- Joined
- Jun 21, 2003
Has anything been done since then?
They tired.
The ISU did everything it could to accommodate the requests of U.S. and other television networks in a vain hope of keeping the lucrative contracts that they had in the 1990s. They threw out the whole judging system and came up with an add-up-the-points system to ward off complaints that figure skating judging was too subjective and crooked. They offered a cash prize to entice top skaters to participate in Four Continents to try to make something out of that unwanted step-child of a competition.
They endlessly juggled the Grand Prix to try to make it more attractive to viewers. (At one time skaters could skate in three events -- with two counting for scoring purposes -- in order to offer the top talent at each individual event. One year they tried a head-to-hed tournament style format for the Grand Prix Final, where there were preliminary rounds and then a face-off for 1st-2nd and another face-off for 3rd-4th (with a different long program so the audience wouldn't be bored).
Every year they tinker with the Scale of Values to put more or less emphasis on this element or that to try to find a mix that satisfies as many fans as possible.
They addressed the problem of having some weak skaters at worlds by imposing tech minimums (and also, of course, by never showing the lower flights on TV). Even the idea that Members of the Federation could earn extra spots (besides the national champion) was a slight lean in the direction of inviting more of the top skaters to Worlds.
Now they (the ISU) seems to be noticing that X-games sports have a certain following and they are pushing figure skating (only slightly so far) in that direction. Plus allowing skaters to skate to teen-age popular music was an attempt to attract a younger audience.
Would a different competitive format for Worlds help? Does the idea of separate artistic program and jumping programs hold promise? To me, it is hard to predict what effect various proposals might produce in terms of increasing interest in the sport.