Figure skatingSwitching skating venue not a likely option

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With the International Skating Union postponing the Tokyo-bound world championships on Monday as a result of the last week's devastating earthquake, it was time to check out the viability of switching the event to another venue - an idea that had been suggested to me by so many fans over the weekend.

For his part, David Dore, the ISU's first vice president, doesn't believe that a change of venues is an option.

"In my view it is not possible to change it to another venue as the amount of work to be done could not possibly happen at this time."

Dore speaks from experience. As the director general of Skate Canada in 2001, he was responsible for the success of the world championships in Vancouver.

To get an idea of what was involved, he indicated that there were 600 volunteers, hundreds of hotel rooms and two separate ice surfaces. The event had plenty of media coverage and sponsorship support, which generated $6.8 million in profit.

It was the most successful worlds to take place in Canada and one of the most successful in ISU history.

"In my opinion it takes a good three years to advance plan a worlds," explains Dore. "Year 1 is the conception phase of the overall plan. Year 2 is placing the plan into an active set of ideas to go forward, firming up all the detailed planning. Year 3 includes the site visit, which happens at least one year in advance. During this period all details including most of the human resource ones are put into place."

Dore feels that there are two options that should be under consideration: the first is to simply cancel the event while the second would point to rescheduling the competition.

The wording of the ISU's statement Monday morning talks about only postponing the world championships at this point, and says that it is also pushing back the world Team Trophy event that was scheduled for in Yokohama, Japan in mid-April.

Plenty at stake

With so much at stake for the Japanese Skating Federation, not to mention the skaters, there is some speculation that it makes the most sense for the world championships to take over the Team Trophy slot, although Dore declined to comment on the possibility.

Commenting on the fact that the worlds are cancelled "within its current framework," Dore thinks there is a small window to salvage the competition.

"Next thought is given to a reschedule of the event," he said. "I would say that they have about six weeks to do this. This would make sense as all the infrastructure is in place and all they would have to do is to activate the whole project. Going beyond the six weeks takes many people out of their training environment, and in fact, in some small countries perhaps they do not have the facilities they have today to do this. This is how I see it."

The biggest concern is for the safety of the skaters, officials and fans who would be attending the worlds, and with the continued threat from the nuclear plants in Japan. The ISU is being cautious and cannot move forward with any more plans until they get the go-ahead from the Japanese authorities.

Currently, there are many more important issues for the Japanese to deal with.

So, for the moment, the skaters keep training while trying to maintain their focus in arenas around the skating world.

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