2023 U.S. Nationals in San Jose

[clairecloutier]

I don't think that Smirnova/Siianytsia have a GoFundMe as yet.

But they do have a fund/account with the New England Amateur Skating Foundation (NEASF). I think donations would be very, very welcome, as I believe their parents were out of work due to the war (for a while, anyhow, I don't know if that's still the situation).

You can make a tax-deductible donation to Smirnova/Siianytsia in the following way (it's a little old-school, but will work).

1. Make your check payable to New England Amateur Skating Foundation.

2. Include a note stating that you want your contribution to go toward Smirnova/Siianytsia's skating expenses.

3. Send to the address below.

NEASF
P.O. BOX 6881
Providence, Rhode Island 02940

 

[ross_hy]

I saw some discussion somewhere of TV ratings - here's how this year's ratings compared to last year's. All things considered, probably not too bad.

Ladies free - 1.87 million (2.34 million last year)
Free dance - 1.02 million (569,000 last year, was on USA)
Men's free - 961,000 (1.13 million last year)
Pairs free - 421,000 (569,000 last year)
Rhythm dance - 274,000 (339,000 last year)
Women's short - 252,000 (468,000 last year)
Men's short - 211,000 (1.4 million last year, was on NBC)

Sources:
This year https://showbuzzdaily.com/articles/skedball-weekly-sports-tv-ratings-1-23-1-29-2023.html
Last year https://showbuzzdaily.com/articles/skedball-weekly-sports-tv-ratings-1-2-1-8-2023.html

 

[MacMadame]

Personally, though I am not a Millennial or Gen Z, I love streaming and that I can watch the entire comp if I want to of everything that used to be shown on broadcast tv (and some stuff that wasn't). I know skating has risen in popularity in other parts of the world but it definitely has fallen in the US. It's not just tv viewership. It's also membership in USFS and other indicators that USFS is concerned and trying to attract more interest.

 

[vu2019]

I know skating has risen in popularity in other parts of the world but it definitely has fallen in the US. It's not just tv viewership. It's also membership in USFS and other indicators that USFS is concerned and trying to attract more interest.

Overall U.S. Figure Skating membership was at a record high in 2021-22 by a significant margin:

U.S. Figure Skating Shatters Membership Record in 2021-22 Season | U.S. Figure Skating

www.usfigureskating.org

 

[tony]

Overall U.S. Figure Skating membership was at a record high in 2021-22 by a significant margin:

U.S. Figure Skating Shatters Membership Record in 2021-22 Season | U.S. Figure Skating

www.usfigureskating.org

This is why I don't understand what people are talking about- first ratings over the weekend that hadn't even been released yet and now citing dwindling membership numbers when it's the opposite.

Network TV is dead, plain and simple (with football being a huge exception). I saw updated numbers from Friday (cited them in another thread) and skating even lost out to a repeat episode of SWAT or something similar. The target audience that we want for new memberships and new viewership is once again is an audience that most likely doesn't pay for network and cable television. Guessing the popularity of something based on network television viewership isn't going to tell you much of anything.

Peacock and whatever holdup there is (which no one knows exactly what it is) isn't helping the streaming situation, but skating is still wildly popular. Glenn and Balde and Sadovsky and Repond and all these skaters who have made content have even gone up to millions of views on social media. That is where the fans are going to come from, and where the younger generations are going to get interested in the sport.

One thing I want to ETA is that younger generations simply may not see the benefit or have the funds to take a weekend trip to a very, very expensive city to see skating they will otherwise watch in some manner anyways, and spend $17 or whatever on chicken tenders throughout the time there.

 

[MacMadame]

Overall U.S. Figure Skating membership was at a record high in 2021-22 by a significant margin:

U.S. Figure Skating Shatters Membership Record in 2021-22 Season | U.S. Figure Skating

www.usfigureskating.org

?

 

[clairecloutier]

One thing I want to ETA is that younger generations simply may not see the benefit or have the funds to take a weekend trip to a very, very expensive city to see skating they will otherwise watch in some manner anyways, and spend $17 or whatever on chicken tenders throughout the time there.

This is the problem. How do we move fans from watching a Romsky video or an On Ice Perspectives video or an Ilia clip on TikTok to watching entire competitions and making trips and paying for seats??

 

[Debbie S]

The Olympics IG has a reel of Amber giving a backstage tour of SAP. Not sure if she recorded it or if it was filmed by NBC, but that's the kind of content USFS and NBC need to be producing to pull in fans....let the skaters be themselves and show off their personalities. Those silly vids shown on the jumbotron of skaters trying to guess each other's favorite food or whatever aren't going to do it.

 

[tony]

This is the problem. How do we move fans from watching a Romsky video or an On Ice Perspectives video or an Ilia clip on TikTok to watching entire competitions and making trips and paying for seats??

I think younger generations don't hold their interest through something for that long. Even I have shifted away from being able to sit through watching 10 hours of skating straight and recite exact program content from start to finish to being more like... 'I worked late last night, I'll wake up when I wake up, see what I can, and catch it on replay or through other means'. And I also think that the younger generations, for the most part, are really struggling to keep up with their finances and aren't as likely to purchase a house/make a major investment in their 20's like the case used to be.

I think the reason for my shift is back in the 90s and early 2000s before skating clips became a thing and long before streaming was more than a pixelated Turkish stream was our only 'live streaming' option, it was either record it at the moment it's on, or pretty much never see it again. Now, there are options. Even if streaming goes away instantly via Peacock, younger generations are savvy enough to scour the internet and find entire programs or events if they really want to see them.

Same with them more likely to just read a post on IG about some breaking news rather than reading a news article or watching an actual news broadcast, a lot of them may still be huge fans but just want the abridged clips on IG version or to speed through a replay to see what they want to see.

The Olympics IG has a reel of Amber giving a backstage tour of SAP. Not sure if she initially recorded it or if it was filmed by NBC, but that's the kind of content USFS and NBC need to he producing to pull in fans....let the skaters be themselves and show off their personalities. Those silly vids shown on the jumbotron of skaters trying to guess each other's favorite food or whatever aren't going to do it.

The USFS content creators, and even the ISU content creators, are typically very lame. Sorry, I said it. A lot of the videos end up more cringe than anything else, even if it's teens and young adults we are talking about and a lot of TikTok is cringe as it is.

 

[ice coverage]

The Olympics IG has a reel of Amber giving a backstage tour of SAP. Not sure if she recorded it or if it was filmed by NBC, but that's the kind of content USFS and NBC need to be producing to pull in fans....let the skaters be themselves and show off their personalities. ...

I had noticed a professional crew shooting with Amber at SAP , if that is what you were wondering.

I was sorry we didn't need the Ukrainian ones after all.

Another Ukrainian-born Team USA ice dancer is Volodomyr Horovyi, who is a top junior.

He and his partner won the Junior RD in San Jose and placed second overall. ?
They are going to Junior Worlds. ?

 

[Carolla5501]

This is the problem. How do we move fans from watching a Romsky video or an On Ice Perspectives video or an Ilia clip on TikTok to watching entire competitions and making trips and paying for seats??

We could try advertising???? Seriously people in San Jose seemed to be totally clueless that there was an event going on. I heard that from several locals.

 

[MacMadame]

We could try advertising???? Seriously people in San Jose seemed to be totally clueless that there was an event going on. I heard that from several locals.

Then again, my trainer who has lived in Idaho for a few years now knew about it. Does this mean they did advertise but only to people who watch sports? (He's crazy about football, American football, and baseball.)

 

[Rhumba d’Amour]

This is the problem. How do we move fans from watching a Romsky video or an On Ice Perspectives video or an Ilia clip on TikTok to watching entire competitions and making trips and paying for seats??

Maybe—touring ice shows, featuring skaters prominent on social media, like Romsky? Just a thought!

 

[sheetz]

I'm not sure social media stars are necessarily big ticket sellers, though. They had Elladj Balde headline one of the Sun Valley shows and ticket sales were pretty dismal.

 

[tony]

I'm not sure social media stars are necessarily big ticket sellers, though. They had Elladj Balde headline one of the Sun Valley shows and ticket sales were pretty dismal.

It’s Sun Valley- a very minor ice show. And Balde’s following, while attributed to things he’s specifically doing, is bringing overall awareness to the sport and I’m sure it’s getting younger audiences interesting in starting to skate themselves. At the very least we know he’s getting plenty of shares and story posts, which expands the audience even wider.

But I’m going to go back to something I talked about earlier- many millennials and anyone younger haven’t yet purchased a property, are likely experiencing rent hikes on top of all the other inflation happening, and may want to spend the money they do have on other interests or simply keep afloat with it. We have a lot of very privileged people here, who are traveling often, maybe work from home or have capability to do so, and/or are retired. Skating live audiences have always skewed way older but I still think on top of the above reasons, younger audiences would rather watch the event streaming at their own pace. Or catch highlights on social media.

If the USFS is bringing record numbers on memberships, they surely can’t be hurting that much. Maybe they need to just consider scaling down the rink sizes for Nationals, just as they did for Skate America.

 

[MacMadame]

They also need a way to monetize the eyeball they do get. Tell sponsors about how many views viral performances from Nationals get, how many subscribe to their YouTube channel, etc. I don't think NBC cares because that doesn't translate into revenue for them. But sponsors do care because they are sponsoring to get eyeballs and they don't care if those eyeballs are on streaming services or on network tv (unless the eyeballs on one of them aren't their target audience).

I think USFS has some decent sponsors. Toyota is nothing to sneeze at. Everyone has heard of Grubhub (and probably Consumer Cellular though I am not as sure about that). I hope they are getting the appropriate $$$ from that because they aren't getting as much as they used to from NBC.

 

[Frau Muller]

…

I think USFS has some decent sponsors. Toyota is nothing to sneeze at. …

Toyota for sure. Alas, I didn’t see ads for Ollie’s Bargain Stores, like before. ?

 

[TanithandBenFan]

I got a survey from USFS about the event via email this afternoon.

 

[YukiNieve]

It is a difficult time for him and he was very appreciative of the Ukrainian flags in the audience. I am thinking maybe the skating community could do something for him and Anastasia & Danil to show our support. Like maybe donate to a relief org in their name.

I and my friend waved all kinds of flags - an Ukrainian flag for Vadym (I knew his background and about his GoFundMe), a rainbow flag for Amber, etc.

 

[AnnMJensen]

Overall U.S. Figure Skating membership was at a record high in 2021-22 by a significant margin:

U.S. Figure Skating Shatters Membership Record in 2021-22 Season | U.S. Figure Skating

www.usfigureskating.org

That number includes the “Learn to Skate” program. Kids in skating school lessons are required to join this program by their rinks; and it is much less expensive than a full membership. not saying we don’t have more members - but that set is definitely a different “type”

 

[MacMadame]

That number includes the “Learn to Skate” program. Kids in skating school lessons are required to join this program by their rinks; and it is much less expensive than a full membership. not saying we don’t have more members - but that set is definitely a different “type”

I don't remember. Did they used to require LTS to join USFS? All the rinks around here seem to use ISI instead or did the last time I checked.

I and my friend waved all kinds of flags - an Ukrainian flag for Vadym (I knew his background and about his GoFundMe), a rainbow flag for Amber, etc.

We did too!

I brought 10 Ukraine flags and 10 Rainbow flags but someone in our row brought something like 50-75 rainbow flags. I was definitely outclassed there.

 

[AnnMJensen]

I don't remember. Did they used to require LTS to join USFS? All the rinks around here seem to use ISI instead or did the last time I checked.

We did too!

I brought 10 Ukraine flags and 10 Rainbow flags but someone in our row brought something like 50-75 rainbow flags. I was definitely outclassed there.

USFS’s new Learn To Skate has sort of pushed out ISI at a lot of rinks now. ISI required you to join ISI to be in their group classes at rinks - now the rinks that have switched to USFS’s Learn To Skate (that’s it’s official name, not just a description) are requiring the LTS membership - which USFS is counting in that membership number. So - it’s unknown how many of those will convert to full membership & continue on past skating school classes.

 

[gkelly]

That number includes the “Learn to Skate” program. Kids in skating school lessons are required to join this program by their rinks; and it is much less expensive than a full membership. not saying we don’t have more members - but that set is definitely a different “type”

That has been true for quite a few years now. I can't speak to when various rinks across the country switched their learn-to-skate programs from ISI to USFS, but I think that it had largely happened by 2018, so if membership numbers are higher now than prepandemic, it's probably not mostly due to LTS members joining USFS who would have joined ISI in the past.

(In my area, one significant contributor is probably skaters starting synchronized skating at LTS levels and becoming full members as soon as they join a team that requires at least Pre-Preliminary Moves in the Field tests.)

From the article linked above:

With 222,890 members for the 2021-22 membership cycle (July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2022), the national governing body broke its previous record of 203,023 (2018-19 season). Total membership includes 167,725 Learn to Skate USA members, 54,720 full members and 445 Friends of Figure Skating.

So if we want to know whether figure skating memberships are higher now than 20 or 25 years ago, or even 5 years ago, we should compare the 54,720 full member number to comparable numbers at that time. I don't know where to find that info.

 

[MacMadame]

So if we want to know whether figure skating memberships are higher now than 20 or 25 years ago, or even 5 years ago, we should compare the 54,720 full member number to comparable numbers at that time. I don't know where to find that info.

Yes otherwise we are comparing apples to oranges.

Does anyone know if Friends of Figure Skating count as members?

 

[gkelly]

Does anyone know if Friends of Figure Skating count as members?

The quote above cited 445 Friends of Figure Skating members.

 

[MacMadame]

The quote above cited 445 Friends of Figure Skating members.

Oh my, that's way fewer than I was expecting!