U.S. Figure Skating hung a help wanted sign two weeks ago, issuing a request for proposal to marketing agencies nationwide in hopes of identifying a partner to help with its national sponsorship sales.
The sport’s governing body has been without a sponsorship sales representative since ABC/ESPN ended a 43-year relationship with it nearly a year ago. ABC/ESPN declined to renew a contract that guaranteed U.S. Figure Skating roughly $12 million a year for marketing and TV rights, according to tax filings ending June 30, 2006.
While USFSA found a new TV partner in NBC, it has handled sponsorship sales internally for the last year. It is seeking a two-year, nonexclusive partnership with an agency or individual who can help sell national corporate sponsorships that include NBC media units and figure skating events. It hopes to find title sponsors for the U.S. Championships, Skate America and Championships Skating Spectacular, according to the request for proposal issued Jan. 30.
“What we’re looking for is to add help to open some doors that we haven’t opened yet,” said USFSA Executive Director David Raith.
Since NBC is not paying a rights fee, the agency USFSA hires will need to help make up for more than $10 million that ABC/ESPN guaranteed annually — an amount that was more than 50 percent of USFSA’s total budget for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2006.
The U.S. Figure Skating Championships returned
to network TV on NBC this year.
The agency will work directly with USFSA’s senior director of marketing and communications, Ramsey Baker, and indirectly with the NBC sports sales team.
The national governing body’s current roster of sponsors includes top-tier sponsor Smuckers and suppliers United, The Hilton Family and Ice Life International, a figure skating company that promotes the sport.
Several corporations that titled events during the ABC/ESPN agreement, such as Campbell and State Farm, are no longer listed on the organization’s Web site. They were part of annual media buys with ABC/ESPN, Baker said.
Over the final 10 years of its relationship with U.S. Figure Skating, ABC/ESPN had soured on the sport, dropping from 23.5 hours of coverage in 1997-98 to 14 in 2006-07. Over the same period, ratings for the U.S. Figure Skating Championship ladies free skate fell from 11.5 in 1998 to 4.7 in 2006.
NBC, in the first year of a three-year, joint-venture agreement with USFSA, aired seven hours of the U.S. Figure Skating Championships — five in prime time — on Jan. 26-27. It was the most coverage of the event since 1998 and attracted almost 12.5 million viewers, the most to watch the event since 2003.
NBC trumpeted its broadcast of this year’s men’s free skate competition as a 500 percent increase over ESPN’s coverage of the same event at 11 p.m. last year. The event pulled a 3.7 household rating. A year before the network averaged a 4.1 rating over the same three-hour window on Jan. 27 with “Dateline,” “Crossing Jordan” and “Law & Order Criminal Intent.”
USFSA will review proposals from agencies and individuals this week and begin holding interviews with candidates Feb. 19. It hopes to make a decision by Feb. 25.
Staff writer John Ourand contributed to this story.
