Recent content by acraven

I got past the presale-code entry process right away, but my credit card (the one I use every year for Nationals tickets) was declined for no good reason. By the time I got that figured out, the shopping cart had expired. At that point (around 12:20 PM EDT), neither code would work. But a...

Today's email from USFS says the following about price-category P1A seating at the Maverik Center: "P1A Seating Seats in the P1A section include two inches of padding, providing enhanced comfort compared to standard stadium seating. However, these seats do not have armrests. Maverik Center does...

Pricing for 2027 Nationals tickets has been released via email (apparently to the FOFS mailing list): P1A: $1500 P1B: $1000 P2: $600 P3: $300 Those areas are defined only by colors on a small diagram, not by row numbers. Everything seems to be in the lower bowl. P3 seats are end zone...

I just spoke to the box office at Maverik Arena. Rows 1 and 2 all the way around the ice will be padded, folding chairs. (That's assuming they set up both rows, I guess, but that should be obvious during the ticket-purchasing process.) I've been in a folding chair at a previous (not SLC)...

I have a thin bleacher seat I bought a bunch of years ago to attend summer competitions in training rinks. I remember it took a good bit of shopping around online to find it. It has an REI logo on it. The REI website currently has some similar-looking items, unfortunately at much higher...

That $100,000 sounds like a lot of money, but it really isn't when you factor in the waiting period. I don't know how much you'd have to pay for a contract promising $100,000 20 years from now, but I'm confident it would not be a huge number. But "$100,000" looks good in the publicity.

I've been thinking about the financial end of things, too. When Alysa first came to prominence, winning Nationals at 13, she began winning prize money and having performing opportunities. I don't know how much income that added up to, but she was too young to go out spending that money hand...

Jackie didn't know at the time he recorded the podcast. He said he noticed one of the Italian male skaters (I don't remember which) running his hand across the surface of the podium at some point. I guess he later was told there was an issue.

Unfortunately, Jackie Wong is reporting there was a problem with the surface of the podium used for the team event. Blades were damaged, so the medal-winning skaters need to scramble to get their blades sharpened before their next practice -- and for the dancers, before tomorrow's competition.

Ilia's 2nd place in the SP was very, very costly--conceivably affecting his readiness for the individual event. The degree to which he can water down his Team Event FS is going to be somewhat limited.

That is an extremely interesting article, in which we learn, among other things, that Alysa was diagnosed as ADHD several years ago.

Yahoo has an online article on this subject. It still leaves me scratching my head. https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/winter-olympics-2026-figure-skating-s-first-controversy-arises-from-music-copyright-law/ar-AA1Vw0vk?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=698110e131de4e4daaeb8dce658a4aaf&ei=93

It was clear during one of the practices or 20-minute warmups that something was wrong. He was only doing triples and landing awkwardly; it wasn't normal jumping at all. I later read on FSU that he had taken a fall earlier in the practice that I hadn't seen; perhaps he got too close to the...

The Atlantic has published an article about Ilia, titled "The Man Who Broke Physics". It's paywalled, so I haven't read it.

It varies quite a bit. If you go back to the 1980s, all-event tickets sometimes went on sale more than 2 years ahead of time; USFSA was sometimes holding three years' worth of ticket money from me for pending events. Fortunately, tickets weren't nearly as expensive then, even taking subsequent...