‘Big 4’ ticket package goes on sale today

Has it really been two years, five months and 21 days since city officials cheered and swigged champagne in celebration of Spokane winning the bid for the 2007 U.S. Figure Skating Championships?

For Spokane promoters Barb Beddor and Toby Steward of Star USA, time has zipped by faster than Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto’s ice dancing feet. Now, with the U.S. Figure Skating Championships five months away, the tireless twosome have unveiled another ticket-selling package.

Beginning today at 10 a.m., fans can purchase “the Big 4” package, which includes one ticket to each of the event’s most popular senior-level events: pairs free skate and ice dancing free dance on Friday, Jan. 26, and the ladies’ and men’s free skates on Saturday, Jan. 27. The cost is $298 and gives fans a chance to be at all medal rounds at the 88th annual U.S. Championships.

Until today, tickets were sold in all-event packages. Steward said about 90,000 tickets have been sold (each package will be 13 and 15 tickets, depending on the number of sessions scheduled). Star USA’s goal is to break the ticket-sales record of 125,000 sold for the Los Angeles nationals in 2002. Steward said tickets for individual sessions will go on sale in mid-October.

Returning champions

Sasha Cohen hasn’t announced her winter plans, and she writes more about her acting career than ice skating on her Web site. But by all indications, Cohen is expected to defend her national championship title, said Lindsay DeWall, U.S. Figure Skating director of media relations.

When someone commented to Cohen at last month’s Champions on Ice show, “We’ll see you at Nationals,” Cohen flashed her perfect smile and responded “I hope so.”

Of the six individual skaters who medaled at the 2006 nationals – Cohen, Kimmie Meissner, Emily Hughes, Johnny Weir, Evan Lysacek and Matt Savoie – only Savoie is not expected to be here.

“I’m excited. I like this building,” said Weir, who skated at the Spokane Arena for the first time at Champions on Ice. “It’s not really bright colors, so you don’t get scared when you walk in. It’s cool.”

Weir, three-time national champ, and Lysacek, last year’s runner-up, have become friendly rivals.

“I know he watches and I watch him every day, so we kind of push each other along,” Weir said.

Defending pairs champions Rena Inoue and John Baldwin and dance champions Belbin and Agosto also are planning on competing.

Spokane will be the 35-year-old Baldwin’s 21st U.S. Championships, dating back to 1986 as a novice competitor.

Pre-competition competition

While the top five senior-level skaters at last year’s Nationals, along with Olympic and World medalists and juniors at international assignments, automatically qualify for Spokane, hundreds of other skaters in the novice, junior and senior (or championship) levels will spend the fall trying to qualify.

Of the nine U.S. Figure Skating regional sites, Spokane is playing host to the Northwest Pacific Regional at Eagles Ice-A-Rena on Oct. 4-8. Nine levels of skaters – from no-test to seniors – will compete. The event will bring about 350 skaters from Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Alaska to Spokane.

The top four novice, junior and senior finishers in the Northwest Pacific, Central Pacific (Berkeley, Calif.) and Southwest Pacific (Culver City, Calif.) regions will advance to the Pacific Coast Sectionals in Seattle on Nov. 14-18.

The top four finishers at the three sectionals qualify for Nationals.

CdA pair looking ahead

On the local scene, two-time national competitors Kalie Budvarson, 20, and Chris Anders, 21, both have recuperated from injuries and have their sights on Spokane.

Several questions will be answered in the next few weeks, such as whether the pair from Coeur d’Alene plans to compete at the junior level or take the test that could move them up to the senior level.

The two will compete at a junior challenge in Indianapolis next week, where coach Karin Kunzle-Watson and the pair will get a look at the top national competition. If they decide to test for seniors, it must be completed by Sept. 1.

Two years ago at Nationals in Portland, Budvarson and Anders finished 11th in novice. Last year in St. Louis, the pair withdrew after Anders fractured a bone in two places and tore ligaments in his right thumb during the short program.

Budvarson also was sidelined eight weeks after suffering a spiral fracture in her leg in February.

Budvarson and Anders have been training at Eagles since Planet Ice, their home rink, closed in March.