Dwindling fan numbers worry skaters

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (Reuters) - Turning the tables on the media, world champion Tong Jian had a question for journalists during the recent Four Continents figure skating championships.

"Where are the people, is it because we are Chinese?" asked Tong after performing to a near empty arena.

The query prompted skating officials to squirm in their seats and was followed by uneasy laughter that in the end provided the only answer to Tong's question as the media conference quickly moved on.

Even with tickets as cheap as $5 and America's newest figure-skating sweetheart world champion Kimmie Meissner headlining a sparkling lineup of Olympic and world medallists, the Four Continents struggled to attract more than a few hundred spectators to the World Arena for most sessions.

While Tong and partner Pang Qing, the world pairs champions, appeared particularly shocked by the small audiences they were not alone in their surprise.

"This was a really strange event with so few people in the audience, it was hard to get myself up," said newly crowned U.S. champion Evan Lysacek. "Generally I'm the type of person who feeds off the energy in the building. There was really no energy so I was trying to create it.

"It's pretty disappointing. It's like you can hear your skates echo in the building."

The sound of silence has set off alarm bells in a sport that a decade ago was among the world's most popular, ripe with cash, full houses and intriguing personalities.

JUDGING SCANDAL

Figure skating officials admit the judging scandal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics that exposed the sleazy backroom politics of the sport has left a stain that is proving difficult to remove.

"I think because of the scandal we lost the peripheral fans," former Canadian pairs world champion Paul Martini, now a television commentator, told Reuters.

"There were fans out there that might have always suspected there was something rotten in Denmark but figure skating was still fun to watch.

"But when they found out there really was something rotten they left the sport and have not come back.

"Figure skating needs to work to regain the confidence of those fans.

"Skaters are very sensitive to empty arenas, there's nothing worse than entertaining empty seats."

The meager crowds at the Four Continents were in sharp contrast to two weeks earlier when fans turned out in record numbers for the U.S. Nationals in Spokane, Washington.

Television ratings, however, were poor.

In 1998, the U.S. Nationals pulled in a healthy 11.5 share under a system where one rating point equals approximately 1.1 million American homes. Last year, the audience fell to less than half, down to 4.7, while the 2006 world championships in Calgary topped out at a measly 1.1 rating.

SOAP OPERA

The women's short program at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics remains one of the most-watched events in U.S. television history thanks in large part to the tawdry soap opera involving American skaters Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding.

While figure skating continues to qualify as must-see Olympic viewing, the marquee women's competition at last year's Turin Winter Games failed to beat talent show American Idol in the ratings.

The numbers add up to bruising television rights negotiations for the United States Figure Skating Association (USFSA) whose $12 million a year, eight-year deal with ABC expires at the end of the season.

Despite evidence to the contrary, the USFSA believes figure skating remains a prime-time sporting property and will take back marketing sport, which it had shared with ABC.

"Our opinion is that it is important to be on broadcast network television and it is a product that should be in prime time," USFSA executive director David Raith told Reuters. "We certainly need to be more aggressive.

"We need to do a better job presenting the sport and educating the viewers.

"We have been using this judging system now for three seasons and we need to do a better job of educating the public why some numbers are what they are."

Ironically, the new points-based scoring system the International Skating Union (ISU) put in place to restore confidence in judging has alienated nearly as many fans as the cheating scandal.

For all its shortcomings, skating fans could grasp the old 6.0 system while the new format is almost indecipherable, even for the skaters.

To help educate fans, the ISU tested a pilot project at the Four Continents distributing 300 small radios, at a cost of roughly $8 apiece, to spectators who could listen to ISU technical specialists explain moves, judging and other nuances as the competition unfolded.

"It's a great idea, the more information the better, the spectators really need help, especially in light of the judging changes," said Martini. "It will help but it's still probably going to take a generation for fans to come to grips with the new system."