Dwindling fan numbers worry skaters

By Steve Keating

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."