Announcement NT 2020 | Golden Skate

Announcement NT 2020

Alex D

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Sep 23, 2013
The DEU has released the announcement for the Nebelhorn Trophy 2020, I skimmed through it and did not see anything out of the ordinary.

https://eislauf-union.de/files/Events/NT/NT2020_Announcement.pdf

However,

https://eislauf-union.de/events/nebelhorn-trophy

states that the DEU will not return money, in case of cancellation, this includes travel expenses.

The Organizing Committee reserves the right to cancel the “Nebelhorn-Trophy 2020” if due to the Coronavirus (Covid-19) the decision or recommendation of the national/local Government will not agree to conduct such an event or if the travel restrictions into and out of Germany will block the Teams for an unexpected period of time. In this case, no compensation will be paid for costs incurred (e.g. cancellation of booked reservations in travel)!

To put this into context to what we are dealing with right now,

any bigger events are still on hold until the 31st. of August, except for events with a "hygiene concept", like in football, basketball or beachvolleyball and soon tennis. Right now there is talk about allowing more events without a crowd, as it´s currently done to the above. Sports like Handball, Ice Hockey and the like have, however, expressed big concerns of continuation without a crowd.
In regards of the NT trophy and FS in general, I want to point out and that is just my opinion, nothing official, that a NT without a crowd will not happen. On the final day, we always had the Gala with a fully packed venue. If we assume that 1000 people buy a ticket for 30 Euro, then that will be 30.000 Euro. Those 30k, would be missing, which is quite a lot of money. I assume that in this case, an additional sponsor or funding by the ISU would be required.

Besides the financial aspect, they would need to offer a "hygiene concept" which based on my experience at the venue, might require some additional costs, like for walls between officials, more shuttle services, masks and hand sanitizers. Some figure skating venues at Germany are currently asking skaters to not use the changing rooms, but enter the venue with their skating outfits. A max number of skaters at the practice rink warm up area could be applied, the cafeteria being closed ... This could cause additional costs and might influence how practicable an international sports event would be under these conditions.

The last issue could be the travel restrictions currently in place at the EU. Travel from outside the EU; is still on hold until the end of the month, afterwards some restrictions could be lifted, like for students, health workers and the like. I am unsure if athletes would fall under this, but I guess they won´t unless they actually go to school like the ones at Oberstdorf.

The German government is overall keen on having strict rules on countries with high numbers of infection, while countries with lower numbers have less strict rules to follow. We are talking about self isolation and the like. This could cause a problem with countnries like the US, Russia if the numbers are still high in September, even if the travel restrictions being further softned for other non EU countries.

TLDR:

From my point of view,

The OC from the NT 2020 must come up with a hygiene concept to be allowed to host the event, said concept must be accepted by the local health department. Rules could be about the max number of skaters, crowd participation, mask requirements and hand sanitizers, distance rules for officials, and so on. These rules do vary from sports to sports, figure skating has not yet released one as far I know, therefore just my guesses above, but in tennis for instance, there are no ball kids or handshakes, in football only 10 journalists and masks until the match starts and similar rules.

It is very likely that a NT without a crowd, could run into financial difficulties, as ticket sales are important. Additional sponsors or funding by the ISU might be required to cover the costs.

Besides that, we still have travel restrictions for several strong figure skating nations, such as the US. Therefore it is possible, that we might only have skaters from the EU at the event or just those from close by countries.

Last but not least, in case of cancellation, the OC won´t offer a refund, which could keep poorer nations away, due the risks of losing money. Also to mention are much higher prices for food and accomodation in Germany right now. The hygiene concepts make the overall production less effective, like with vegetables, but also the hotels can not run on full capacity. The NT will therefore, most likely be more expensive for skaters, officials and fans (if allowed).

Since things change almost daily, my guess can already be history tomorrow, so take it with a grain of salt and just as a "where we are now".

Sadly, not really much information you can work with :(
 
Last edited:

Alex D

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Joined
Sep 23, 2013
A "slight" update,

our government has extended the "lockdown" on all major events until the end of October (formerly August 31.), therefore, the above rules for the NT (hygiene concept, green light from local health authorities applies). Ticket sales is still August, I guess we will know more by then.
 

el henry

Go have some cake. And come back with jollity.
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Mar 3, 2014
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Thank you for the update on Nebelhorn, Alex, along with the informative analysis!
 

Alex D

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Joined
Sep 23, 2013
Thank you for the update on Nebelhorn, Alex, along with the informative analysis!

Your welcome.

The government at Bavaria is now having travel restrictions in place, for people from high risk areas. While this is mostly due our outbreak in Germany (Gütersloh), it could play a bigger role in the future. Visitors from a high risk area, must now bring a negative Corona test, to bypass the restrictions. Without a test, they are not allowed to stay at hotels at the bavarian state.

I did talk to some "old" friends about the situation with international events, and the travel restrictions but also lack of practice were mentioned most as an issue in regards of thinking ahead. Right now, many don´t even know if they could travel to an event, which is a big burden as hotels, flights must be booked in advance and not all offer a refund.
 

Harriet

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Oct 23, 2017
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Australia
The annoucement document has now been added to the ISU's event page for Nebelhorn.

In addition to the announcement, there's an 'Information guide' which includes the following statement:

The Organizing Committee of the 52nd “Nebelhorn-Trophy in Oberstdorf” continues its preparation work and will start the event as scheduled with the necessary permission of our Government. We have worked out a guide for movements within the arena, a hygienic concept and most important a guide to keep the distance between each individuals, the teams, the viewers, and guests.

We, however, must ask for your understanding that once the situation will change and does not allow us to conduct our event, we need to cancel the competition on a very short notice.

It also states that they're hoping to be able to admit a limited number of spectators.
 

Edwin

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Jan 5, 2019
With this permanent uncertainty looming over any event, plus the real chance you might loose a lot of money when cancelled, who is willing to risk admitting for participation?
 

surimi

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Nov 12, 2013
^ just the locals maybe? Social distancing could be much easier to carry out that way.
 

Alex D

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Sep 23, 2013
^ just the locals maybe? Social distancing could be much easier to carry out that way.

Right now, the bavarian government has asked people to be tested if they come from a high risk territory, including locals that were on holidays. That is mandatory and will be done on airports, but also larger train stations such as the munich main station. They also think about re adjusting the territories that are considered high risk, maybe by also adding a third category between no risk and high. In Germany the numbers are currently on the rise again, there is a press conference in 30 minutes by the RKI, that might give further insight.

I checked Obersdorf touristic and lots of events are cancelled mostly music stuff, however. The trophy is still on schedule, no tickets on sale yet.

A bit OT; I was given some insight on how its done in Tennis and it seems tough to reproduce this in figure skating.
 

Alex D

Record Breaker
Joined
Sep 23, 2013
The annoucement document has now been added to the ISU's event page for Nebelhorn.

In addition to the announcement, there's an 'Information guide' which includes the following statement:



It also states that they're hoping to be able to admit a limited number of spectators.

Cheers for that!

I wanted to add that based on information here https://www.muenchen.de/freizeit/aktuell/2020/diese-sportarten-sind-wieder-erlaubt.html (in german), no spectators are allowed yet indoors.


Indoorsportstätten wie Turnhallen öffnen

Wettkämpfe für kontaktlos ausführbare Sportarten draußen und drinnen sind wieder zugelassen

ab dem 15. Juli dürfen an Sport-Wettkämpfen in geschlossenen Räumen bei gekennzeichneten Plätzen oder abgegrenzten Aufenthaltsbereichen 200 Personen und im Übrigen 100 Personen teilnehmen

Zuschauer bleiben weiterhin ausgeschlossen

- Indoor sport is allowed
- no touch sports competitions are allowed indoors and outdoors
- from the 15. of July onwards competitions in closed environments will be allowed with a max of 200 people (that is press, athletes, coaches...)
- spectators are still not allowed
 

Ic3Rabbit

Former Elite, now Pro. ⛸️
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Alex, thank you for keeping us updated on this. :rock:
 

RemyRose

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Important information about the Nebelhorn Trophy 2020: Unfortunately, due to the corona restrictions, this competition will have to take place without spectators. It's very unlikely that this will change anymore. If you do, we'll communicate this immediately. There will be a livestream via the website of the Deutsche Eislauf Union. We will then announce the link again and publish it in the September issue of the Pirouette. In October issue then we will publish a detailed report about the competition.
Source: https://www.facebook.com/pirouettemagazin/posts/3131774620247901
 

MaHa75

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Aug 5, 2018
ohh thats sad, because there is no full house or even half full house anyway. These 50-100 people could be easy to separate from each other. But still it is better than cancel the event :)
 

Alex D

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Sep 23, 2013
Tiny update.

The no crowd has been confirmed, but journalists will still be allowed. Said journalists will be selected based on former coverage of the Trophy. I do not know about US based journalists or those from other high risk countries, but the overall amount will be kept low. The financial aspect seems to be secured, as a Japanese TV channel has bought the broadcasting rights. This should not impact the live stream, at least for viewers outside Japan.

Nothing set in stone about skaters yet, the Oberstdorf based skaters are likely to compete though.

The final word have the local authorities, they will have to check the venue and protocols before giving their go.
 

Harriet

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Oct 23, 2017
Country
Australia
Tiny update.

The no crowd has been confirmed, but journalists will still be allowed. Said journalists will be selected based on former coverage of the Trophy. I do not know about US based journalists or those from other high risk countries, but the overall amount will be kept low. The financial aspect seems to be secured, as a Japanese TV channel has bought the broadcasting rights. This should not impact the live stream, at least for viewers outside Japan.

Nothing set in stone about skaters yet, the Oberstdorf based skaters are likely to compete though.

The final word have the local authorities, they will have to check the venue and protocols before giving their go.

Thanks for this! It's nice to know we might get some decent photographs etc as well as the livestream. :) And selling broadcasting rights to a skating-mad and skating-deprived country was a very smart thing to do. Not to mention it will give a little publicity to some skaters who probably don't get that kind of exposure very often.

I think the deadline for skaters to be submitted by name is 26 or 28 August, so we should know names within the week to ten days.

(And I really hope you're right about the Oberstdorf-based skaters).
 

Harriet

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Oct 23, 2017
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Australia
Oh does this mean that probably we will see also japanese athletes there? I hope so :)

It's possible, but I wouldn't pin any hopes on it just yet. The Reopen EU site says this is the current state re non-Schengen Area international travel to Germany:

Travelling to and from Australia, Georgia, Canada, New Zealand, Thailand, Tunisia, Uruguay is allowed without restrictions.
For China, Japan and South Korea a lifting of entry restrictions is subject to confirmation of reciprocity.
If a country exceeds the number of new cases in relation to the population of 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants cumulatively in the last seven days, travel warnings are issued.

Quarantines are required for travellers entering Germany from high-risk countries (the group with 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 7 days). Japan isn't currently listed as a high-risk country, and from what I remember there Germany and Japan have recently been in talks regarding reciprocity, but I don't think anything's been decided yet and it may not be in time for athletes to travel.
 

Alex D

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Sep 23, 2013
Oh does this mean that probably we will see also japanese athletes there? I hope so :)

I have actually asked that question, but no answer as of yet. I would have thought there are some big names skating, why else would a TV station want to cover it and pay so much money, but it could also be that the TV deal was made prior to Corona while also having the Olympic qualification next year, included.

Since its internal news, I might never get the answer to that question, however, my guess is that of an ongoing TV contract :scratch2:
 

Harriet

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Oct 23, 2017
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I would have thought there are some big names skating, why else would a TV station want to cover it and pay so much money

I just remembered, isn't Kihira training somewhere in Europe for the summer? She might be ready to compete there.

But an ongoing contract because of being the Olympic qualifier makes a lot of sense too.
 
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