Cold Cash

Copyright 1998 Toronto Star Newspapers, Ltd.

Figure skating in North America has never been so profitable

MINNEAPOLIS - He's trying not to show it, but Kurt Browning is starting to panic.

The four-time world champion is in a makeshift dressing room under a tent covering a makeshift rink in the downtown core. His skates are untied. He's half-undressed. He hasn't warmed up. And he's just been given the word: It's showtime.

He thought he was putting on a little clinic for a sponsor, but it turns out hundreds of figure skating fanatics here for the world championships are crammed under the big top to get a glimpse of Browning.

Like a lot of people, Browning can't help but marvel at the booming popularity of his sport.

What I didn't expect is it would be so high for so long,'' Browning says. It was easy for me to say yes to almost everything, assuming that next year it wasn't going to be there.''

But so far it has been. He's in the midst of a four-month tour, hitting such stops as Nashville; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Madison, Wisc; Peoria, Ill.; Richmond, Va.; and Hershey, Pa. The demand for figure skating seems insatiable. More than 50 shows have been on national TV in the U.S. in the past six months.

There's a plethora of tours offering everything from top-name stars such as Browning, Elvis Stojko and Scott Hamilton to shows like Pocahontas and Grease On Ice.

Figure skating saw a big jump in popularity following the Battle of the Brians - Canadian Brian Orser and American Brian Boitano - at the 1988 Calgary Olympics.

But it was sent into an entirely different stratosphere by the whack heard 'round the world - the Harding-Kerrigan affair. Prior to the 1994 Olympics, Tonya Harding's then-husband hired a thug to club American rival Nancy Kerrigan on the knee. This incident is credited with vaulting figure skating from fringe sport status into the big time.

Television ratings are the real measures of success. At a time when the numbers are down for most pro sports, figure skating just keeps on climbing.

And, perhaps most importantly for advertisers, the shows attracts a female audience. It's estimated 62 per cent of viewers are female.

Figure skating's got all the ingredients of a perfect television show,'' said Scott Moore, vice-president of production at CTV Sports. There's entertainment, music, personalities, intrigue.''

Moore also says that many viewers, especially women, get very attached to the personalities.

HUNDREDS OF PHONE CALLS

Our switchboards light up over figure skating,'' Moore said. We get hundreds of phone calls from people complaining about judging or costumes - as if we can do something about it.'' You'd be hard pressed to find more devoted fans. Take Marilyn Douglas of Toronto, for instance. She now lives in Bogota, Colombia, where her husband, Ken, is stationed for Bell Canada. But she has twice travelled to North America in the last three months to attend figure skating competitions.

She endured a 20-hour journey to get to these championships. The 49-year-old even attends practices.

Some figure skating officials have expressed concern about the sport reaching a saturation point, particularly with shows on TV with titles like Skating Romance III.

In an era in which corporations own the lion's share of season tickets for teams like the Maple Leafs or Raptors, the general public can usually afford to watch a figure skating competition in Canada.

It seems to be that many sports feel when they become popular that that equals an automatic price increase,'' Canadian Figure Skating Association president David Dore said. I'm not so sure that's right. I think the consumer has a right to a reasonable price point.''

One of the reasons these championships haven't been sold out, suspects Dore, is that the price for an all-event ticket is $725 (U.S.). The same ticket cost $250 (Cdn.) at the 1996 worlds in Edmonton and the event was sold out in 48 hours. An all-event ticket for the U.S. nationals was $600 (U.S.), compared to $110 to $130 (Cdn.) for the same ticket at the Canadian championships. Tickets for next year's Canadian championships in Ottawa are 60 per cent sold out and the figure is 75 per cent for Skate Canada next fall in Kamloops, B.C.

Dore said that the competitions held in Canada have an economic impact of some $100 million for the communities where they are staged. He said the buying power of its constituency when it comes to equipment and other skating-related products is between $100 million and $500 million.

As well, there have been no labour disputes or whining about salaries in figure skating. The sport picked up a lot of steam during the strikes and lockouts in professional sport.

But the money made by top-line skaters pales compared to that in any of the major pro sports. Stojko has an estimated yearly income of more than $1 million (U.S.), as does Browning, but they are rarities.

Kevin Albrecht of the International Management Group said there are about 10 figure skaters who make $1 million-plus, compared to 317 in baseball. It's not the NHL, not the NBA by any means,'' said Albrecht.

If there are two or three skating events in one weekend, the fans can watch it. An NFL fan has 12 games on Sunday and nine NBA games at night.''

CTV's Moore believes the TV market can handle more figure skating shows, but wonders if the skaters can.

"I think the skaters are going to reach a saturation point before the fans do,'' Moore said. The skaters started competing in October and it's April now. You can see they're tired.''

LONG, HARD GRIND

Browning can attest to the grind.

"I think as long as you're skating hard it's not that bad, but as soon as you're putting yourself in front of 12 or 13 thousand people every night and you're not performing well, then you're not happy about anything,'' he said. People think you're good enough that they want to spend an evening with you and they bring their kids and mom and wife. It's like a $200 night, maybe more. They put a lot of responsibility in your hands, too. When I don't skate well, I feel like crap, I really feel like crap.''