ISU Announces 2024-25 Grand Prix locations

[CaroLiza_fan]

Figure skating is expensive everywhere so that's not relevant. We are talking only about the cost of travel here.
It is not some obscure science that flying within Europe is cheaper than overseas. And on top of that, skaters need to travel with some entourage. So it makes traveling expenses not only higher for the skater but exponentially higher as the entourage is also brought in.
On top of that, jet lag is an issue. A skater coming from far away may need to arrive a day earlier to recuperate. So that adds in another hotel night. ETC.

As mentioned above, jet lag and time difference can mean even longer stays for skaters from overseas... Other than that, sure, the hotel is the same price for everyone... Not sure why that is an argument? Nobody is saying it's cheap to compete for Europeans. What is being said is that it is much more convenient for them as they have multiple events relatively nearby. The proof is in the pudding or whatever the expression is... who are the skaters competing in many challengers and senior Bs? easy to find out... most of the times, they are European.

Firstly, I should make clear that I wrote most of my post this morning, but then forgot about it when I started watching today's action at the Tirnavia Trophy. So, your post wasn't up at that stage. I hadn't thought about things like jetlag, time differences, etc. putting off skaters from competing because my post was mainly addressing the situation in Europe, and the way that North Americans seem to think that everywhere in Europe is near to each other.

Europe is a big place. To say that Europeans have "multiple events relatively nearby" is simply not true in most cases.

I think the problem is that North Americans and Europeans have totally different concepts of what "nearby" is. And that is all down to the size of your countries compared to our countries. The continental mainland part of Canada stretches for approximately 3,000 miles west to east. That is the equivalent of a crow flying from my house all the way to Astana in Kazakhstan. And I can't be bothered counting how many countries are in between. But for you guys, all that is within a single country.

For me living on a rock in the North Atlantic, the 200 miles as the crow flies from my house to Cork is a long distance. But to you guys in North America, that would probably be classed as nearby.

We just have different concepts of distances. And that is understandable.

There are extra charges on mainstream overseas flight. At sure, a train may not be cheap...but I have never have been able to take a train from Montreal to Paris.

It would be an interesting experience if you could, though.

Exactly why it's even more difficult to accept for Canadian fans and skaters. The funds are limited, the cost is much higher so it means way less events. Some skaters get absolutely 0 outings.

And that is why there need to be more events that count towards the rankings in the Americas every year. Just 2 Senior GP's and one Challenger is not enough. There should be at least 6.

Don't worry, I think all of us are on the same wavelength on this one. It's just the people that can actually make it happen that aren't.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[TT_Fin]

USA: 9 834 000 km²
Europe: 10 530 000 km²

I think US has more eve one more time zone than the the whole Europe.
Nordic countries and Switzerland are the most expensive ones in Europe. There is a huge difference between east Europe and these ones. I think hotels give some discount to groups, in Finland they often do get some and my guess is the skaters' hotels are selected based not only by locations, but also by which kind of offers are given.

But it is not only about the ISU, where the events happen. Finnish federation was asked in interview "how does so small country get so often big competitions to organize". One of the answers was "we are active in applying for them". So if fed does not apply, there won' be. Korea has plenty of good skaters but there is very few events. The question is, does Korea apply for hem?

 

[lilimum]

unfortunately there is no coordination on European Level, every country is doing its own thing, (even worse: within the countries there is no coordination between the regional feds neither). It is a mess that the Challenger in Graz is cancelled with no replacement And it is sad to see that there are competitions in different european countries the same weekend with the effect that in some categories are not enough skaters to get points for the world ranking

 

[hdauria]

ISU News

ISU Grand Prix Season 2024/25
The Council approved the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Calendar for the season 2024/25 as follows:
- GP1 USA October 18-20, 2024
- GP1 CAN October 25-27, 2024
- GP3 FRA November 1-3, 2024
- GP4 JPN November 8-10, 2024
- GP5 TBD November 15-17, 2024
- GP6 CHN November 22-24, 2024
- GP Final Orleans, FRA December 5-8, 2024

ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating 5 will be opened for bids until the end of November, 2023.

Season 2026/27
- ISU European Figure Skating Championships 2027, January 25-31, 2027, Lausanne, Switzerland
- ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2027, February 22-28, 2027, Sofia, Bulgaria

The ISU Council decided to postpone the provisional allotment of other ISU Events for the 2026/27 and 2027/28 Championships which remain pending.

I'm wondering if anyone can tell me what list I need to get on or what site I need to watch to know when tickets go on sale for the 2024 GPF in Orleans. I'd really like to go but have no idea where to get more info. Thanks!

 

[Warwick360]

Unless the TBD has been declared, I really hope it comes to Sheffield (with a good line up might I add), and I will be booking my next travel destination pronto.

 

[mrsaybia]

I know it’s early, but does anyone know which venue the finals will be held? On Wikipedia I found this venue: https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patinoire_du_Baron

But it’s so small. Only 920 seats?

 

[Jontor]

So, is Russia out of the ISU for good then? I thought they were supposed to negotiate around this time? Did it fall through? Anyone has any official info?

It's complicated with Russia. The Russian TV stations (and Belarus) have been expelled by the EBU, the European Broadcast Union. And it's because as a rule TV should not be used as political propaganda. That effectively means that Russia is out of most sporting events and also (and I know this hurts for the Russians) the Eurovision Song Contest.

Russia needs to fix this problem first before they can even think of participating in figure skating again. Because, participating without being able to broadcast it seems unlikely to me...

 

[TallyT]

I know it’s early, but does anyone know which venue the finals will be held? On Wikipedia I found this venue: https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patinoire_du_Baron

But it’s so small. Only 920 seats?

That can't be right. I mean, I know it says it on the linked website, but really?!?!? Okay, audiences aren't huge these days but they're not that bad and Europeans was one of their biggest last year. Is there anywhere else in Orleans that could have been mistaken for it?

 

[lilimum]

That can't be right. I mean, I know it says it on the linked website, but really?!?!? Okay, audiences aren't huge these days but they're not that bad and Europeans was one of their biggest last year. Is there anywhere else in Orleans that could have been mistaken for it?

There are other multi-sport venues in Orleans. I guess the final will be in one of that, e.g. the new Co`Met with about 10.000 seats

 

[TallyT]

There are other multi-sport venues in Orleans. I guess the final will be in one of that, e.g. the new Co`Met with about 10.000 seats

That sounds a bit too far in the other direction, true, but much better. Thank you.

 

[LolaSkatesInJapan]

ISU News

ISU Grand Prix Season 2024/25
The Council approved the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Calendar for the season 2024/25 as follows:
- GP1 USA October 18-20, 2024
- GP1 CAN October 25-27, 2024
- GP3 FRA November 1-3, 2024
- GP4 JPN November 8-10, 2024
- GP5 TBD November 15-17, 2024
- GP6 CHN November 22-24, 2024
- GP Final Orleans, FRA December 5-8, 2024

ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating 5 will be opened for bids until the end of November, 2023.

Season 2026/27
- ISU European Figure Skating Championships 2027, January 25-31, 2027, Lausanne, Switzerland
- ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2027, February 22-28, 2027, Sofia, Bulgaria

The ISU Council decided to postpone the provisional allotment of other ISU Events for the 2026/27 and 2027/28 Championships which remain pending.

I wonder where in Japan. If it's here in Tokyo, I might go watch

 

[mrsaybia]

There are other multi-sport venues in Orleans. I guess the final will be in one of that, e.g. the new Co`Met with about 10.000 seats

 

[mrsaybia]

I hope it will be announced soon as I’m watching in city for accommodations nearby. Don’t want to be the same as in Milan in 2018. Too far away. Glad that Orleans isn’t that large as Milan though.

 

[Andrea82]

There are other multi-sport venues in Orleans. I guess the final will be in one of that, e.g. the new Co`Met with about 10.000 seats

The then-moved 2023 GP Final set for Orleans was indeed supposed to be take place at CO'Met. Then CO'Met was already booked for the GPF dates and FFSG had to give back the assignment to ISU.

 

[mrsaybia]

The then-moved 2023 GP Final set for Orleans was indeed supposed to be take place at CO'Met. Then CO'Met was already booked for the GPF dates and FFSG had to give back the assignment to ISU.

 

[mrsaybia]

That’s a huge mistake! I suppose this isn’t the case this year!

 

[Skating91]

I hope they can share around the these stages to help grow the sport. The Lithuanians deserve one after the successful European championships in front of big crowds. Korea is the second most important skating nation in ISU competitions so deserve one.

 

[lariko]

It's complicated with Russia. The Russian TV stations (and Belarus) have been expelled by the EBU, the European Broadcast Union. And it's because as a rule TV should not be used as political propaganda. That effectively means that Russia is out of most sporting events and also (and I know this hurts for the Russians) the Eurovision Song Contest.

Russia needs to fix this problem first before they can even think of participating in figure skating again. Because, participating without being able to broadcast it seems unlikely to me...

Another season without Russians then

 

[TeamGubanova]

i honestly don

Sorry, but I simply cannot accept the North American narrative that it is cheap for European skaters to travel around Europe doing all the competitions that they can.

Figure skating is an expensive sport to start with. Paying for coaching, ice time, specialist costumes, possibly travelling to the rink. That is a lot for a family to cover, never mind the costs involved with travelling to events to compete in.

You may see adverts for flights that cost practically nothing, but the prices advertised do not include all the extra charges that airlines charge nowadays for things that are pretty much essential, such as hold luggage (you can't take sharp items like skates in cabin baggage). If you are travelling by road, petrol / diesel is expensive, and even if it was possible to do long journeys in electric cars, electricity isn't cheap at the moment either. And train fares are expensive too (if you can even get a train, with all the strikes that are going on).

Then when you get there, there is accomodation; meals; transport if the accomodation is not close to the venue, etc. on top of that.

If a skater and their family is expected to cover everything themselves, that will greatly limit the number of competitions that they will be able to go to. Unless the skater is from a very rich family, they simply cannot afford to go to lots of competitions if they have to pay for it themselves.

Most Feds only have limited funds available to them, so they have to use it in the most economic way. If they are covering competition costs, you will see one of two things happening. Either a lot of skaters will get one or two events (and probably the same events, to cut the costs). Or one or two skaters that are expected to get good results will get more events, but the other skaters will do without.

If there is direct state funding for covering the costs of going to competitions, it can open up a whole can of worms.

By chance I read a story this morning complaining about the travel costs for the Cypriot delegation that went to the 2023 Games Of The Small States Of Europe, which was held in Malta at the end of May / start of June:

https://cyprus-mail.com/2023/10/26/a-waste-of-public-money-nearly-300-went-to-sports-event/

OK, I know that a multi-sport event is a very different animal to the figure skating events that we are talking about. But, although the total number of people having to travel is a lot lower, it is still the case that each athlete will have two or three people accompanying them.

When you take into consideration the number of athletes, the total number that went actually looks low to me. It looks like they only had the bare minimum support team accompanying the athletes. But, because so much milking the system (and plain corruption) goes on in Cyprus, it is being seen as lots of hangers on going on a jolly.

I wish the story gave a break down on who the non-athletes were. All the story really tells us is that there were "a large number of media representatives". How many do they consider to be a "large number"? For this, I consider one to be a large number! No media representatives should be getting their costs covered by the state! If anybody is covering their costs, it should be their publication.

But support staff for the athletes is essential. And they should be included in the delegation and having their costs covered.

This story really highlights the amount of scrutiny that there is when state funding is involved. And how the way it is perceived (whether correctly or not) can have a detrimental influence on the level of future grants.

For the record, Cyprus finished 2nd with 87 medals. Host country Malta finished 1st with 97 medals.

Anyway, getting back to the point I am making, the cost of competing is not an easy thing to solve. The only way I can see the situation improving is if we get big name sponsors involved. And that isn't going to happen, because figure skating is a minority sport pretty much everywhere.

The only places where figure skating is a mainstream sport are Russia and Japan. And they do get big name sponsors. And as a result, before Russia got banned, we did see athletes from both of these countries at pretty much every event. So the model can and does work.

To attract big name sponsors to the sport, figure skating needs to become popular around the world. And to do that, it needs to be easier to watch, be it from home or in person.

• It needs to be shown on linear TV as well as online.
• Online streaming needs to be free and easy to find.
• Coverage needs to be available on demand indefinitely afterwards.
• The Junior GP and Senior GP Series need to have 8 events each, and follow the same general distribution around the world:
  • 4 events in the Europe / Middle East / Africa region
  • 2 events in the Americas
  • 2 events in the Asia / Pacific region
• The Challenger Series should either drop down to 8 events and follow the same distribution as proposed for the GP's. Or it should stay at 10 events with half in the Europe / Middle East / Africa region; and the other half alternating between having 2 events in the Americas and 3 in the Asia / Pacific region, and vice versa.

A better distribution of ranking events should greatly help increase interest around the world, and also provide more competitions that are closer for skaters and fans who are based outside of Europe. Although there wouldn't be quite as many ranking events in Europe under these proposals, there would still be a good number. And don't forget, there would still be a lot of "normal" Senior B's in Europe that skaters and fans could go to instead.

If the fanbase around the globe grows, it could make big name sponsors think that the sport is worth getting involved with. And in turn their money could go a great way towards making it more affordable for skaters to compete in more events.

But, the ISU won't do any of these things. They are happy to just carry on as things are, and let the number of fans continue to dwindle as a result.

CaroLiza_fan

i don't think the ISU could fund 8 grand prix events, but i think there should be more variety because other nations should benefit from the host spots. maybe having a rotating Four Continents and European Events, maybe a pool of countries. although these are arguably the strongest skating nations in the world, it would further the development of skating. maybe we get pools in Asia (2) , Northern America + Western Europe (3), Eastern Europe (1). Furthermore, countries could bid to move their events up for certain key events, like czech republic could do that in prep for worlds or lithuania could have done that in prep for Euros, giving the ISU more money to offset the revenue they lost from russian sponsors.

For Asia the likeliest nations in the pool could be: Japan, China, South Korea, Thailand, Australia, Kazakhstan. For North America + Western Europe they would be: US, Canada, The UK, France, Finland, Germany, Italy. For Eastern Europe it would be: Russia*, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia, Belarus*. I think this would be the most equitable divide as Asia wants to develop, North America + Western Europe are the traditional powers, Eastern Europe arguably has the most skaters per member ngl so they deserve a dedicated one imo.

Then also i think having a fan voting for 1 entertainment spot per event or maybe at the final more likely would be a good way for fans to be more involved. Russia tried this and i think it went pretty well. Then for the JGPF/GPF, i think 1 host spot per disciple should be good because for this GPF we would've seen like Jin Boyang, Chen Hongyi, Wang/Liu, Peng/Wang, Tian Tonghe, Wang Yihan, Yang/Deng, Lin/Gao which would've been really exciting and next year in france we would prolly get to see Economides/Aymoz, Serna/Schild, LevKov, Lopareva/Brissaud, and some rising french juniors which would draw in more local fans to see the events.

For JGP i think hosting 8 events would be nice in the format that you suggested the only problem is when would you start the competitions and also what funding would be given to them bc they have a lot more athletes but not much potential for audience numbers (except Japan, Turkey, and Thailand which imo had pretty good attention).

 

[lariko]

I was wondering of there are any early hints about Skate Canada and Skate America locations? I assume Skata Canada would go East Coast, but is there any chance Skate America returns to Vegas?