'What success looks like': Columbus earns raves as host of U.S. Figure Skating Championships
There's a reason people say first impressions are everything.
A week ago Thursday, the 2024 U.S. Figure Skating Championships began in earnest with senior events at Nationwide Arena. With this being the first time the city has hosted nationals, it presented an opportunity for Columbus to prove its reputation as a "sports city" goes beyond a love for sports like football and hockey.
"A huge sporting event comes to town, happens to be figure skating, happens to be an Olympic sport ... and Columbus does what Columbus always does," USA Today columnist Christine Brennan said.
What exactly did Columbus do? It saw 60,000 people attend over the six days of competition, a 53% increase from last year's nationals in San Jose, California.
"The atmosphere has been really great," Brennan said on Saturday. "It has not been an empty arena. It has not been cavernous. It has not been depressing. It has not been boring. ... People in Columbus love their sports."
As someone who has covered U.S. figure skating nationals for over three decades, Brennan was there in the 1990s when people were piling into arenas to watch Tonya Harding vs. Nancy Kerrigan or Michelle Kwan vs. Tara Lipinski. She knows better than most that the sport no longer has that type of pull.
Still, during a non-Olympic year, Nationwide Arena was able to sell out the lower bowl for the Friday and Saturday night sessions. Combine that with the fact that a decent-sized crowd showed up to watch the Sunday afternoon men's free skate instead of tuning in to an NFL playoff game and people took notice.
"I don’t think we’ve seen as good as a crowd in a non-Olympic year in quite some time," said five-time U.S. ice dance champion Evan Bates. "It was pretty phenomenal, and they were so supportive.”
That support was something the skaters noted time and again. After a rough performance in the free skate for women's eventual bronze medalist Isabeau Levito, the first thing she mentioned at the start of her press conference Friday was the "community aspect" she felt from the people who filled up Nationwide Arena.
It is something that U.S. Figure Skating CEO Tracey Marek won't be forgetting when planning future events.
"It's just been such a fantastic market and I think right now is an example of where we want to go," Marek said. "This will be our example as we move forward into future years. This is now our reference point for what success looks like."
Why Columbus?
For years the U.S. figure skating championships were on the "wish list" of Greater Columbus Sports Commission CEO and president Linda Logan.
Since 2005, when the city hosted the U.S. Figure Skating Governing Council meeting, Logan has worked to keep Columbus on the federation's radar. The city hosted the meeting again in 2015. Then in 2019, with nationals being held in Detroit, a busload of the commission's stakeholders made the trip to the event to further demonstrate Columbus' interest.
Marek took her CEO position in December of 2022, so she was not a part of selecting Columbus as this year's host, but she quickly learned how much work was put in by the city to make this happen.
"The sports commission and Linda Logan specifically, have been just heavily engaged," Marek said. "Coming to our championship events, staying connected, learning what we want and what we need and showing us how the city can help represent."
Officially announced as this year's host back in January of 2023, the Greater Columbus Sports Commission got to work to make the event as successful as possible.
Along with hard-to-miss advertisements around the city, the sports commission created some unique collaborations.
"I think this event, being so artistic, we were able to tap into the arts community in such a big way," Logan said. "We started with the Pride parade this summer. We had a huge presence there, and we were able to find different parts of the community that we think would support this event."
Efforts to court the kinds of fans who would appreciate the grace and creativity of figure skating included teaming up with the Columbus Metropolitan Library and working with former Columbus College of Arts & Design student Austin Toodle.
Jason Brown, a veteran of the U.S. nationals, also connected with the local arts community. He performed to live music from the Columbus Symphony Orchestra at the Skating Specular Sunday evening. Even before that experience, Brown was impressed with what Columbus had to offer.
"The Columbus Sports Commission did such an incredible job putting on this event from start to finish," he said. "Every single person that I talked to was talking about how beautiful Columbus was. I know how hard you guys work to do that, and as athletes, we felt so comfortable and excited to perform in this atmosphere."
'I would give us an A'
Like every other sport, figure skating has a group of diehard fans who will travel near or far to watch an event as important as nationals. Those people were certainly in attendance at Nationwide Arena, helping fill up the venue.
But it was local families who really made the event a success, according to Marek.
"It's been wonderful to see the families, and the families have been a key point of conversation that people brought up to me," she said. "I'm sure some of them have traveled in, but it says to me that this Ohio market, and Columbus specifically, has really taken to this."
Brennan also discussed the families in attendance.
"I'm going to bet they're hooked," she said. "They are going to be fans for life and when, and if nationals come back to Columbus, they will be buying tickets and showing up once again."
Philip Hersh, who was in Columbus covering his 37th figure skating nationals, was impressed by the unusually high percentage of men he saw walking around the arena during the Saturday ice dance session.
Figure Skating analysis Jackie Wong, who has covered nine nationals counting 2024, said this was one of the most "electric" crowds he's seen at the event. He cited the fact that single-session tickets for the senior events cost as little as $25 as a possible reason for that.
"I think over the past 10 to 15 years, figure skating (hasn't) really appealed as much to the masses," Wong said. "Especially not in a non-Olympic year. So, having affordable tickets, I think really helped this whole thing."
People who have been covering, working, competing in or following the U.S. figure skating championships for years, found Columbus to be an accessible city. The downtown area was, as Hersh put it, "a pretty damn good situation" logistically.
Having an icehouse directly connected to Nationwide Arena eliminated the need for a shuttle from practice to the main venue. There were also hotels and restaurants well within walking distance.
According to the Greater Columbus Sports Commission, this event brought in an estimated $8 million in direct visitor spending to the city.
"I hope Columbus really understands what it has here, in just your community and your city," Marek said. "Honestly, everything that we've done here, for an event that's about awarding gold, it's been a golden event."
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Why Columbus earned praised as host of US Figure Skating Championships
