Johnny Weir, Stars On Ice, Republicans, Strawberry Jam and Homophobia.

[Bluebear]

...Champions on Ice was a big successful show since 1969. Despite competition from the newer Stars on Ice, COI hung in there through the peak of figure-skating popularity in the 1990s and a change of ownership in 2006. The show always took a liberal tack — hiring not only the “safer” gold medalists and world champions, but controversial figures like Rudy Galindo. Like Surya Bonaly, who never medalled at the Olympics — apparently because she was considered too athletic, muscular and masculine to fit the profile demanded of female figure-skaters. Like Oksana Baiul, in spite of her DUI arrest and notorious battles with drugs and booze.

Stars on Ice didn’t debut till 1986, starting as the “American Tour” organized by Scott Hamilton, with sponsors Discover Card and Plymouth. Though Hamilton was openly homophobic, the show did have its gay faces in the earlier years — Rob McCall and Brian Orser. But the emphasis began to veer towards male skaters like Kurt Browning who were paragons of “masculine heterosexual skating style.” SOI’s turning point into deep figure-skating conservatism probably came in 2001, when Smucker’s became the show’s title sponsor. Though the Ohio-based food company hasn’t been screamingly high profile in politics, a glance at their political contribution record shows that they have contributed heavily to state and national Republican causes, including Mitt Romney and John McCain for President. Co-CEO Tim Smucker has served as a GOP delegate to the RNC.

Then, in December 2007, the roof fell in on COI. International Figure Skating Magazine reported, “When AEG Worldwide, one of the world’s leading sports and entertainment presenters, bought the Champions on Ice tour in 2006, company officials said they planned to take the tour around the world. the ride has apparently come to an end. Phil Hersh (in a report in the L.A. Times) is reporting that the Champions on Ice ‘is dead after a 38-year run….’ The article indicated Stars on Ice, its rival tour managed by IMG, would take over the COI tour.’

The COI website is still up, but frozen in time – complete with pics of its 2008 cast who were left high and dry by the closing — stars like Victor Petrenko, Irina Slutskaya, Evgeny Plushenko, Sasha Cohen…and Johnny Weir.

So if a top skater wants to tour, Stars on Ice is now the only game in town. There is nowhere else for a brilliant and controversial figure to go — not Weir or anybody else. How convenient for SOI, and for everybody in figure-skating who want to see certain skaters and certain skating styles disappear. SOI is now coiled in position, like the sequinned boa constrictor that they have become, to put the big squeeze on private lives of skating figures. Sasha Cohen is the only COI refugee who got herself onto Stars on Ice’s 2010 tour.

http://outsports.com/jocktalkblog/2010/03/13/republicans-rampant-at-stars-on-ice/

[Berry Cool]

1. I think the author of this article is stretching facts too much to fit her point.

First, from what I see, Champions on Ice didn't really become a big and successful tour until about 1988, the year of Katarina Witt and the battling Brians. Second, Surya Bonaly--who I remember--didn't medal at the Olympics not because "she was considered too athletic, muscular and masculine to fit the profile demanded of female figure-skaters" but because she was just a jumper--she didn't have any nuance to her skating at all, no skill at spins or footwork or anything else, just a tumbler on ice. Third of all, back when they were on the Stars on Ice tour, Rob McCall and Brian Orser were not "out," so I don't see how this proves that Stars on Ice has changed in any radical way since Smucker's took on sponsorship.

Finally, if IMG bought out the Champions on Ice tour, it was surely strictly a business decision and nothing else. They wanted to eat their competition, period. They didn't do it because they wanted to get rid of opportunities for "brilliant and controversial figures" to strut their stuff. And one of the reasons they must have been able to do it is because ice skating tours aren't as profitable as they were once upon a time. The pie is no longer big enough to slice into a lot of pieces and a lot of touring shows.

The bad news for Johnny Weir is that this means that if he wants to go out on his own with his own tour--especially if he wants to make it really glitzy and splashy--he's going to have a really tough time of it financially. It would be way more cost-effective for him to get signed to a preexisting tour. If Stars on Ice refuses to consider him, it's foolish of them, because I think he'd sell a lot of tickets, just like Rudy Galindo did for Champions on Ice. But I don't know--I just doubt that there's some big Republican force behind Stars on Ice causing them to choose only skaters Republicans would approve of. Show business just doesn't work that way. Show business makes decisions based on money--and Johnny Weir would probably bring in money.