Do you think SKANDALS are good for figure skating?

[jlai]

What do you think?

Do you think more knee whacking will drum up interest in the sport?

More between Evan and Johnny?

More between skaters?

Does more or hurt its credibility?

Do you think costumes are scandalous enough?

Or no news is good news and you'll at the next piece of

All I know is I'll be

[Jenna]

It helps the sport's popularity for sure..

[Nomad]

There are plenty of costumes that are but they're not nearly skandalous enough. I want more slutacious skatewear, damn it. Especially on the boys.

[blue_idealist]

It gives skating attention, but not really the right kind. It doesn't attract true skating fans.

[bardtoob]

Any press is good press . . . despite my dislike for the recent TMZ worthy Twitter b@#ch fit drama . . . although surely the skating community of any era could have produced such drama if the technology was available. In the 1950s, instead of TMZ and Twitter, it was Time Magazine and the NYT.

[Jot the Dot Dot]

It gives skating attention, but not really the right kind. It doesn't attract true skating fans.

Hear, hear. Do we really want skating to devolve down to the level where it needs a scandal to make it popular? Skaters X Y & Z make it popular by putting on a good performance year after year. A scandal might make the sport known, but within time the scandal becomes old news and the public becomes tired of antics.

[Aussie Willy]

Hate to say it but any news is good news. Particularly here in Australia where figure skating gets absolutely no coverage.

The good thing with the last Olympics is the DomShab OD (which was bad) managed to switch a heap of people onto ice dancing and they got to appreciate V&M (which was good). I had so many people who said how much they loved them and it was the first time in years that they really were drawn to a dance couple.

It also helped that the skating was pretty bloody good as well. If it had been like Torino, it proabably would have been another story.

[jlai]

Hate to say it but any news is good news. Particularly here in Australia where figure skating gets absolutely no coverage.

The good thing with the last Olympics is the DomShab OD (which was bad) managed to switch a heap of people onto ice dancing and they got to appreciate V&M (which was good). I had so many people who said how much they loved them and it was the first time in years that they really were drawn to a dance couple.

It also helped that the skating was pretty bloody good as well. If it had been like Torino, it proabably would have been another story.

Ah, kind of like how the Nancy-Tonya drama sparked some interest among non-fans, then we had the Kween to sustain interest in US figure skating for like a decade.

[dinakt]

Hate to say it but any news is good news. Particularly here in Australia where figure skating gets absolutely no coverage.

The good thing with the last Olympics is the DomShab OD (which was bad) managed to switch a heap of people onto ice dancing and they got to appreciate V&M (which was good). I had so many people who said how much they loved them and it was the first time in years that they really were drawn to a dance couple.

It also helped that the skating was pretty bloody good as well. If it had been like Torino, it probably would have been another story.

Yup. I lured my husband into watching OD's this year because I put a cultural/ controversial spin on it ( usually no one in the family gets into my skating obsessions). He enjoyed it, loooved V/M and we had an interesting conversation about cultural borrowing

[Loves_Shizuka]

When I first saw the thread title, I thought it said "SANDALS."

I was picturing Mao et al. strapping blades to a pair of Jesus sandals or something.

[CantALoop]

There's no such thing as bad publicity when it comes to figure skating as a whole.

[CynicElle]

I can only speak for what I saw in the US, but my answer: It depends. I think the Tonya Harding mess was good in the sense that it got a ton of people watching skating and, better yet, becoming interested in the skaters' personalities. (You're right; Michelle really did come along at just the right time.)

SLC 2002 was NOT good at all -- all the judging scandal did was confirm the general belief that skating's all rigged anyhow, so why bother watching?

[briancoogaert]

It's good for popularity, but it hurts FS as a sport.
Because press goes to FS for bad reasons, people see FS for bad reasons. Not because it is a wonderful sport to watch and practice !

[IceAlisa]

Ask Christine Brennan...

[Carolla5501]

All I can say is

Ratings before the "whack" Poor
Ratings right after the "whack" OUTSTANDING
Ratings after the "whack" is old news Pathetic...

In America at least... Scandals sell!

[Badams]

people love drama and scandal. take a look at any off season. if there isn't any drama, someone always tried to create it.

[senorita]

Yagudin going to Tarasova was not a 'bad' scandal, and commentators were talking about it up until SLC!

[GoldenMichelle]

I think judging scandals are bad for the sport but anything else is good for the sport.
Judging scandals hurt the credibility of the sport and free press or not anything that damages credibility is not good.

[magnolia]

I think judging scandals are bad for the sport but anything else is good for the sport.
Judging scandals hurt the credibility of the sport and free press or not anything that damages credibility is not good.

I second that.

[vodkashot]

I think judging scandals are bad for the sport but anything else is good for the sport.
Judging scandals hurt the credibility of the sport and free press or not anything that damages credibility is not good.

True, but not all scandals damage the credibility of the sport per se; for instance, the Tonya-Nancy Kneewhack damaged Tonya's credibility for sure, but figure skating remained unscathed--actually, scratch that, figure skating's popularity exploded.