On Thinner Ice

Copyright 2001 The Baltimore Sun Company

On Friday night, when some of the world's top figure skaters take the ice for the Stars on Ice exhibition at the Baltimore Arena, the lineup will be familiar: Kurt Browning, Kristi Yamaguchi, Katarina Witt. Even Tara Lipinski, at the comparatively young age of 19, has been in the show for four years now.

These veterans are still throwing triple jumps, still skating with the beauty and talent that made them champions. But even the most ardent fans are saying something they never thought they would: It's getting a little old.

After years of overexposure, of several televised skating events a weekend, the high-flying world of professional figure skating is hitting a rough patch.

ESPN's national sports poll shows a 15 percent drop in figure-skating fans over the last five years, more than most other sports. At a professional skating competition a few weeks ago in Washington, the MCI Center was only half full. And in the last few years, the number of professional figure-skating events broadcast on major television networks has dropped by about three-quarters, said Rick Gentile, executive producer of CBS Sports during the last three Winter Olympics.

"It's been a huge drop-off," said Gentile. "It was a tough sell in good times, and it's a tougher sell now."

That's not to say the sport isn't still a big favorite. Figure skating consistently ranks along with the NFL and NBA among the most popular in the country. Elite skaters like Browning are busy year-round. Amateur skating is flourishing, and many are looking to the coming Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City to mint new stars and reinvigorate the professional ranks.

But in trying to capitalize on the charismatic skaters and dramatic story lines of the 1990s - such as the infamous Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding debacle - some say promoters and TV networks have gone too far. Viewers have become confused if not put off by competitions that create awkward match-ups of male vs. female skaters, or veterans against newcomers, with celebrity judges and inconsistent rules.

"It's completely saturated. People are just tired of it," says Tom Collins, founder and owner of Champions on Ice, a tour of amateur and professional skaters that's been operating since 1969. He said his business has dropped off considerably. "It killed the golden goose."

Television networks that once paid six-figure sums for the rights to a figure-skating event now demand that the promoters find advertisers and take the risk themselves, says Stephen Disson, president of Disson Skating, producers of network figure-skating specials.

"There was too much skating," Disson says, "and you saw the same skaters doing the same numbers, sometimes on the same weekends on different networks."

Says Mark Lund, publisher of International Figure Skating, the sport's largest magazine: "For so long, the gravy train kept running and running and running, and now, it's run out."

The positive side

But those who represent professional skaters say business is still robust. They believe the slowdown is just part of a natural cycle; that after the huge years of the '90s, figure skating was bound to come back to earth, particularly with the recent economic slump that's affecting all sports. They point to the many top professional skaters who had their own television specials this year - Lipinski, Yamaguchi, Witt, Browning and Brian Boitano.

"I'm kind of glad that everyone is tightening their belts a little bit," said David Baden, an agent with IMG, a sports management and marketing firm that represents many of the world's top skaters. "What's out there now are some of the best shows we've seen."

Figure skating is unlike most other sports. While it requires athletes to vault themselves into the air, rotate three times and land on a blade 15/100ths of an inch wide, a skater's success is also dependent on the ability to dance, interpret music, pull together a beautiful program - and win over a panel of subjective judges.

"We're individuals. We don't wear helmets with masks. We're not part of a team," says Browning, a four-time world champion. "We're these little crusaders on our own trying to stand there with costumes and music and do the best we can. People either enjoy it or respect it. That's why they connect with it."

When Browning, 35, first started competing, the world of skating was straightforward: amateurs trained hard and competed. They weren't allowed to earn a dime. If they were good enough, they got to the world championships and Olympics. Afterward, most turned professional, though there were only a few options - going into shows like the Ice Capades or Disney on Ice.

At the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, television got a taste of how popular figure skating could be. Millions of viewers tuned in to see the fierce battles between Witt and American Debi Thomas, and American Brian Boitano and Canadian Brian Orser. By the 1992 Winter Olympics, CBS rescheduled ice skating events, sprinkling them throughout, so no more than two days went by without skating. The ratings were huge.

The Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding incident in 1994 catapulted figure skating even higher in popularity, and when CBS needed a replacement that fall for NFL games on Sunday afternoons, it turned to skating. The network started a series of competitions for the professional skaters.

"We really made professional figure skating a big deal. It was a major television sport. The ratings were terrific," says Gentile, who now runs his own sports television production company, 24 Productions. "Instead of just skating around and doing an occasional double toe loop, these skaters now had to stay on a very high competitive level."

Overkill

Soon, promoters were creating all sorts of events, launching hybrid pro-am competitions and contests that pitted Americans against skaters from other countries. Some of the skaters were commanding performance fees as much as $ 175,000 to $200,000 a night, plus prize money, said Gentile. Browning recalls doing so many events that skaters were flown in private jets.

"It was nuts, looking back," says Yamaguchi, the 1992 Olympic gold medalist. In one season, she skated in so many events that she had to put together six programs. "I'm glad I was a lot younger."

In one year alone, Collins' tour, which typically played 15 cities, visited 45 cities. The Stars on Ice tour jumped from 31 to 48 cities. What had been a handful of televised ice-skating shows grew to 35.

"It was like the Wild West," says Jay Ogden, senior staff vice president at IMG. "It was ridiculous."

Many of the events, quickly put together, didn't sit well with audiences. Lund said the scoring methods often didn't work, and the formats were quirky. Plus, the skaters were drawing audiences that were mostly female and older. On Sunday afternoons, Gentile said, advertisers were looking for men.

Meanwhile, to keep amateur skaters from fleeing to the lucrative professional ranks, the International Skating Union, which governs Olympics-eligible athletes, began allowing them to earn money. Today, some earn about $200,000 a year or more - as much as the pros - so many have stayed in the amateur ranks.

For the past several years, that's left essentially the same group of professional skaters. And this year, one of the most popular pro skaters, Scott Hamilton, stopped skating in Stars on Ice. Yamaguchi said she will probably not go on tour next year either.

"There is quality in the pro skating world right now - a terrific overall package and look," Lund says. "Unfortunately, it's the same crop of skaters from 10 years ago, and they're all retiring slowly. It's really sad because you're starting to see the generational shift."

Trying to fix it

Many say the professional ranks need an umbrella organization similar to the amateur world's International Skating Union that could direct and organize the field. Some say even a yearly meeting in which all the players - skaters, agents, promoters, networks - could hash out issues would be a big step forward. Suggestions include creating a mini-tour of professional figure-skating competitions, similar to the Grand Prix events on the Olympics-eligible side.

Meanwhile, to try to draw fans, promoters are increasingly turning to exhibitions with themes. They are also bringing in elements like dance, art and even live music, with stars like Aretha Franklin belting out hits to accompany the skaters as they cruise the ice.

In his recent show, Gotta Dance, Browning included performances by his wife, principal ballet dancer Sonia Rodriguez, and another ballerina, as well as Broadway stars Tommy Tune and Anne Reinking, who performed on a stage at one end of the ice. A member of the Barenaked Ladies rock group also sang live.

"It's hard to reinvent the wheel, but I try very, very hard to come up with new ideas," Browning says, noting that although the show didn't make a big profit, 9,000 people attended and a few million people watched it on television. "It has to be good. People know skating so well that if you don't do a good job, they know it."

But television executives and promoters say sometimes great skating isn't enough. To be a big draw, the athletes need charisma.

"There's no denying (today's skaters) can skate technically better than Katarina Witt now, or in her prime. But she had whatever movie star quality you need," says Gentile. "Scott Hamilton would do his back flip and everybody would go nuts. Somebody else would pull off a triple lutz and nobody cared."

Part of the equation is a skater's nationality. American and Canadian stars usually appeal to North American audiences much more than skaters from Russia and other countries. If America's Michelle Kwan wins a medal at Salt Lake City and then turns pro, she would certainly create interest in the pro ranks, Gentile says.

"But I don't know if there's anybody other than her with the kind of charisma that's really going to make a difference," he adds.

That question will be answered in several weeks, when skaters who have undergone grueling training for years will stand on the ice for the biggest moment of their lives.

Which skater will withstand the pressure and deliver the performance of his or her life? Will a young skater upset a favorite?

If the past is any indicator, a story will emerge. And, those in the skating world hope, a star will, too.

Stars on Ice

Starring Kurt Browning, Tara Lipinski, Kristi Yamaguchi, Katarina Witt, Ilia Kulik and other top figure skaters

When: 7:30 p.m., Friday

Where: Baltimore Arena

Tickets: $35 to $55 at Arena box office or through Ticketmaster, 410-481-SEAT.