Editor's note: This story is revised from the print edition.
It began with a plot straight out of a B movie. It left a bruised Nancy Kerrigan shouting, "Why?" and television executives asking, "Why not?" Oddly, an unexpected clubbing of Kerrigan's knee, 10 years ago last week, rocketed figure skating toward its very own bubble economy. The party and hangover that ensued amid a glut of TV events are now distant memories, but marketers and promoters have not entirely abandoned the sport.
"I don't think skating is in recession, I just think it's back to being in a reality check," said event marketer and television producer Steve Disson, founder of Disson Skating.
Disson's company bought the airtime, sold sponsorships and ad units and produced eight specials for NBC in 2003-04, including the annual preview performance of IMG's Smucker's Stars on Ice, a national live tour. Disson said all his specials had title or presenting sponsors.
Live performance and NBC air dates are confirmed for the same number of specials in 2004-05, he said, and six already have sponsor renewals.
In 1994, the women's skating "short" program from the Olympic Winter Games, featuring Kerrigan and rival Tonya Harding (who denies she was part of her ex-husband's plot to attack and sideline Kerrigan) attracted viewers in 45.7 million U.S. households (a rating of 48.5 in that mid-1990s universe), the sixth-highest-rated network TV program of all time. Disson said his specials consistently generate 2 ratings (slightly more than 3 million households) when airing in November/December and 3's in January.
Contrived professional "competitions" on TV are all but gone, yet in the years just after 1994, midweek pro events drew double-digit ratings. Meanwhile, live tours added cities and expanded their casts.
"We were spoiled starting in the fall of 1994, and for the next four to six years," said veteran promoter Tom Collins, whose Champions on Ice has been touring since the late 1970s. "But we're still doing better than we were prior to 1994."
As an entertainment draw, skating is back to being more cyclical. The post-1994 surge was an aberration, to be sure, but the star power of the 1980s and '90s also has dropped off.
Collins' tour, title sponsored by insurance services company John Hancock, made more than 80 stops after the 2002 Salt Lake Games.
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| Hamilton |
This year, 18 stops are scheduled, beginning in April.
The 2003 IMG Stars on Ice tour operated in the red, but a 60-city tour is on the road for 2004. At 45, Olympic legend Scott Hamilton remains the tour's top on-ice draw, though he is supposed to be retired from performing. He is billed as Stars' producer.
"There are not very many marquee ... skaters around anymore," Collins said. "But it will always be a glamour sport."
DATELINE TRIPOLI? Nuclear arms are not the only subjects of inspection by visiting dignitaries in Libya. Soccer world governing body FIFA has sent its World Cup inspection team into the country this week to assess Libya's potential as the host of the 2010 tournament, which FIFA boss Sepp Blatter pledges will be contested on the African continent.
The question remains: where? Egypt will be visited next. Morocco, South Africa and Tunisia already have welcomed inspection teams.
WAKEUP CALL: JetSet Sports founder Sead Dizdarevic said the corporate hospitality forecast for Athens during this summer's Olympic Games is still encouraging, even in the aftermath of November's terror attacks in neighboring Turkey. JetSet, a U.S. Olympic Committee sponsor, has operated Olympic hospitality since 1984.
"In a way this is good for the Athens Olympics," he said of the proximity to the Turkey bombings. "It puts [the Greek] government on notice that this [threat] is really more serious than they may have thought. Their skin is at stake, ultimately, and they can't blame anybody else."
Steve Woodward can be reached at swoodward@sportsbusinessjournal.com
