How to raise attendance at ISU events

On the topic of how ISU strategize ticket selling, one of the ways would be to sell a whole day pass. They buy a ticket for Friday, they get to see Mens, Ladies or pairs SP for instance.
Badminton does that. In most Asian countries where badminton is more popular than figure skating, the question why doesnt figure skating sell tickets like badminton gets asked.

2nd, the issue of who are truer fans of the sport is not raised if fans choose not to sit through the whole day. Badminton matches up to QF can be from 10 am to 11 pm. There were matches which lasted way past midnite esp women's doubles.
Everyone understood that one has to go eat lunch, dinner, or go back hotel take a shower.

So for figure skating, in my opinion the onus is actually on ISU and the organisers to find ways to fill up the stadium. In this technology age, where internet livestreams is becoming more popular, it is Not surprising to find stadiums more empty at certain times.

eaglehelang said:

So for figure skating, in my opinion the onus is actually on ISU and the organisers to find ways to fill up the stadium. In this technology age, where internet livestreams is becoming more popular, it is Not surprising to find stadiums more empty at certain times.

Click to expand...

Yes, the empty stands can only be blamed on ISU. Anything else is bandaging the problem, not fixing it. You may be able to convince a handful of people to go to see less popular events, but that doesn't scale. That's why smart, internet savvy marketing departments are 1000% important in our day and age. Nowadays, young people seem to care a lot more about fairness and social justice so the unequities in scoring might turn them off to the sport as well.

Personally, I try not to go to events hosted by USFSA because I don't agree with their politics. Unfortunately, I live in the US so I still have to pay them for dues and stuff in order to test and compete...

I don't think Anaheim was any different than a lot of the Grand Prixs or previous 4CCs. There are not enough butts in seats. Is it because of the technology now? And with streaming there are fewer people watching the broadcasts on television? I think the media is partly responsible for the lack of attendance although I would much rather be in the arena and seeing programs "live" and feeling the excitement of the crowd after a great performance. I think the ISU and the USFSA only promote events marginally. I have friends who didn't even know there was an event going on last weekend until I mentioned it - and these people like watching figure skating but are not die-hard fans. There was a blurb in the newspaper about Alyssa Liu because she's from the Bay Area. There were the same 2 or 3 mind-numbing commercials throughout the entire broadcast to the point we wanted to throw our shoes at the television, but that was during the event. To put it in perspective, the World Rugby Fours championship is in Las Vegas in a couple of weeks and it's been all over the news for weeks now. HELLO. Why can't the figure skating get the same kind of promotion? Cost is also an issue. We were planning on going to Montreal in 2020 for Worlds until we got the initial financial information. It would have been DOUBLE what it cost to go to Worlds in Boston! Suffice to say I will be watching the event on television.

About the high costs, I have to wonder whether these events make any money at all, either for the local organizing committees, the national federations, or the ISU. Maybe there is a way to reduce the actual costs of the production and to pass the savings along to ticket-buyers?

Anaheim 4CC was a success if we compare it to Taipei 4CC, where the arena was essentially empty and the tickets were free. We shouldn’t compare 4CC to other competitions.

noskates said:

We were planning on going to Montreal in 2020 for Worlds until we got the initial financial information. It would have been DOUBLE what it cost to go to Worlds in Boston! Suffice to say I will be watching the event on television.

Click to expand...

Where is this information about cost for Montreal?

andromache said:

Where is this information about cost for Montreal?

Click to expand...

ditto.. i have been looking for such info.... and nada

narcissa said:

Sorry, when holding an All-Event ticket is the only way to go to ANY events, I don't see anyone having any obligation to use every ticket.

Click to expand...

This is true. I can see why they do it, because otherwise the not so popular disciplines would have even less attendees, but yeah, if I had to buy tickets to a full concert series to see certain performers, I'd do that and let the others slide (bad hip means I canNOT sit in uncomfortable seats for too long. There are stars in skating, in music, in other fields, I'll suffer for, but not all)

andromache said:

Maybe if you offer to give your tickets away or sell them months in advance so people can actually plan their lives....but I don't think anyone does that. I've certainly never seen it.

Click to expand...

I saw tickets for both the GPF and 4CC being offered pretty much as soon as it was clear who - or rather in the latter case probably two whos, I'm not sure when it became clear about Nathan, I don't follow his fest - was not going to be there. But you can hardly blame folk for waiting till they're sure, had Shoma fans sold their 4CC after he sprained his ankle, right now you'd be hearing the weeping and wailing on Mars.

andromache said:

Good for those of you who have no problem throwing away tickets worth hundreds of dollars that other people would love to have.

Click to expand...

If someone is willing to pay hundreds of dollars to watch one or two skaters for what, seven minutes combined? (plus warmup plus if possible practice) that may not make them a 'true' skating fan to the purists, but my god it makes them a passionate one.

I am still a little bit unclear on the details. Are these events sold out by people buying all-event tickets? If I show up at the gate for one of the less popular sessions hoping to buy a ticket on the spot, will I be turned away because all the seats were reserved from the all-event sales?

It seems like if that were the case then financially these competitions would make a killing -- completely selling out a 20,000 seat arena for several days at a thousand dollars a pop (whether ticket-holders actually attend each session or not).

4everchan said:

ditto.. i have been looking for such info.... and nada

Click to expand...

At 4CC, there was a Worlds Montreal representative. I asked her about pricing, and she said no pricing was available yet. My recollection was she said end of March, beginning of April. My question was if it's at the same venue as Skate Canada Gr Prix 2018 (Place Bell--Laval), and the answer was no. It's at Bell Center in downtown Montreal.

This is such an interesting conversation.

I've never been to a top-flight figure skating championship.

However, if I ever got the chance when money and work and geography were in alignment, I think I'd want to go to all the events I could.

Especially if I were having to pay for all the events anyway, I'd want to get my money's worth. It's the frugal upbringing, I suppose.

Andromache, et.al. I contacted a Canadian tour company - the name of which escapes me right, maybe Silver Skatees?, but I got it out of a skating magazine - last year and they sent the info to me about 3 weeks ago. The biggest cost is lodging. And that time of year with the weather and all you don't want to be too far away from the venue. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. I think with tickets, lodging and airfare from California it was going to cost me more than $6000 and that didn't include food, etc. There are many things I would rather do with $6000....could easily go to two Nats or Skate America and Skate Canada.

Just to dot the i and cross the t - when I have an all event ticket I go to all the events whether they're my favorite or not. There is something special about sitting in the arena and seeing "live" skating.

Mathman said:

I am still a little bit unclear on the details. Are these events sold out by people buying all-event tickets? If I show up at the gate for one of the less popular sessions hoping to buy a ticket on the spot, will I be turned away because all the seats were reserved from the all-event sales?

It seems like if that were the case then financially these competitions would make a killing -- completely selling out a 20,000 seat arena for several days at a thousand dollars a pop (whether ticket-holders actually attend each session or not).

Click to expand...

I can’t say for sure but I remember the GPF in Vancouver sold very well (it’s a smaller venue too) and they sold out of all event tickets. They later sold some individual sessions tickets but I’m not sure how many were available - I believe they also added seats into the west section before releasing those individual tickets.

Typically I think it’s unlikely that events sell out, rare occasions they do (competitions in Japan, certain disciplines at the Olympics, and Autumn Classic come to mind). I had a friend when we went to Worlds in Helsinki just buy her ticket at the box office for pairs. They may not always be the best seats available but there’s usually something available.

Also someone mentioned getting people to move down to lower seats for 4CC in Anaheim. I had a friend do this to sit with me, depending on who was working they gave her a bit of grief saying she wasn’t supposed to move down (there was plenty of space) but ultimately let her stay during pairs and men. They did not let her stay down in the lower seats for gala though, so it depends.

From personal experience, when I went to my first competition in Boston for Worlds I was very gung-ho about trying to see everything, including practice. After attending practice the first day on Monday which went until about 10 PM with very few pairs actually showing up, I realized immediately it was not sustainable for an entire week. I don’t think events are spaced out in a friendly enough way to allow fans to easily watch every single skate. It’s extremely tiring and being inside so long definitely messes with my sense of time passing, plus all the money you’d waste on overpriced food. If they were spaced out to allow more time to sightsee and rest it would make the experience of a Championship more comfortable, but more days = more expense which I don’t think people are willing to trade off. I actually found the format for the GPF really suited me. Only top contenders, usually 1-2 hours max each session vs nearby 4 hours for ladies and for men at 4CC, it was an easier viewing experience. At 4CC I actually left between sessions to try and take a nap, but usually only found time for maybe 20-30 min after making the trip back to my hotel because I also took time after competition to chat with other people after competition ended, which is part of the fun. Sadly it meant I often missed small medal ceremonies and sometimes the first group, but it’s a trade off you sometimes have to make.

Mathman said:

About the high costs, I have to wonder whether these events make any money at all, either for the local organizing committees, the national federations, or the ISU. Maybe there is a way to reduce the actual costs of the production and to pass the savings along to ticket-buyers?

Click to expand...

Very unclear cause everything is kept secret...except accidently to some of us. Everett was very pleased with the money they made and the attendance wasnt heavy. They are putting in for more events. Anaheim made a bunch of money off of me and PaulE. Hotel was $1100 ish, evening meals were $30, Drinks in the arena were $15, as were the heavy snacks. I attended a meeting for Spokane 2010 where Toby and Barb explained all the people who pledged money for the bid. An event floats many boats. And dont forget the facilities fee at what? 25%.
Having all of us fans and the skaters, coaches, et al is much better for Anaheim than letting the hotels and eateries and arena NOT have us....and there is economic trickle down. The people whose saleries we paid then can have money to spend. Car loans are being defaulted on at rates not seen since 2010. We have good economic impact for most cities. As to the main question, I have no answers. The Japanese fans are hard corps. I wish our culture were alittle bit more like the Japanese but no matter, I felt I got lots of value for my dollar seeing people like Vincent, Uno, Rika and the rest as compared to going to worship a rodent for what? $129 dollars a day??????????????? Plus parking? AND you have to stand in lines for the rides? Hey, the value for hour is THERE at the Honda center...I Dont mind shelling out bucks to see Celtic Woman but go ahead and figure out what you are spending per hour doing that vs watching skating....I got my money's worth.


(If one is coming in from beyond driving distance, there is a major cost to such a trip. I think my air ticket was $350-$400, Hotel was $1100, all event seat was $600 due to the facilities fee (added prophit) Food might have been $250. I dont see the cost of the seat as being a major component to the trip except for the facilites fee. Just compare it to the cost of going to seven major football games.)

Ref: Vegmom"It's kind of ridiculous to expect anyone to sit and watch everything. Like, do they have compression stockings on and are they taking baby aspirin or something? Because that much sitting is NOT healthy." Well, yes, sitting is not healthy. I am with you 100 percent. I walk to keep in shape. That is why we savy hi time attendees are walking laps in the concourse during breaks and walking to eateries over the river. Some days I put on 6 miles on my pedometer. I think I wore poor Paul out but I would slow down to his speed at least. Pity the poor airline pilots! How do they have time to walk on a flight over the pole? I did skip the first two groups of men at the FS. I napped.

Want to raise attendance? Hold more events in the United States so I can actually attend one

taylor1 said:

Want to raise attendance? Hold more events in the United States so I can actually attend one

Click to expand...

I like the way you think! GPF in a REAL arena in Everett! No small college rink or class B Hockey rink for worlds....with porta potties for men OUTSIDE.
We can do it!

Arriba627 said:

At 4CC, there was a Worlds Montreal representative. I asked her about pricing, and she said no pricing was available yet. My recollection was she said end of March, beginning of April. My question was if it's at the same venue as Skate Canada Gr Prix 2018 (Place Bell--Laval), and the answer was no. It's at Bell Center in downtown Montreal.

Click to expand...

thank you!!!! i knew the venue i can walk there from home

Based of all the uh...bickering on this thread about Yuzuru and his fans, I think it's pretty clear that big stars sell tickets more than anything else, even if some people are unhappy about that. Unfortunately, Yuzuru's combination of ungodly talent, charisma, good looks, and likeable public persona are probably difficult for the ISU to replicate on any kind of reliable basis.

One thing I think would help is scoring PCS differently, instead of the confusing mess that it currently is. It's clear that some skaters have a certain on-ice presence and performance ability that is attractive to many viewers, but those skaters don't always have that reflected in their performance score--I'm thinking, for instance, Kevin Aymoz and Jason Brown to a lesser extent (sometimes Jason's PCS score is okay). If those skaters were scored more competitively, I think it would help increase the appeal of the figure skating to a wider audience--people are more likely to follow people who stand a higher chance of winning (Yuzu is not popular only because he is a spectacular performer and good looking, but also because he wins a lot). It would also encourage skaters to work on developing the kinds of qualities that are likely to attract audiences and fans.

Encouraging longevity, I think, is also important for developing stars. It's difficult to imagine fans sticking with the sport if their favorites disappear every couple of years.

noskates said:

Andromache, et.al. I contacted a Canadian tour company - the name of which escapes me right, maybe Silver Skatees?, but I got it out of a skating magazine - last year and they sent the info to me about 3 weeks ago. The biggest cost is lodging. And that time of year with the weather and all you don't want to be too far away from the venue. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. I think with tickets, lodging and airfare from California it was going to cost me more than $6000 and that didn't include food, etc. There are many things I would rather do with $6000....could easily go to two Nats or Skate America and Skate Canada.

Just to dot the i and cross the t - when I have an all event ticket I go to all the events whether they're my favorite or not. There is something special about sitting in the arena and seeing "live" skating.

Click to expand...

ok.. thanks... those touring companies also take their cut. . i have a place 20 minutes walk away from the venue... so no transport, no lodging.... i will wait and see how much the tickets are.. that IS my concern .

Better and innovative use of technology. It irks me that ISU are quick to protect their jobs but when it comes to learning how to use a flash drive they want months.