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Canadian Figure Championships, Vancouver 2008


Kenadian

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The Canadian Figure Skating Championships are this week and are being held in Vancouver at the Pacific Coliseum - figure skating venue in 2010.

But sales are way down. They actually put a big black curtain around the upper bowl so the venue doesn't look so empty. So of the 16000 seats at the arena, some 10000 are blocked off due to poor sales.

Is this a bad sign for VANOC?

Or did Skate Canada do a poor job marketing the event?

I think this is a concern for VANOC as well, considering previous championships (many in smaller cities) have sold out.

Article about 2008 Canadian Championships

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And here's that curtain:

pacific.jpg

The reason why ticket sales were down was mainly due to the fact that there are no big named figure skaters in Canada right now. There is a lot of talent coming up, but no world champions or anything like that. Looking that the results of this competition, however, the results show a lot of depth is present in Canada. Over the next few seasons, these skaters will rise and become more known nationally and internationally, and at that point, the ticket sales will go up. Skate Canada officials have even mentioned that the last few years have been builiding years for the sport nationally and internationally, with the new judging system etc. Give it time, Vancouver is two years away and I think with more medals at the World Championships, then more Canadians will be aware of these skaters.

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Oh Also...What are they planning to do to Pacific Colliseum, you can see pictures from the Skate Canada Nationals website, it looks kinda ugly in the lobby areas, etc.

They've spent most of the $25.7 million allocated to renovate Pacific Coliseum. Construction should either be done by now, or almost complete. It includes:

- replacement of 16,000 seats (were completed in 2005 before the World Junior Hockey Championship)

- major renovations for all washrooms

- adding four new air conditioning/humidifier units, which will greatly help the ice conditions

- new ice plant for the rink, as well as widening of the rink to meet Olympic requirements

- new ice lighting

- new centre-ice 4-sided video scoreboard as well as 2 wall video scoreboards

- new ice and tv lights

- aesthetic concourse/lobby renovations

- renovations to the concessions

56ny3.jpg

57pv5.jpg

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The reason why ticket sales were down was mainly due to the fact that there are no big named figure skaters in Canada right now. There is a lot of talent coming up, but no world champions or anything like that. Looking that the results of this competition, however, the results show a lot of depth is present in Canada. Over the next few seasons, these skaters will rise and become more known nationally and internationally, and at that point, the ticket sales will go up. Skate Canada officials have even mentioned that the last few years have been builiding years for the sport nationally and internationally, with the new judging system etc. Give it time, Vancouver is two years away and I think with more medals at the World Championships, then more Canadians will be aware of these skaters.

I think that is kind of weak to blame it on the skaters. Figure skating is one of the most popular sports in Canada and Vancouver is the nation's third largest city. Plus ticket prices were really cheap - you could get a full week's pass for $150. You can't get value like that at a Canucks Game. I blame marketing. It isn't VANOC's fault, but rather Skate Canada and the organizers. There was almost no mention of the event anywhere until the last minute. Also, GM Place may have also been a better venue. But this offers lessons for VANOC.

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I think that is kind of weak to blame it on the skaters. Figure skating is one of the most popular sports in Canada and Vancouver is the nation's third largest city. Plus ticket prices were really cheap - you could get a full week's pass for $150. You can't get value like that at a Canucks Game. I blame marketing. It isn't VANOC's fault, but rather Skate Canada and the organizers. There was almost no mention of the event anywhere until the last minute. Also, GM Place may have also been a better venue. But this offers lessons for VANOC.

Marketing may have been a part of the issue; however, a lot has to do with the judging scandle of Salt Lake City and the new judging system. A lot of fans don't understand the new system. In addition, they cut the number of athletes competing at the BMO Canadian Championships, by removing the qualifying rounds and having those earlier in the season. With less skaters, less people buying tickets (like skater families, etc.). And it really does have to do with the skaters. There is no Browning, Orser, Stojko, Bourne/Kratz, or Sale'/Pellitier right now. The world team is young and it will take time for them to gain exposure. The event was held at Pacific Colliseum specifically to get the skaters a feel for the olympic venue.

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They've spent most of the $25.7 million allocated to renovate Pacific Coliseum. Construction should either be done by now, or almost complete. It includes:

- replacement of 16,000 seats (were completed in 2005 before the World Junior Hockey Championship)

- major renovations for all washrooms

- adding four new air conditioning/humidifier units, which will greatly help the ice conditions

- new ice plant for the rink, as well as widening of the rink to meet Olympic requirements

- new ice lighting

- new centre-ice 4-sided video scoreboard as well as 2 wall video scoreboards

- new ice and tv lights

- aesthetic concourse/lobby renovations

- renovations to the concessions

56ny3.jpg

57pv5.jpg

I don't think there's been much done on the concourse at all, and certainly nothing done to the exterior. And those 2 wall scoreboards were put in only for the periods between when the old scoreboard was taken down and the new one went up. They certainly weren't present for the Memorial Cup, and the scoreboard went in shortly beforehand.

I suspect when VANOC says the renovations are done, they mean "if we had to hold the competition here tomorrow, we could". I suspect there's still a lot of cosmetic stuff to be done, cause the concourse looks like ass.

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Actually, the poor ticket sales is a good sign for Americans who will probably comprise at least half or more than half of the audiences for the FS events. Let me correct that, with the rising Japanese stars in men's and ladies solo categories, Vancouver will do very well in the 2010 FS events. V will be at nexus of 3 great FS markets: Canada, Japan and the USA.

BTW, what ever happened to Emmanuel Sandhu? He just seems to have fallen off the radar.

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I think Sandhu is done...isn't he almost 30?

Anyway, the renos to PC were mostly on the seating and scoreboards. But I suspect when 2010 draws closer, cosmetic changes will be made to make the venue more modern looking. The Look of the Games project should have a manager by now (the job was advertised a few months ago) and it will be his or her job to fix this stuff up.

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I think Sandhu is done...isn't he almost 30?

Anyway, the renos to PC were mostly on the seating and scoreboards. But I suspect when 2010 draws closer, cosmetic changes will be made to make the venue more modern looking. The Look of the Games project should have a manager by now (the job was advertised a few months ago) and it will be his or her job to fix this stuff up.

Yeah, I'm just curious how much of the look of the games manager's job has to do with fitting out the venues with Games-related imagery VS simply making it aesthetically pleasing.

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Sandhu chose to 'sit' out this season. He was slated to compete at the national championships, but he backed out. He was always one of those skaters that had sooo much potential, so much that even the Russian competitors would watch him skate, worried that he would finally one day perform to his potential. Anyways, he is more focused on a singing and modelling career, over his skating career. Everyone in the skater world refers to him as the one who never lived up to his potential, did not show dedication, etc. Even his results last year showed that the judges were not even fans anymore.

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I went to the canucks game instead. Canadian championships? unless there's a big contender for worlds... meh!

the canucks lost to los angeles, but as embarassing enough as that is, it was still worth it compared to canadian championship fs.

:rolleyes:

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Sandhu chose to 'sit' out this season. He was slated to compete at the national championships, but he backed out. He was always one of those skaters that had sooo much potential, so much that even the Russian competitors would watch him skate, worried that he would finally one day perform to his potential. Anyways, he is more focused on a singing and modelling career, over his skating career. Everyone in the skater world refers to him as the one who never lived up to his potential, did not show dedication, etc. Even his results last year showed that the judges were not even fans anymore.

well, kinda like Christopher Bowman of the US. http://www.gamesbids.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9411

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I attended most of Saturday: pairs' long and men's long.

Pairs: Dubé & Davison showed that they remain a class above the rest of Canadian pairs, leaping from 5th to 2nd. They are probably not happy to have lost the championship, but they've got their ticket to worlds. I wouldn't be surprised to see this competition become a turning point for them. They're 5th or 6th in the world now...might they knock on the podium's door with 2 strong, clean skates?

And Dubé still competes in singles--were she to focus on pairs, that might put them over the top.

Men: Patrick Chan is the future of ice skating. Total package: skilled, artistic, and a compelling performer. The entire arena were on their feet with about a minute left in his programme. When he gets the quad he will be unstoppable: his score at Canadians would have placed him 4th at the 2007 Worlds. There were another 5 men who skated very well, but he and Buttle are the only 2 read to compete at the elite level right now.

The venue was good. But standard hockey arena smallish seats. Though I did get White Spot for lunch :D

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I attended for the complete week including the Tuesday practice sessions. During the week days most attendees seemed to be from out of town. Many locals who were unable to take time off work took advantage of the $90 Triple Axle package which included Friday evening and all day Saturday and Sunday ... a great deal! Total attendance was up from the projected 30,000 to 40,000.

I totally agree with the assessment of Patrick Chan. He is definitely the future of Men's skating in Canada. Unfortunately Jeffrey Buttle has never been able to master the quad. And it looks like we may have another talent coming along in Elladj Baldé who completed a very clean triple axel, triple toe in his short (it was a little shakey in his long) to win the Junior Men's competition. He seems to have both the technical talent and showmanship to rise to the top (another Candellero??).

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir demonstrated that they are world class with all 3 of their performances, bringing the crowd to their feet each time. They are gorgeous skaters and are a definite medal threat at World's. And feel certain they will be on the podium in 2010. The future also looks bright in the likes of Junior Gold Medalists Kharis Ralph and Asher Hill. I really enjoyed their performances. Canada should stay strong in dance for many years to come!

Canada's one weakness is with the ladies. While Joannie Rochette occasionally rises to the occasion with good performances (as she did at these Canadians ... with the exception of the one fall), I do not believe she will ever be a threat to medal. Their are just too many more talented ladies from Japan, Korea and the United States.

Many fans were turned off figure skating by the judging scandals of recent years. However, the new system is proving to be fair with skaters moving up and down the standings from one performance to another ... something that never happened in the past. As a result fans are coming back.

The lack of television cover of international competitions this season has not helped fan interest! CBC did not even have a contract to broadcast the World's until last week, which was absolutely ridiculous. The CRTC antiquated, nonsensical rules that bar many US stations from broadcasting in Canada has not helped. ESPN has broadcast all the Grand Prix events ... but ESPN is unavailable to Canadians unless they have a grey market dish!

VANOC has absolutely nothing to worry about with ticket sales for figure skating. Figure skating will be WELL over subscribed. It will be very, very difficult to get a ticket. I heard that Canada is only getting 1000 tickets for each skating event. I planned to put in an application for all figure skating events ... and to have several of my friends put in applications for me. I will be happy if I am lucky enough to get even one ticket. I have my fingers crossed!!!

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I didn't see competitions on TV, but how was Vaughn Chipeur's performance? I know he came in 4th but I saw him earlier in the year and thought he had a lot of potential. Don't know much about Chan, but he is young and new on the scene, and I never cared much for Buttle. Third place Shawn Sawyer isn't bad, but he has consistancy problems.

As for the women, well poor Canada hasn't put a woman on the podium since Elizabeth Manley strutted up there 20 years ago.

No, Vanoc won't have problems with figure skating. But there are a lot of events across the entire 17 days of competition to fill seats for. I really don't like the idea of having large numbers of empty seats like Athens had.

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I didn't see competitions on TV, but how was Vaughn Chipeur's performance? I know he came in 4th but I saw him earlier in the year and thought he had a lot of potential. Don't know much about Chan, but he is young and new on the scene, and I never cared much for Buttle. Third place Shawn Sawyer isn't bad, but he has consistancy problems.

As for the women, well poor Canada hasn't put a woman on the podium since Elizabeth Manley strutted up there 20 years ago.

No, Vanoc won't have problems with figure skating. But there are a lot of events across the entire 17 days of competition to fill seats for. I really don't like the idea of having large numbers of empty seats like Athens had.

Vaughn did well, he made the national team, so he will get more funding, so he will be getting better. The two men going to the world championships, should hopefully get Canada three spots for next year. Chan did very well this year by making it to the Grand Prix Final by gettting second in Skate America and by winning the competition in France. The major problem with the men in Canada is the big jumps, triple axel consistency, and no quads. The Canadians do have superior skating skills and performance abilities, but the jumps need to be more consistent....they are getting much better, that's for sure. Canadian Joannie Rochette who finished 5th in Torino, has a good chance to be on the podium, if she can do a tripple/tripple...overall this year, her freeskate was ranked third in points. She just needs to have a good short program.

There will be no chance of having empty seats at the figure skating, except for possibly the compulsory dance event. With the games being in Vancouver, a ton of fans will come from Canada, US, and Asia aswell. ALmost the entire lower bowl was full during the nationals, and that was just the nationals...throw in the world, and that venue will fill.

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I know, it's pretty crazy!! Brian Orser is currently coaching the new start in ladies skating...Yu-Na Kim of South Korea. She won the Grand Prix Final this year and bronze at least year world championships. Interesting how he still is connected to championship figure skating. Yeah Joannie has the goods...great skating skills and jumping.

In Vancouver, Canada should expect medals in ice dance (virtue and moir) and mens (chan). Pairs (dube and davison) and ladies (rochette) are highly possible too, at least top 5 will be expected for Canada in those disciplines. The next two years will be very interesting for canadian figure skating.

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No, Vanoc won't have problems with figure skating. But there are a lot of events across the entire 17 days of competition to fill seats for. I really don't like the idea of having large numbers of empty seats like Athens had.

The Winter Olympics attracts an entire different fan base than the summer games, it is a shorter event and there are far less sports. I would be very surprised if most venues do not sell out. Certainly most of the events in Vancouver should sell well, with Figure Skating, Short Track, Hockey and Long Track all having a very strong fan base. Even curling should do well as there are many very passionate curling fans in Canada ... and that is one sport that Canada excels at.

By the way, I heard today that Vancouver may bid for the 2028 Summer games.

As for a male skaters ...

Patrick Chan seems to be a fairly consistent jumper and works hard in practice ... he has an excellent work ethic. I am sure he will master the quad before the Olympics. Shawn Sawyer skated fairly weel but was a little shakey on both his 3A and 3F (getting a -2 for both jumps) ... he has amazing flexiblity which gains him points for artistry. Vaughn Chipeur had a few problems in his free ... was shakey on his triple axle, singled a double axle, double a triple loop, but did complete 2 triple Lutzes, one in combination with a 2T+2T. The only skater that did not impress me was Chris Mabee ... I found his program rather boring! The skater that I am watching for the future is Elladj Baldé!

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