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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

John Blanchette: Manufactured Team Challenge Cup might be worth the product produced

The hitch in being “Skate City, USA” – other than remembering to change the address on your magazine subscriptions – is deciding if others’ enthusiasm for that identity needs to be your obligation.

Are you a civic spoilsport if you don’t get into it?

Of course not. Choice is our friend. Buying a canoe, paddling down the river and a stopping at the new brewpub’s grand opening on the way home is as worthy a contribution to economic impact as parsing lutzes and toe loops.

Still, it’s nice to have those many choices, and a happy circumstance that the skating folks think well enough of Spokane to keep coming back. And they wouldn’t if customers didn’t keep showing up to appreciate their art.

Not sure why we have to be “Skate City, USA” to do that, but Brand Nation seems to demand we all have a ZIP code these days.

Now, as for this new contrivance of the Team Challenge Cup, well … maybe not.

But … maybe.

Or as it was put by Gracie Gold, who came to Spokane chasing a little redemption after a big disappointment in a honest-to-gosh competition three weeks ago, “Every hour it seems like a better and better idea.”

All they have to do now is decide what that idea really is.

There is no sense quashing a new thing just because it isn’t the old thing, but if 10 people left Spokane Arena either day with a categorical grasp of how exactly they divvied up the hardware and hard cash, please send along an explanation in care of this newspaper.

One night it’s about placement, the next it’s back to skating’s peculiar algebra. There’s a $617,000 pot of gold for the skaters, but never mind that – look at the pep cons going on in the team boxes!

No one recognized this bag of mixed nuts as a challenge to be sold more than Star USA’s Toby Steward and Barb Beddor, who’ve been tapping into the city’s appetite for skating going back to Skate America in 2002 and the two subsequent national championships.

“You’re putting on a U.S. championship and it’s easy to explain – they’re trying to win a title or make an Olympic team,” Steward said. “Now you’re having to explain motivation.”

Did they succeed? Well, to put it in skating terms, they always try the quad, but in this case landed a triple. The first three sessions drew 5,151, 6,425 and 5,919 – all of them still more than free football attracted across town at Albi Stadium, and this with an average ticket price of $85.

It’s curious that far more people flocked to the Arena in 2002 for arguably a less distinguished field. But the mavens from out of state – and country – who follow the circuit did not put this on the itinerary, especially with worlds having been on this continent just three weeks ago.

And skating was new to Spokane then. Indoor football crowds are half what they were a decade ago.

Nonetheless, Steward feels that the TCC “is going to take off – they’ll take it to a major market next, and I think it’s going to be a hit.”

It’s really not so curious what the figure skating overlords are up to: creating more product and trying to hold a market share. And so they have to put on another show, and one with a manufactured twist.

In that regard, there seemed to be some irony that much of the Team Challenge Cup field had to pull themselves away from touring shows and jet to Spokane, to put on a different kind of show with little in the way of preparation. Surely the prize money was some incentive, but the skaters also seem to have a sense of duty to their game.

This was not always the case. When the World Team Trophy debuted in 2009 – it’s had four incarnations in Tokyo – there was considerable grumbling from skaters who felt pressure to participate.

“There is definitely a place for post-worlds competition,” said Ashley Wagner, who won silver at the most recent worlds. “Making it a team event is something that makes it easier for the athletes, and everything they could have done for us they have been doing. But our seasons keep on getting longer.”

Now, of course, the Olympics has added a team scoring component. Because we always need a bigger Olympics.

But why not team skating – even continental teams? Golf has its Ryder Cup, tennis its Davis Cup, the NBA its competition-in-name-only all-star game.

“It’s my hope that as the years go on, people can recognize like in gymnastics, that individual and team can go together,” said Gold. “Sports get stuck in tradition and rituals. So adding new things to an Olympic sport is pretty cool.”

And it never hurts to have choices.