existing viewers: more events, more money, bigger prizes. Maximize and improve what we already have, rather than trying to reach audiences that simply made their minds and will never come to FS no matter what we do.

Click to expand...

Disagree there, I live in the US, I don't have absolute basic cable and at most what I get to watch is a 2 hour recap skate of the Grand Prix series often at least a week after the fact and generally it doesn't even show the top 3 finishers of each discipline. The only major competitions I can see is 4CC, Worlds and Olympics. If Worlds is not in the US its similar to the Grand Prix series it's a recap skate which is normally minimal amount of skaters.

I know that quite a few people have been drawn into (or back into) FS thanks to the anime Yuri!!! on Ice. A lot of FS fans seem to dislike it because of comparisons drawn by anime fans between the characters and real-life skaters, but I think it's a valuable tool (kind of a "gateway drug") to get people interested in the sport. If friends or acquaintances enjoy YOI, you can hype FS to them as a way to connect the show to real life. If they're not interested in FS at all but like anime, why not try recommending YOI and starting from there?

Amei said:

Disagree there, I live in the US, I don't have absolute basic cable and at most what I get to watch is a 2 hour recap skate of the Grand Prix series often at least a week after the fact and generally it doesn't even show the top 3 finishers of each discipline. The only major competitions I can see is 4CC, Worlds and Olympics. If Worlds is not in the US its similar to the Grand Prix series it's a recap skate which is normally minimal amount of skaters.

Click to expand...

If you have only basic cable then you cannot watch majority of sports, including football or basketball, etiher. So why would you want figure skating different?

Manitou said:

If you have only basic cable then you cannot watch majority of sports, including football or basketball. So why would you want figure skating different?

Click to expand...

I said I don't have absolute basic cable - I actually have a pretty good package, but it doesn't care a huge number of specialty sports channels outside of a multi-billion dollar sport the NFL.

If figure skating was still in late 90's popularity it would be 1 thing to have it on a specialty package, but football/baseball/basketball can do specialty channels that are on a high cable tier because they have the volume in a fanbase to support it. If figure skating wants to grow putting it on obscure channels isn't going to help it.

Tonya Harding. No seriously. I've had more friends as me about figure skating cause of "I, Tonya" in recent weeks. USFSA needs to bury the hatchet and let Tonya show up to U.S. Nationals again.

Also Sufjan Stevens wrote a song (and two versions, at that) about her. http://asthmatickitty.com/tonya-harding/ He's a very popular singer-songwriter.

Many, including the actress from I Tonya and Sufjan are really painting Tonya in a positive light -- basically a girl of atypical background making it in figure skating.

Mrs. P said:

Tonya Harding. No seriously. I've had more friends as me about figure skating cause of "I, Tonya" in recent weeks. USFSA needs to bury the hatchet and let Tonya show up to U.S. Nationals again.

Also Sufjan Stevens wrote a song (and two versions, at that) about her. http://asthmatickitty.com/tonya-harding/ He's a very popular singer-songwriter.

Many, including the actress from I Tonya and Sufjan are really painting Tonya in a positive light -- basically a girl of atypical background making it in figure skating.

Click to expand...

See, I think the other way: the USFS needs to STOP relying on something that happened MORE THAN TWENTY YEARS AGO to get attention for the sport.

sinnerspinner said:

What do you think can or should be done to promote figure skating in the usa?

Click to expand...

Establishing ministry of sport with federal funding, like in 99% of civilized countries.

Have a bigger social media presence, maybe? That seems to be where its at these days. Jason's Riverdance & other programs went viral, USFS should be capitalizing on that if they want to expand their fanbase. The Olympics are coming up so everyone is going to start tuning into skating, there is going to be a lot of opportunity to retain viewers and find new fans who will stick around, few as they may be.

also coughfixicenetworkcough - nobody wants to pay $50 to stream in the states, especially for a stream that you can't count on.

My first response is to make figure skating more accessible to viewers. Ice Network is a poor streaming option that doesn’t even offer HD quality. Normal non-cable broadcast is always tape delayed and shortened, and typically only focuses on US skaters. It’s shown midday on a Saturday for me on NBC and I’m never home then. They should focus on all top competitors and offer commentary that helps explain what people are seeing in terms of the program. Even making a live stream available for some senior events on YouTube for free can help foster casual interest, you can keep more major events behind a pay wall. The more visible you make the sport the easier it’ll be to get people to notice and take an interest (even if it’s not in the US skaters, but all skaters).

Amei said:

I said I don't have absolute basic cable - I actually have a pretty good package, but it doesn't care a huge number of specialty sports channels outside of a multi-billion dollar sport the NFL.

If figure skating was still in late 90's popularity it would be 1 thing to have it on a specialty package, but football/baseball/basketball can do specialty channels that are on a high cable tier because they have the volume in a fanbase to support it. If figure skating wants to grow putting it on obscure channels isn't going to help it.

Click to expand...

It will never change and it would be very naive wishful thinking to expect figure skating to be popular like basketball. Even tennis is mostly available on The Tennis Channel and requires purchasing a special package.
It would be so nice if the skaters were making millions, like in tennis...
I don't know about other providers, but Xfinitiy has a fantastic Olympic Channel, where I can watch every major figure skating event, plus my other favorite sports: ski jumping and alpine skiing.
So, as far as TV coverage, I am very happy and I don't know where it can be improved.

kiches said:

My first response is to make figure skating more accessible to viewers. Ice Network is a poor streaming option that doesn’t even offer HD quality. Normal non-cable broadcast is always tape delayed and shortened, and typically only focuses on US skaters. It’s shown midday on a Saturday for me on NBC and I’m never home then.

Click to expand...

As I said in the previous post, Comcast Xfinity has an Olympic Channel where the entire Grand Prix was practically live and complete.